Excerpt
SUMMARY: Around the country, special courts are set up for former military members who have been charged with crimes after returning to civilian life, and who may be struggling with PTSD. Judges, lawyers, probation officers and others work together to treat or punish each defendant. Special correspondent Spencer Michels reports on how the new approach can offer troubled veterans a path forward.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): The number of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, continues to grow. And as some get into trouble with the law, special veterans courts are finding different ways to deal with them.
NewsHour special correspondent Spencer Michels reports.
MAN: Remain seated and come to order. Deportment 4 is now in session.
SPENCER MICHELS (NewsHour): Every Friday afternoon, Judge Jeffrey Ross turns his San Francisco courtroom into a veterans court, one of 220 such courts in the country that hear cases of former military members who have been arrested, often for drug offenses, sometimes for violence.
To signal how different his court is, he often brings a basket of fruit and candy for the defendants.
MAN: Even me being in anger management, what good is that? Because I snapped.
SPENCER MICHELS: It’s what’s called a collaborative court, where the judge, the district attorney, the public defender, the probation officer, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs work together to treat, or to punish, each defendant.
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