Veteran students can help fellow veterans while gaining real-world experience

I first became aware of a certain disconnect between those seeking higher education and the real world last summer. My court had several externs from law schools around the country working here during the summer. The attorneys in charge of the extern program asked me to speak with the students. I was dismayed to learn that not one of them had ever even heard of a collaborative court. If law schools are not teaching what's going on in courts within their own communities, it's too much to hope that undergraduate schools are doing so.

When this summer's batch of externs arrived, I invited them to my chambers and asked them what their schools taught them about collaborative courts. Once again, not one had a clue what I was talking about.

This article will attempt to encourage colleges and universities to at least offer community involvement of their students who are veterans in California's Veterans Treatment Courts. One of the biggest challenges most Veterans Treatment Courts face is finding mentors for the veteran participants who came home and were not able to successfully transition back into the civilian world. Due to something that happened to them while serving their country, some veterans end up facing criminal charges. Those who are accepted into a Veterans Treatment Court need to be mentored by other veterans.

Many returning veterans seek higher education in a variety of disciplines that require some form of community service. Working with the courts, colleges and universities could encourage their veterans to help other veterans. Disciplines such as social work, psychology, law, criminal justice, nursing, medicine and others would be ideal.

First a little background.

Collaborative Courts in general

The first collaborative court was in Dade County, Florida in 1989, a Drug Court. Collaborative justice courts, also known as problem-solving courts, promote accountability by combining judicial supervision with rigorously monitored rehabilitation services and treatment in lieu of detention. Collaborative courts have a dedicated calendar and judge for specific types of offenders.

The term Collaborative Courts indicates that decisions are made based on a team approach. That is, experts in the particular field meet before each court session and collaborate about the issues concerning the defendants who will appear before the court.

Collaborative justice principles include a multidisciplinary, nonadversarial approach with involvement from the court, attorneys, law enforcement, and community treatment and service agencies to address offenders' complex social and behavioral problems. Collaborative courts follow a model based on the components of Drug Courts; however, each court operates in a slightly different way with varying eligibility criteria, requirements, length, types of sanctions and incentives, services provided, and graduation criteria. Collaborative courts typically focus on high-risk/high-needs cases and utilize evidence-based practices.

In California, we have all sorts of collaborative courts: Drug Courts, DUI Courts, Mental Health Courts, Homeless Courts, Reentry Courts and others. Some are called WIT Courts...Whatever It Takes to get a criminal defendant on the straight and narrow. But the Collaborative Courts that are the focus of this article are Veterans Treatment Courts.

Veterans Treatment Courts

Veterans Treatment Courts serve veterans diagnosed with mental health and/or substance use disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and those who experienced military sexual trauma. The collaborative team includes a representative from the Department of Veterans Affairs. There are now more than 600 Veterans Treatment Courts nationwide, 48 of them in California.

To a certain extent, there is an emphasis on symbols, phrases, structures and cultural norms that are emblematic of military life in a Veterans Treatment Court. Unlike many of the other collaborative courts, the veterans who participate in Veterans Treatment Courts are usually inexperienced with the criminal justice system.

Mentors in Veterans Treatment Courts

Some say that mentors are the secret sauce in Veterans Treatment Courts. Just about everyone on the collaborative team has a clipboard-type relationship with the veteran defendant. They are taking notes, making demands or preaching to the defendant veteran. The probation officer issues rules and requires specific results. Mental health professionals compel attendance and attention. The prosecutor holds the threat of criminal charges and long sentences. The defense lawyer constantly reminds the veteran defendant about obligations. The VA representative insists upon compliance with VA policies. The judge oversees everyone and makes all the orders.

It's only the mentor who makes no demands. Nor does the mentor require anything of the veteran defendant. The mentor is there to motivate and encourage the veteran defendant. The two faced many of the same challenges and frustrations both in the military and transitioning back into the civilian world. But the veteran mentor was able to successfully make the transition and serves as both an example and a guide.

The mentor veteran is not taking notes or recording anything. Veteran defendants are often hesitant to speak about their issues with non-veterans, so having a mentor who is also a veteran helps to bridge the gap between military and civilian life. Veteran mentors understand the unique experiences that come with serving in the armed forces and are able to help the veteran defendant break away from a warrior mentality to be more receptive to treatment.

Mentoring another veteran is largely about trust and friendship. Quite simply, the mentor is a source of constant support and encouragement to get the veteran defendant back on the good citizen track.

The age of mentors

For nine years, I served as a volunteer mentor in Orange County. Judge Wendy Lindley, who launched California's first Veterans Treatment Court, knew I was a Vietnam veteran and asked me in 2008 if I could find some of "the guys" to act as mentors. I contacted several other Vietnam vets and they formed the first team of mentors. Some of them are still there. I primarily mentored young women, but sometimes young men as well. However, as the years went by, I realized how my knowledge and experience were more and more irrelevant to today's young veterans.

The know-hows of veterans in today's undergraduate and graduate schools are far more relevant to today's veterans who get sideways with the law. They are in the same age range and they all understand the stresses of modern military hierarchy, deployments and extended tours.

An example of what a mentor can do

One of my mentees, who had numerous tattoos and wild hair colors, sometimes pink or orange, might as well have had "arrest me" written across her forehead. I never asked her, but from some of the things she volunteered, I was of the impression she had been sexually assaulted in the military. I suspected she was trying to make herself unattractive so she wouldn't be attacked again.

Early one Sunday morning, she drove two blocks to a relative's house, still wearing her pajamas. A police officer pulled her over and she was arrested for being under the influence. I went to court when her case was called. She swore to me that she had not taken heroin or any other drug for 54 days. She explained she was scared and nervous when the officer questioned her. During the court session, the prosecutor read from the police report that when she was arrested, she was speaking very rapidly, her pulse was 125 and her eyeballs were shaking. It looked as if she was going to jail, even though the drug test results had not yet made it to court. When there was a break in the proceedings, I asked the bailiff if I could speak with her in the holding tank. I told her I had no idea how things would work out, but that I believed her. And I did.

About 20 minutes later, court was back in session and the judge announced they were able to locate the test results. No drugs had been found in her system!

The next day, I opened an email from her that had been written after midnight: "Eileen, I just wanted to tell you, thank you for going to court with me and being there and believing me."

Esprit de corps

Each time I went to the Veterans Treatment Court, the mentors and mentees were just outside the courtroom waiting for the team to finish its collaborations and for the bailiff to open the courtroom doors. Serendipitously, these times genuinely expanded the esprit de corps of the group. Healing and soothing occurred when faces became familiar and people chatted with each other. Smiles, "attaboys" and encouraging pats on backs were common.

Because the judge had a rule that none of the defendants could leave until everyone's case was called, that sense of camaraderie continued inside the courtroom as well. Not only was the group disappointed when one of the offenders was sanctioned for something, the offender appeared to be ashamed for letting the others down. For each case, there seemed to be a common goal of success among all the veteran mentors and veteran defendants.

Conclusion

Veterans are an idiosyncratic population in our country. Student veterans could be helping defendant veterans in Veterans Treatment Courts by mentoring them. Their shared experiences are unique and distinct from those who did not serve in the military.

Mentoring veterans in Veterans Treatment Courts by students would be true community involvement.

The biggest benefit to college student veterans of volunteering as mentors to veterans in trouble with the law is the satisfaction of making our world a better place. Mentoring also enriches a student's experience, boosts resumes and helps career development.

Someone from a college or university would have to make contact with the courts in order to forge a relationship between Veterans Treatment Courts and veterans seeking higher education who want to be mentors to other veterans. On https://www.courts.ca.gov/find-my-court.htm?query=browse_courts, there is a list of and contact information for the courts in every county in California. https://www.courts.ca.gov/11181.htm has a list of the locations of California's Veterans Treatment Courts.