The first step for any veterans treatment court is to identify their justice-involved veteran population. The Ten Key Components of Veterans Treatment Courts, from All Rise’s Justice for Vets, states, “Eligible participants are identified early and promptly placed in the veterans treatment court program.”

Identification can be accomplished through various methods and at multiple points in a veteran’s justice involvement. Justice for Vets will offer a free webinar on how to use two systems provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to assist jurisdictions in identifying justice-involved veterans: Veterans Re-Entry Search Services (VRSS) and Status Query and Response Exchange System (SQUARES).

Click below to register today!

Katherine Stewart, L.C.S.W., is the national coordinator for the Veterans Justice Outreach (VJO) program within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In this role, she contributes to the development of national policy, provides guidance to the field on operational matters, and represents the VJO program with internal and external audiences. Prior to her work in the VA central office, she spent nine years in the field serving as a licensed clinical social worker at the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville, NC. She began her VA career in 2009 as a local suicide prevention case manager, then suicide prevention coordinator. In 2011, Ms. Stewart joined the Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) program, where she served as the VJO specialist, building and growing the local program until 2018. Throughout her tenure serving as a VJO specialist, she was instrumental in the development of NC’s Buncombe County (Asheville) Veterans Treatment Court.