Morning.
My name is Butch Tate. I'm the Chief Counsel for All Rise.
I'm joined today by, uh, faculty
and subject matter experts
that I'll introduce to you in a moment.
But today we intend to talk about, uh, what I describe
as really transformational,
transformational legislation in the state of New York
that allowed, allows for the transfer
of a veteran's case from a county
that does not have a Veteran's Treatment court
to a county that does.
But more later on that, as we, as we sort
of set up today's presentation, let me give you a few, um,
administrative announcements.
Um, CLE credit is pending for the states
of New Jersey and New York.
Uh, it was really beyond our capability
and capacity to process
and advance CLE
for all the states from folks who are registered.
Uh, it's really a great new story.
We have a number from New York and New Jersey,
but we're, we're up to about 390 registrants
now from across the country.
So, as you process your own request with your state for CLE,
if you need information from us, please reach out
to Shante Kennedy.
Let her know what you need, and then we'll,
we'll get the process started.
Um, we're gonna let you submit questions in the,
in the question box, uh, as the questions arise to you.
Uh, we'll either take them at that time,
depending on the question, or we'll handle 'em at the end.
Um, there'll be a course of that posted for you afterwards
that, uh, we'd like you to fill out.
And then finally, today's workbook is, uh,
available on the website
where you registered for this course.
Now be before we begin, uh,
and I know Veterans Day is, you know, sort
of five plus days from now,
but I want to just do something here
because I got the microphone and I started first.
So let me just do this.
Let me, let me recognize my fellow veterans for your service
to our nation, your sacrifices and your accomplishments.
And I encourage you to commemorate Veterans Day, um,
in a way that's meaningful to you,
which I suspect means more than buying a mattress
that's on sale, getting the rets at half price,
maybe getting a free dessert.
Nothing wrong with any of those, but,
but I suspect you'll wanna celebrate it and commemorate it.
Better said in a, in a way that's meaningful to you.
I'll, I will, in fact, do that myself.
I'm a 31 year army veteran. I'm an army brat.
I intend to spend my Veteran's Day going
to Arlington National Cemetery to my dad
and mom's headstones.
My dad was the soldier that taught me how to be a soldier.
And just remember, to my fellow veterans, you're not alone.
Um, as you face perhaps hurdles
or challenges along the way, there are so many resources
that didn't exist at the time when my dad
and his fellow soldiers came back from Vietnam.
Those resources to help you are out there.
Please take advantage of them. Okay?
Thanks for letting me have that little, uh, little trans
or little, uh, by way there.
So, our goal today is to introduce you to this,
what I described as transformational legislation passed in
April, 2021 in New York.
Uh, and that's certainly relevant to the New York attorneys
and, and court administrators
and stakeholders who will try to implement this law,
but it's also something that can serve as a model elsewhere.
So, that's all of you outside the state
of New New York who joined us.
I appreciate your doing so,
and I hope we can share with you enough information on
how it was handled in New York.
So maybe it will work for your state as well.
But it's just another example of New York, um, going beyond.
Simply quote, thank you for your service.
Instead of saying something, the state continues
to do things really important to our veterans.
Now, we're not gonna dive just straight in.
We're gonna build to this discussion on the legislation.
We're gonna talk about veteran culture.
We're gonna talk about veteran trauma.
We'll talk about the benefits of a veteran treatment court,
and then we'll talk about the legislation,
both the methodology that we use
to get this legislate legislation across the finish line,
but also procedurally how this, this law works.
Outstanding faculty to help me do all of this today.
Um, judge Robert Russell.
And again, if, if you tuned into this webinar, uh,
I don't need to say anything else.
You got Judge Robert Russell, the man
who got this all started in 2008, along
with his tremendous court team, um,
to lead us to where we are today.
So Judge Russell joined us, David Pelletier,
project director, veterans,
or Justice for Vets will present on veteran culture.
Uh, James Pocket, a lecturer in the Department
of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin.
Lacrosse will join us to talk about veteran trauma.
Sky Davis, the regional project director
for the New York Court System, is with us.
Tremendous insights,
tremendous support from Sky and, and her office.
Um, you just get a sense of
how busy sky is when you call her in her mailbox is full.
It's not 'cause she's not working.
She's working a lot, um, trying to help all
of us, and we appreciate that.
And finally, I mentioned Shante Can,
who will be our cruise director for today,
and, uh, is a training specialist for All Rise.
Uh, that will help us with some of the administrative, um,
uh, aspects of today's training.
Uh, now today's legislation, uh, is really made possible
by the advocacy, uh, education
and generous support of the New York Health Foundation.
They, they came online
and talked to Justice Retz about, listen, how do,
how do we increase accessibility
to our courts in, in New York?
And that's what started the process, started the process
that I'll talk about a little bit later.
But today joining us is Mr.
Derek Coy, uh,
the Senior Program Officer at New York Health Foundation,
uh, to offer a few comments to us.
So, um, Derek, if I can ask you, you to, to turn your mic on
and say a few things, please.
Absolutely. My pleasure. General Tate, it's always, uh,
great to see you, even if it's virtually, and,
and continue this work that we've been able to do now,
as you've mentioned for, for almost five years now.
Uh, my name is Derek Coy.
I am a senior program officer,
as general Tate mentioned at the New York Health Foundation.
And it's really been an honor to, to work
with Justice Vets General Tate, uh, judge Russell Sky,
all the folks that have really come around the table
to make this, uh, transfer policy a a reality.
It's always interesting to look back on, you know,
when the foundation got its early start investing
in veterans treatment courts.
And we felt really lucky that we had this homegrown hero,
judge Russell in Buffalo, someone that we could tout
as an innovator, a transformational leader,
and someone who's really doing innovative work.
And when we look back on being able to invest
and expand, strengthen, make these courts more accessible
since 2008, it's really incredible to look at
how many different folks have come around the table,
how many different folks have invested in this work,
and where we, where we originally started from
with Judge Russell's first court.
And then looking at what we now have,
as general Tate mentioned, a really transformational piece,
piece of legislation that's not only incredible to see
what it's been able to do and the potential,
but also really looking at what,
what we're gonna be discussing maybe
five or 10 years from now.
And looking at how far we've come.
But as a former Marine myself, someone
who had a rather tough transition after the service
and, uh, has struggled, uh, in, in the past with alcohol
and substance use, it's, it's really humbling for me to,
to look at how lucky I've been, one, to be able
to do this work, to, to play this role at the foundation
and invest in the incredible efforts that, uh, many
of the folks in this, on this Zoom have,
have been able to contribute to.
And, uh, I, I, I can't, you know, not reflect on just
how important luck is, sadly, for a lot of veterans that,
um, you know, find themselves, you know, struggling
after their time in service.
Um, you know, it's lucky that, you know,
we had Judge Russell, but the vets that were in his court,
it's, they were lucky that they just happened
to have a court that was in their community.
A lot of veterans, uh, you know, outside of New York,
might not have access to something similar
or even in New York State.
I was very lucky to have an amazing father also, uh,
who served in the Marines that really, you know, was there
for me, a family that was a safety net when I
got out, when I did struggle.
Um, even lucky just the color of my skin, making sure that,
you know, when I was doing things that, you know,
could have gotten me in trouble, um, I just got lucky and,
and didn't know if there was a VTC or even what a VTC was.
So, I, I think what's important to reflect on here is,
is realizing that we're really taking
a lot of the luck out of it.
We're really making sure that it doesn't matter
what your story is, who you are, the color of your skin,
your gender, your ethnicity,
if you're struggling, there's help out there.
And we wanna make sure that not only is it accessible,
it's also the highest quality.
The, the strength and,
and impact of these courts is, is on par.
And, and I think reflective of the amazing things
that our service members have done.
So it's such an honor to, again, be able to,
to continue this work with you all.
And I can't wait to, to be further down the road
and look back and, and look at this moment in time as,
wow, we were just getting started.
We, we really came onto something huge
that's taken off throughout the
state and throughout the country.
And knowing that, you know, the overwhelming majority
of vets when they transition, do, do so without a hiccup
and, and continue to serve.
And even the ones like myself that do struggle,
just need a little bit of guidance
and a little support to get back on their feet
and continue helping others.
So it's really exciting to know
that not only is this work happening,
but it's gonna have a huge impact on so many service members
and veterans throughout, um, the country moving forward.
So thank you all again.
I feel lucky to be here, to be able to chat with you all
and sit down on this conversation and learn more.
So, thanks again to Justice for Vets Judge Russell, Skye,
the whole, um, all Rise team.
Uh, and, and, and, and you all, of course, for being here.
This wouldn't happen without the amazing support
and, uh, time and effort
that you all are putting into this work.
So thank you all. I'm happy to be a resource
to the extent that I can be.
You have some amazing folks, uh,
presenting here, uh, this morning.
So I'm excited to take a, uh, step back
and, and observe myself.
But, um, thank you all again
and I'll, uh, turn it back to you, judge, uh,
or sorry, uh, general Tate,
and we'll go ahead and get things kicked off.
Thanks, Derek. And, and again, thanks to the foundation
and to you for your continued
and generous support, uh, one alibi,
as we used to say on the range.
Any pa any alibi rounds. Yes.
Uh, I wanna thank Charette Williams for being way
behind the scenes today.
She's an all rise teammate who, uh, is making a lot
of things happen that they don't even understand.
Doesn't matter as long as they happen.
So, charette, thanks very much.
So, as I said, we, we wanna put this legislation into
context, not just throw it out there
and say, this is a law implemented.
Have a nice day. Let's put it in context.
And we're gonna start that discussion off
by a presentation from my colleague at Justice Pervez, uh,
David Pier.
So David, over to you.
Thanks, general Tate. Thanks, Butch.
Um, I'll do my, uh, my one, uh, 'cause I have the mic.
Um, general Tate already did a phenomenal job
discussing, uh, veteran's Day.
But before we all rush to Veteran's Day, uh,
I just will note for, uh, for Derek
and any other fellow marines that we have on the call,
an early Happy 248, uh, years old, uh,
to the United States Marine Corps.
We will celebrate that on November 10th.
So just prior to Veteran's Day, um,
is the phenomenal Marine Corps birthday.
So, as General Tate as, as Butch mentioned, my task, uh,
this morning is to really just kind of orientate us, um,
to military and veteran culture to really provide a
basic foundational, um, as, as the Marine Corps taught me,
uh, break it down Barney style, right?
And that's, uh, Barney, the purple dinosaur, Barney Fife,
uh, Barney Rubble, whichever Barney you choose,
it means the same thing, right?
We're just gonna break it down.
Basic, um, really is just intended to be an introductory,
um, foundational piece.
So as you follow the discussion
and as, as you think about, um, your community
that may not have a veteran treatment court, um, engaging
with the veterans you're working with,
and kind of how you have that conversation, um, you know,
to transfer cases if that opportunity arises, um,
or to promote and to push, um, such a policy forward.
So the other note that I will make here is,
is I think sometimes we do a disservice.
'cause oftentimes you will hear about this topic in
terms of military culture.
Um, you will just hear that as a universal, uh, term.
But, but as you note here on, on the slide
that you're seeing, um,
there really are two distinct communities.
Um, when we talk about culture,
it is both military and veteran culture.
The veteran community, um, is a unique
and distinct community.
Now, certainly as we will discuss, many
of the cultural components draw from
our military experience.
And in my case, that happens to be four years, nine months,
and 16 days, uh, enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.
Uh, not that I counted, right?
But, but that is my military experience,
which in turn has influenced who I am as a veteran, right?
And as Derek indicated, many veterans transition,
many active duty transition.
Well, uh, other veterans may, may struggle with
that transition from active service to veterans.
So let's kind of get a lay of the land here
and, and move forward.
So, uh, Shante,
and so just for kind of numbers, there is no test at the end
of this, at least not on, on this portion,
but just so we have a basic understanding.
Um, and these have been recently updated, uh,
in some capacities.
'cause you'll note, you'll see the United States
Space Force, right?
It's our newest, uh, newest, um, uniformed, um, department
of Defense military branch.
And so you can see the breakdown here of, of all
of the individual services.
And these numbers fluctuate, um,
largely in the most recent years they have been,
they have been shrinking.
Um, but this is always, you know, up for discussion, up for,
for change and adjustments regardless
of those changes at the end of the day.
Um, I think that, that, that percentage,
when we look at the, the size of the us, uh,
armed forces in compared to our civilian population, right?
Even when those branches grow
and shrink, um, that number, that percentage, that
what you see there at the Ren, the less than one half of 1%.
It is that idea
or that experience, um, that becomes part of the crux, part
of the, the, the, the nuance, right?
In understanding and working with this population,
we truly are talking about on the active duty side,
which eventually becomes our veteran population.
Uh, a group of individuals that are, are le
that represent less than one half of 1%
of our current US population.
And interestingly, and I think you kind of heard this from,
from general Tate's story, is that many of that
one half of 1% come from other families
of one half of 1%, right?
So many of the, the, the individuals that serve on
that active duty, not all,
but many of them come from a lineage, come from a line.
Um, myself, my father served the United States Army,
my grandfather, one in the Army, uh,
one in the Navy, one in the Army.
Um, and so it is not uncommon, right, to see that.
And so some of this is recognizing that,
that there is this separation, right?
Is often referred to as the civilian military divide.
And I'll talk a little bit more about that.
Um, but the separation between those of us who have,
who are serving or who have served, right?
And, and those who don't have that experience,
and within this active military, within the, the,
our active service population is yet another kind
of nuanced population.
And, um, Chante,
and that's gonna be our reserve and National Guards, right?
Uh, I know when I went in many, many years ago,
doesn't feel like it was that many years ago,
but many years ago, we were still referring to the Reserve
and National Guard as weekend warriors.
That was the term that was often used to describe our,
our reserve counterparts, right?
This idea that, you know, one weekend a month, two weeks,
a year, they put on a uniform and, and went out
and played soldier or played marine, whatever it may be.
But we need to step back from that.
Um, both of us, you know, in the, the veteran community,
but the community at large
and recognize that this, this population,
that this experience, um, is truly unique.
Um, and isn't often what we have equated it to
or isn't often what we think about when we think Reserve
or National Guard, when we look at the height of Iraq
and Afghanistan, there were more reserve
and National Guard service members
deployed than active duty.
So lemme spin that. Let me say that one more time.
When we look at the height of Iraq
and Afghanistan, there were more reserve
and National Guard service members
deployed than active duty.
And so if I were to look at any of them
and say that their service was one weekend a month,
two weeks, a year, I would rightfully be laughed at, right?
Um, and so recognizing that, that this component of our, uh,
of our military is often misunderstood, not only
by our civilian counterparts,
but by our fellow service members.
Additionally, there's the unique aspect, certainly
for our National Guard is that not every call
to service, right?
Is a deployment overseas.
Uh, who was responding to Katrina, right?
Who responded. So I'm here in, in Maryland, just outside
of DC who responded, um, to some of the,
the things in DC a number of years ago, recognizing that,
that oftentimes these individuals are called
to do some very unique taskers, right?
Um, and the other note I will make that with,
with guard members, right, is these aren't always,
rarely are there things, right?
Wildfires, they're not
what we would call combat deployments, right?
So oftentimes when we're talking about, uh,
military experiences
and these unique experiences, they're,
they're couched in terms of combat.
Um, and as we'll discuss in, in a later slide, we need
to kind of peel that back a little bit.
The other aspect of this to understand is that, so again,
I mentioned, I, I served the United States Marine Corps.
Um, I was a, a legal clerk
and a marksmanship coach by trade.
Um, by that meant I was essentially a paralegal.
I worked in, worked in a law office.
And then for about nine months,
I worked out in the range teaching Marines how to shoot.
Um, almost my entire enlistment.
Uh, I served in the San Diego area, uh, camp Pendleton
and, um, Marine Corps, air Station Miramar.
And so I'll take Camp Pendleton for example.
So when there were, um, Marine Corps infantry units,
or other combat units or other units from, um,
the Marine Corps that were deployed out of Camp Pendleton,
the entire town of Oceanside deployed
with those units, right?
So it was, it's not six degrees to Kevin Bacon,
it is like a half a degree to a, a,
a service member in a community such as Oceanside, um,
that is so connected to, um, to that installation
or, uh, as a, you know, as a dependent.
Um, we spent some time in, in Norfolk and, and Oceania.
And, you know, when a ship deploys out of, out of Norfolk,
um, that entire town of Virginia Beach, right?
Experiences that is connected to that understands that
our reserve and National Guard
experience may not be like that.
Um, in fact, our current division director, a gentleman
by the name of Scott Roki, he's a retired, uh,
major army major military policeman, um, deployed
out of Rhode Island, um, and deployed to Afghanistan
and his deployment in Afghanistan.
He was deployed with a unit of, um, uh, reservists
and National Guardsmen out of Oklahoma.
And so when that deployment ended
and those individuals went back to Oklahoma,
and then scattered throughout the entire state of Oklahoma,
Scott went back to Rhode Island where he was
essentially alone in having had that experience, his family
and having had the experience of a service member deployed,
not having the resources that are often built up
around an insti, uh, an installation, whether
that is Camp Pendleton, whether that is, um, uh, you know,
the naval base in, in Virginia Beach.
Um, so recognizing that, that challenge,
that additional extra stress, um, the, the additional kind
of unique experiences
that you have there is really critical.
Um, when, when working with
and understanding kind of this military, you know,
population that we use these catchalls for.
And this is really important when we're looking at some
of the communities that either have
or are looking to have a veteran treatment court.
'cause they need to figure out how are they going
to define, right?
Those individuals that come into the program.
And oftentimes the understanding each is based on we have a
shared culture, right?
Um, and what that looks like,
which is what we're talking about.
So, Shante, thank you.
And so let's kind of step, um, that next step away from,
you know, our active duty, uh, reserve
and National Guard component.
And let's look at our, our veteran data.
Um, and so you can see we're talking less than 7%, um,
uh, in compared to our general population.
So yes, more than one half of 1%.
Um, but we're not looking at a, a huge, um, percentage.
And so there still is this division, right?
Between those of us who, who, uh, may have experienced, uh,
you know, military, um,
and then those who, who haven't,
I'm not much of a slide reader.
You have the, you have this in front of you,
you have access to the workbook.
I will highlight a couple of things.
Um, you know, you can see the, the numbers, um,
for mental health and substance use disorder.
I'm gonna be followed by an amazing colleague who's gonna
talk a little bit about trauma and some other things.
Um, and then this will be nuanced as you go forward.
I'm not here in a clinical standpoint to make you,
you know, navigate all of that.
But we highlight this. 'cause this is some of
what you'll see in the engaging with this population, um,
in the justice system,
and certainly within veteran treatment courts.
I don't think it should come as any surprise,
although there is actual data that tells us, um,
that substance use and mental health diagnosis are closely
linked amongst this population.
Um, and recognizing that these are,
this goes both ways, right?
That, um, use of illicit substance oftentimes is, uh,
a risk factor to, uh, to mental health, um, diagnosis
and vice versa, right?
If I'm struggling with a, a mental health, uh, challenge,
that may then be, um, the precursor
or what invites me to engage in illicit substance use.
And then that last bullet, as you'll see there, um,
really kind of breaks into kind of that third portion
of veteran treatment courts, right?
So we've got veterans that's important, military and
or veterans, um, the treatment.
But then courts, right? What are we talking about when we're
talking about individuals that are incarcerated?
You know, specifically veterans that are incarcerated.
I will be full disclosure, you know,
Marine Corps blunt on this.
There isn't a ton of data.
Um, as you see here, bureau of Justice's Statistics, BJA say
that three times Fast, bureau of Justice Statistics,
BJS, um, they had a, a study
that was released in 2016
that clearly is not entirely recent.
It is challenging to get this data from a national level
because quite frankly, it's challenging
to get this data at a local level, right?
Um, you know, for, for any of you,
or if you were to walk into your probation department
and say, Hey, how many veterans are you supervising?
Most of you would probably get blank stares.
They wouldn't be able to tell you that answer.
They wouldn't be able to tell you, oh,
we have 5,000 people under supervision,
and of that 5,000, um, 50 of them,
or 10%, or,
or 500 of them, 10%,
there's Marine Corps math for you, right?
It was 1% switch it to 10%, um, 500 of them
or 10% of them are prior service.
It's unlikely you'd be able to get that data, right?
So this is a challenging aspect,
but something we need to understand,
we're not necessarily overrepresented, um,
looking at the broad, um, national data,
our involvement in the justice system,
although what the precursors are
or what the impetus is for our involvement, um,
is is may certainly be unique to us
and, uh, indicative of our military service, right?
And that, that cultural component needing to be addressed
absolutely is, which is why we discuss it in
these cultural terms.
The other point to note,
and I alluded to this earlier, is that only about a quarter
of those individuals are what would be defined
as combat veterans, right?
The vast majority of those individuals that are just
as involved that a prior, um, service, um,
did not experience combat.
Now, that is not to say
that they didn't experience trauma, right?
Um, or other, you know, other, um, cultural,
uh, markers as we'll discuss that may have, um, predicated
or, uh, exacerbated some of the other, um,
crime causing, uh, components, um, of
what they had going on.
But, but I, I pause here and we have that highlighted
because I think oftentimes, again,
when we're talking about our military
or veteran community, there's this inherent focus on those
who, who may have, uh, seen combat.
Um, and it does a disservice to all of our, our men
and women are served,
and it also positions us to not
look at the vast majority of those individuals
that we may be serving, right?
And we may be excluding three quarters of the population
that these types of interventions
or engaging with may be absolutely appropriate for.
So recognizing that that combat component,
while absolutely important to recognize, acknowledge,
and kind of tease through, um, is not the largest portion
of those that are, um, justice involved.
Shante,
um, teasing, again, we've kind of stepped active duty, um,
reserve National Guard veteran.
There are a number of other kind
of sub communities of all of this.
But I think important to note particularly, uh,
even given the short time that we have,
is the acknowledgement
and recognition, right, of my, um, my colleagues, my, the,
the women who have, who have served in the armed forces,
and recognizing that, um, this is continuing,
continuing to be a growing portion of our armed forces,
um, both clearly on the active duty side and reserve
and National Guard, and then as a result,
will necessarily become an increased portion percentage
of our veteran population, right?
As our, uh, unfortunately older generations
that may not have had, um, women serving,
or certainly not at the extent that
as you see the post nine 11, um, community has served,
um, that number is only going to increase.
And recognizing that, that this is a community,
that this is a portion of that population that is going
to have their own unique connections
or disconnections from their service, right?
From that veteran identity.
And we need to not, um, confuse right?
This idea that I, while we talk about, um,
culture in these broad terms and these broad, um, ideas
and concepts, that the intent is to, um,
generalize it to the point of
ignoring all other components, right?
Of the individuals that you may be engaging with
and may be working with.
Um, recognizing that, that this population, um, that my, my,
um, colleagues that are, that are women who have served, um,
may have some unique and additional challenges, um,
as a part of that transition, right?
Uh, I've heard from a number of my colleagues that, um,
you know, they may show up to the VFW, the veterans
of Foreign War, uh, on Tuesday night
because that's, uh, you know,
that's when the business meeting is.
And as they go in, somebody stops them
and says, Hey, you know, the, the auxiliary meeting,
the wives they meet on Thursdays.
This is for, well, wait a second. I'm, I'm the veteran here.
I'm the one who served, I'm the one who deployed, right?
But there's this presumption that, you know, I've heard it.
Um, the VA is a phenomenal partner with these programs
and with, with veterans and with us.
Um, but I've seen it as I've gone into the,
the VA here in dc.
Um, I have seen, you know, my fellow veterans
as they stop at the information booth to get directed.
Um, the initial question is,
are you here to see your husband?
Are you here to see your spouse?
And no, I'm, I'm the one with the veteran ID card, right?
And so recognizing that this, this, uh, group of individuals
that have served, um,
that there are gonna be some unique nuances here,
that there's gonna be conversations that, that need
to be navigated, um, both outside of the military
and veteran community, and quite frankly,
within our community, right?
As veterans ourselves, um, Chante.
And so I've said this word culture, I don't know,
probably 25 times in the last 15 minutes, right?
But so we're all kind of working on the same page, right?
Let's break this down Barney style.
When I say culture, what am I talking about, right?
It's this, it's, it's recognizing that there is this, um,
defined way of, of life.
There is this, um, kind of rules
and norms, um, that, that really, um, cross
almost all aspects, right?
Of that life, um, that those of us who have served, um,
are serving and have served may have, right?
So you'll note again, bolded, italicized.
You see these things. Um, my, that first paragraph,
my favorite is that gastronomy, right?
Um, the food, right?
Often when I'm training in person
and I have fellow vets in front of me, I may ask, you know,
what was your favorite MRE or C rats?
I think general Tate, you may have been a C rat.
You're probably not a C rat. I, I kid, right?
Every generation, every era of veteran had their own version
of MRE meal ready to eat, right?
But there, there's a shared experience around these meals,
um, around, uh, having chili Mac, right?
Which is my favorite, right?
And the little tiny, I apologize,
it's at my desk, at the office.
I usually have a small bottle of Tabasco, right?
The little mini bottle of Tabasco sauce, um,
that came with those MREs.
Those are, those are part of our experience, right?
Those are part of our cultural, um,
that experience is part of our culture.
Um, and often isn't thought of the same way as the uniform,
as some of these other, um, components,
but very much is, is a part of, of who we are,
uh, as a community.
And so being culturally competent
and then developing cultural proficiency, right?
Doesn't mean you have to have that experience,
but you need to be able to recognize it.
You need to be able to acknowledge it.
Um, you need to be open to learning, um,
from those individuals in the culture.
I will tell you that it is a huge kind
of barrier breaker when we talk about this
military civilian divide.
Don't pretend like you know, if you don't know, ask, right?
One of the best all purpose life lessons I learned in
bootcamp at Paris Island is
that there are three appropriate response.
Yes, sir. No, sir. I don't know, sir, but I will find out.
Don't be afraid of that. I don't know, but I will find out.
And quite frankly, the person sitting in front of you,
the veteran or or service member sitting in front of you,
may be a phenomenal person to ask, right?
Oh, I didn't understand when you said you're an OIF veteran.
What does that mean? Your IAVA Iraq, Afghanistan veteran?
What does that mean, right?
Show that that desire to actually connect, um, there
and to understand and communicate with them, right?
Because just like all of our communities, for those of you
that are attorneys in the unnecessarily amount of Latin
that we occasionally speak, if you're clinicians
and, you know, medical terms
or clinical terms that we use,
we all have a different cultural language, right?
And that is true for those of us, uh,
who have served as well, right?
Um, this morning before I got even on the zoom call,
I checked my gig line, right?
I made sure that my tie lined up with my buttons, lined up
with my butt buckle, right?
And checked my gig line.
'cause that's, that's how I was taught
to dress in, in uniform.
Shante, thank you. Again, this is not
to suggest that just because there's a military culture
or even a veteran culture, that this is,
that there is one unified.
It is just this, all this for everyone, right?
Because when we look at culture, it is a kind
of this equation here brought up of
multiple components, right?
So those that may have served
before, it was an all volunteer force, right?
Those who may have served in Vietnam, where the tradition
and the training and the experience was very different from
those of us in the, you know, in the volunteer force.
Um, those who served in that are submariners, right?
And chose to be under the sea for months at a time.
Verse those that were, uh, aviators, right?
And lived life like top gun with the longer hair and,
and playing, uh, you know, playing, uh,
beach volleyball, right?
Those are, those are different experiences.
Um, and so necessarily there are some kind
of subcultures within this, uh, community.
Having said that, there are some, some global things
that we can kind of talk about
and understand that will help you not only kind of connect
or, or bridge a little bit of that gap,
but also contextualize some things.
And so we're gonna hit those over the next kind of, uh,
15, 20 minutes.
So, so again, this could be an all day course.
We're gonna hit this, hit the high points and,
and, and roll.
So let's, let's step into those, uh, Shante.
So we've broken this down into kind
of two categories, right?
There are those explicit things, those things that you,
you can see that, you know.
Um, and then the, the more implicit characteristics of this,
this military culture, um, you know, the, again,
the explicit ones are ones that, that even those outside
of the service are probably most familiar with.
Um, and the implicit ones may be a little more challenging
for those who didn't actually develop in that culture or,
or, or grow in that culture, um, to be, uh, be aware of,
but are important, uh, in working with
and understanding this population.
And so, next slide.
So here is just very briefly a visual, um,
of, as you can see, this happens to be the Marine Corps.
I may be slightly biased by my own experience, right?
Um, these are the different ranks on the enlisted side
to our warren officers, to our, our officers.
Um, there is a clear established chain
of command from our junior enlisted to our NCOs,
what we call our non-commissioned officers.
Oftentimes, if you hear veterans, you know, speak,
you'll hear the question, oh, you know, um,
or someone may refer to me as a sir in a very weird context.
It's always uncomfortable for me if somebody says, yes, sir.
And my kind of conditioned cultural response is
to be, don't call me, sir.
I worked for a living because I
was a non-commissioned officer.
I was a corporal in the Marine Corps.
Um, and that is, that's a part of our culture, right?
That's part of us making fun of the officers, right?
And what it feels like on the enlisted side to perceive, um,
what they may be doing or not doing.
Um, and, and all of that is kind of wrapped up here.
I will tell you, I understand and can look at these ranks
and know what they mean.
Um, every branch has their own.
Um, the Navy is challenging to me.
They do theirs a little bit different with rates, um,
and terms, the Air force is even more challenging
'cause they've got it flipped upside down, right?
So again, even though there are, is this global idea of rank
and chain of command and those kinds of things, some
of the nuances are even more culturally specific
to the individual branches.
But really understanding
that from day one in your entry into the military,
whether it's enlisted
or officer side, there is a definitive defined chain
of command and an understanding
of there are people in charge, right?
And there is an obligation
and an understanding of, of how that leadership works.
Um, and I think equally important, you know, certainly
for our, our officers and,
and for I guess the rest of the kind of civilian community,
understand, for those of us, you know,
that may have been on the enlisted side, is
that there is a trust that goes, that is, um,
given to those in leadership above us.
Whether that is more senior enlisted
or those officers, there is a, a, there is an expectation
that those individuals are going
to comport themselves in a particular way, um,
that they have a particular level of knowledge, right?
And that as a private,
or as a private first class, I can trust that corporal
or I can trust that sergeant major
or I can trust that, um, second lieutenant
or lieutenant to take care of me, right?
Because as you'll see, one of those cultural components
of being in the, the armed forces is just that, is
that we look out for one another.
We look out for the man
and the woman to your left and to your right.
Um, and some of that is, uh, inherent
or way laid is built into this, this rank structure
and this understanding of what we do
and look at for each other.
Um, go on, uh, Shante for me. Thank you.
Now, um, I have also alluded to some of these.
So you'll can, you can see there, um,
there are different terms, right?
So just
because somebody, you know,
was in the military doesn't mean they're a soldier, right?
Not all service me members are soldiers.
Um, Marines or Marines, navies
or sailors, air Forces, airmen, coast Guard,
I actually believe is a Coast Guardsman, um,
rather than Coast Guard person.
Although I think that is, is, you know,
equally, uh, appropriate.
The space force, you know, they call,
they're called guardians.
You'll notice those parentheticals though,
and I think this is a great opportunity
to talk about another cultural component, right?
Is this idea that we, um, there's a lot
of kind of inter-family squabbling.
There's a lot of inter-family, um,
teasing and, and, and poking.
Um, it's something that we can do with each other, right?
I can make fun of my sister,
but don't let anyone outside
of my family speak a bad word about her, right?
So there some of these terms here, when you see Jarhead
or you see Zoomie or,
or squid, um, you know, we used, I I used to refer
to the Air Force as the chair force, right?
'cause the perception is, is
that those individuals spent significantly more time in an
air conditioned office than perhaps, you know, my,
my fellow Marines.
Having said that, look,
I told you I was a legal clerk in the Marine Corps.
I spent the vast majority
of my enlisted time in a law office, essentially.
Um, whereas another colleague of mine was in the Air Force.
And he de uh,
during his time in the Air Force had visited 32 states
and 20 countries internationally and saw combat.
And I, you know, I never left conus.
I never left the continental United States in my,
my job, uh, in the Marine Corps.
So recognizing even some of these stereotypes
and things that we think about, um, are predicated on, um,
maybe some misinformation.
And so the next slide,
and so that really is what you see here, right?
This idea that we have these friendly rivalries.
We have these things, right?
We'll talk about the Army ain't ready for Marines yet.
Um, you know, you'll hear the, um,
many individuals will say, you know, uh, Marine Corps, um,
crayon eaters, uh, is a term that is affectionately used
for us sometimes, um,
or that we're just a department of the Navy.
And, and the response is often, yes,
we're the men's department, right?
And that's part of that cultural machismo, right?
And maybe perhaps why our, our female
and women veterans, right?
It can be a challenging part of that community
because built into this military, uh, culture is, is that,
um, but you'll see this, right?
Um, coast Guard and the Puddle Jumpers.
Um, and so just recognizing that this is a part of this,
particularly if you're working with a group of vets, um,
you know, this is our banter.
Um, it's okay for us to engage in it.
Be careful if you're not one,
before you step on that step on that landmine,
uh, next slide for me.
And so, let's dig into kind of the more challenging or,
or, um, things that you may not necessarily see, right?
That aren't explicit, that aren't right there on its face.
Um, these, these implicit, uh, cultural, um,
identity markers for us, right?
This idea of, um, we have an ethos,
we have a core value, right?
And, uh, I was speaking with a, a colleague the other day,
and we were talking about, um, naming phases in,
in veteran treatment courts, right?
Some courts call their different phases, honor,
courage, commitment, right?
Because these are, these are core values to us,
um, who may have served.
And my, my first thought was JJ did tie buckle.
Um, and so JJ did tie buckle are the leadership traits, um,
taught in the Marine Corps and justice and judgment
and knowledge and duty, right?
These, these ideas, these concepts that are,
that are instilled
and taught, um, that become a part of our culture,
our community, and who we are, right?
And they are phenomenal in building that warrior
and building that marine.
'cause at the end of the day, right, that's the job
of the Department of the Defense is to build soldiers,
to build airmen, to build marines,
to build service members, right?
I had a mission even as a legal clerk, right?
The mission of the Marine Corps rifleman is to locate close
with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver
and repel the enemy's assault by fire in close combat.
That was the mission of the Marine Corps Rifleman.
And every marine is a rifleman.
That was February of 1999 that I learned that
before I had even earned the title of Marine.
Um, you know, back when I was still a crew,
but no longer a nasty civilian, right?
That's part of the divide.
We are told day one, you're no longer them.
You're not yet us, right?
But recognizing it,
because we are going to build you in this
or rebuild you with this military culture,
this this warrior ethos.
Next slide for me, Shante.
And so with that, um, is, is what you see here,
and recognizing that, um, this is
again, generalized, um, across kind of all of our branches.
But, but this is, um, kinda shorthand.
This, this, this warrior ethos is shorthand to, to, um,
to kind of these ideas, these concepts you see here, right?
This sense of purpose. I told you again,
you know, I, I had a mission.
I knew what that mission was when I was a legal clerk.
You know, I would walk into a, a post nine 11,
I would walk into a hangar of 250 Marines,
and there would be an attorney there.
And he would give them a safety brief,
and he would discuss the importance of updating their wills
and their life insurance.
You know, if the unfortunate, uh, happened
and they, they didn't return.
And then I would sit down with a colleague
and we would work with these 250 Marines, uh, in kind
of updating those documents.
Like, that was my, that was my purpose.
Or you're in charge of a, you know,
multi-billion dollar aircraft,
or you're quite literally keeping the men
and women to your left and right alive, right?
You, you have this, this purpose and,
and, you know, a clear code of conduct as clear, you know,
we function, um, we function in a, in a,
uh, uniform code of military justice, right?
We even have our own law, right?
Where things that may
otherwise be socially maybe unacceptable,
but certainly not criminal, certainly not illegal, right?
In the military, under the UCMJ uniform Code
of Military Justice, they may very well be,
uh, criminal in nature.
And recognizing that this idea
that we have a common purpose, um,
this can be challenging sometimes.
I think when, when clinicians work with, with veterans.
You know, if you were to ask me about my military
experience, I inherently am not gonna tell you
what I Corporal David Pier did.
My natural response is gonna be, well, the LS the,
the legal services center that, that, um, that I worked at,
part of our responsibility was providing pre-deployment
support to the third marine aircraft wing.
Uh, and we talk about the unit, we talk about the group,
we talk about that because we,
we have this common group goal,
a clear defined mission, right?
This identity, right?
I was corporal PI was Corporal Pier, right?
And we'll talk about this on the,
in the next couple, couple of slides.
But man, I didn't know who David was when I got out, right?
This idea of, I, I had an identity, right?
I was a corporal of Maries, I was Corporal Pelletier.
I had not heard my first name on the tongue of someone
for a lot.
I went to a military high school, military college,
and then enlisted in the Marine Corps.
I didn't know who David was,
and I had to learn who that individual was.
And that's part of the distinction, right?
As a veteran, I was no longer a corporal Pelletier.
That was David, right? So how do I figure that out?
And so how do we take it and,
and look at some of these, these other traits.
And so I'm gonna highlight just three
because I think they do a phenomenal job of, um,
talking a little bit about what Derek was talking about.
You know, in the initial introduction, this, this transition
for some from active duty to, to veteran
and where those struggles can be, which oftentimes for many
of you on the call is what you are then encountering, right?
When you engage with us, if we are in the criminal, uh,
legal system before we're caught up in the justice
system and justice involved.
And so, uh, Shante, if you can advance.
So the first one I'll highlight is this idea
of selflessness, right?
This, this is a huge
intentional need, right?
For those of us who had, who served in the military, is that
my obligation to my fellow marines is them.
Um, and we can be conditioned and taught
and trained that often at the expense of ourselves.
My goal, my role, my responsibility
at my own expense is taking care of
everyone else, right?
We appropriately lawed and, and,
and revere, um, those men
and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice, right,
of their lives to save the men
and women to the left and the right of them.
Those stories, when you hear those things, it is not,
they are not accomplishing a mission per se.
It is, it is. Who did they, you know, who did they, uh,
who did they keep from further harm?
Who did they, they save in that sacrifice.
That is, that is how we are taught and, and conditioned.
However, what that means is oftentimes we ignore
our own problems
because I gotta look out for everybody around me,
or I gotta look out for the job.
I gotta make sure the mission is accomplished at
my own expense, right?
And so I may not be addressing my medical issues.
I may not be addressing
that I haven't had a good night's sleep in five years.
'cause I have sleep apnea, right?
But I'm just gonna keep powering through it, right?
Because it's about the mission.
It's about the men and women to my left
and to the right who are counting on me
and expecting me to be there.
Next slide. This idea of excellence.
So this, for me, really, honestly,
until I started doing this work, wasn't something
that I had fully kind of digest and, and,
and full disclosure kind of processed on my own, right?
You know, again, I will speak from the eye,
from my own experience, right?
Certainly in the Marine Corps, we,
we are a little culty about, uh, about being Marines, right?
And this, you know, the few, the proud, quite frankly,
the recruiting is, is wholly focused on this,
this idea that like, only certain people can do this.
And if you do this, you are of the best.
Um, and then everything in the service is a
continuous strive to do that, right?
Is this continuous push and desire, uh, and reward
and response for being, uh, excellent
and to, to being, um, you know, the platoon honor man in a,
in a graduation to, to, um, you know,
our proficiency in conduct marks being, you know, as high
as there po possible, uh,
being an expert on the rifle range,
an expert on the pistol range.
You know, thi this focus on excellence, on excellence,
on excellence to the, again, when there is mission
need, when there is, uh, when the focus is on, on that level
of, of job and employment and, and, and,
and military kind of, um, skills-based is, is appropriate,
understandable, and phenomenal.
But what can often, um, develop is this
struggle when that doesn't happen, right?
And this struggle around, well, what,
what if I'm not the best, right?
Or what if I don't have the skill
or the tool that I need to do this thing?
Am I feeling ashamed in my own inability
or I'm able to acknowledge
that I just don't have the experience or tool right?
Or the thing that I need to be successful, right?
And so this can compound, right?
Our challenges when I, I have a setback or I have a struggle
and I, you know, I take a new job
and I am struggling on that, that front end
because it's something completely different
or it's something new and I unable to kind of, um,
process and, and give myself grace, right?
Or am I continuing to hold myself at this, at this need
to be, and can only survive
and be at this level of, of pure excellence, right?
Um, again, this is not to suggest this is a challenge
for all right?
But just understanding that that many of the things
that are trained and taught
and developed culturally within this, this community
can be challenging outside of those settings
for which it was initially intended, right?
Um, recognizing that the military look,
the Marine Corps bootcamp is three months.
And then I spent another couple months learning how to be a,
uh, a, a rifleman, an infantry,
even though I wasn't gonna be infantry.
And then another couple months learning how
to be a, a legal clerk.
Um, and then there was corporal's course, right?
And there was all this training to make me a Marine.
And then I got three days when I went from being
Corporal Pelletier to being David Pelletier.
I had three days of Outprocessing
where I had a gunnery sergeant.
If you think back to that slide about
eight slides ago, right?
A, a very senior enlisted gunnery sergeant
who had been in the Marine Corps 16
years teaching me how to write a resume.
What had that gunnery sergeant not done in 16 years written
a resume, right?
So the military appropriately spends a lot of time
focusing on transition civilian to to service member.
There isn't a whole lot
of emphasis placed on service member to veteran.
And so some of these challenges, right,
aren't always addressed.
Now they are improving in that regard.
Um, but these are often, uh, not addressed.
So let's look at, um, the next one
and then I'll leave you with a brief video.
And so this one, uh, you know, when I'm doing this in person
and I can see faces, I can always tell
who the fellow veterans on the, you know,
on the line are when, you know,
when you say this term, embrace the suck.
Um, now this is kind of more, um, you know,
probably G wat, right?
Global war and terror.
There's a cultural thing for you, um, recognizing that,
that the term is, is maybe generational or, or era.
But this idea, embracing the suck, I, I think is a,
is a universal experience within the service.
And I would suggest to a small, lesser degree outside of it.
Um, but this idea is, look, it's,
it's 120 degrees outside.
I've got an 85 pound pack and I have to march 15 miles
and I can complain and moan
and argue about it all I want,
but it's still 120 degrees outside.
I still got an 85 pound pack
and I still have to march 15 miles.
Um, and so I've just gotta suck it up, suck it up
and drive on, right?
You know, one of the, one of the, the, the cadence calls,
you know, when we're running, ah ha feels
good in my feet, right?
Pain is weakness leaving the body, right?
This idea that pain is a good thing
because it's weakness leaving the body.
Look, look, sometimes pain is your body saying, Hey David,
you can't tell I'm banging on my desk.
Hey David, that that pain, that's
'cause we have a problem there, right?
Hey, you know, um, ground control to Major Tom,
major Tom to ground control.
I got pain in my foot, right?
Um, it's not weakness leaving the body.
It's something we need to address, right?
And if I'm unwilling or unable or,
or conditioned to ignore that, um,
that can only compound, right?
When, when the suck that I'm embracing is my marriage is,
is struggling, uh, I just lost my job.
You know, I recently was evicted.
Uh, I'm two years into, uh, an opioid addiction
because I, I am ignoring the actual physical pain
and I'm just, you know, popping pills rather than going
to a doctor or, uh, you know, doing,
doing physical therapy, whatever that may be, right?
This is a challenge. And so this is where those
cultural strengths, right, become
cultural challenges, right?
And part of what this idea of treatment courts
and veteran treatment courts, um, are designed
to, um, function.
And so hopefully the, the sound on the next slide will work.
If it doesn't, I will drop a link in the chat
during the break, um, so that you can access this video
if you can play that.
And I'm not sure if we'll get sound though, okay?
So I, I, I did anticipate this.
So when we are on, um, the next break,
and I'm actually, you know, spot on with time, this is a
a 59 second video.
So I, we, we would've been right at 10 o'clock.
Um, so we're, we're hitting our time points, uh,
intentionally, but I will put a link
into the chat to this video.
Um, this is the most recent,
this is the former common on the Marine Corps, um,
doing an interview during, uh, for a mental health month
where he talks about this idea of, um, you know,
embracing the suck
and pain, his weakness leaving the body, and how we're taught.
Um, and so I'll put that link in the chat.
You guys can copy that and, and,
and, um, take a look at that, at your own,
uh, your own accord.
Um, but I want you to both listen to what he is saying,
but also watch him speak, um,
because I think that really, uh, hits home, um,
where some of those cultural strengths, right,
become, um, barriers.
And with that, we're right at 10 o'clock.
Um, the only question I'm currently seeing is a,
is a tech question, um, which we can address as far
as the webinar and, and that, um,
but General Tate, I will turn it back to you.
Thank you, David. I, I always,
and this is a sincere comment, always enjoy listening
to your presentation on military culture.
It's transparent, it's honest, and it is really accurate.
And if for the veterans in the crowd,
if you didn't smile at some point during the presentation,
I would be surprised.
Um, so you may have noticed
that administrative announcements aren't exactly my strong
suit, but the number you see on the screen
or the, is the code for attendance verification.
Uh, write that down.
After each presentation, we'll, um, post
that attendance verification code, um, so
that you can use it for your CLE credit.
With that said, we're on a 10 minute break.
I hope the 180 plus that are with us will come back
and listen to, uh, James Pocket discuss, uh, the nature
and scope of veteran trauma.
So see you at, uh, about 10 after. Thanks very much.
I, I apologize. I'll just note if someone could ask a
question in the qa, just put video.
'cause there is no chat. I will respond to that question
with the link that will get it accessed
so you guys can all see it.
Sorry.
Okay, thanks. See everybody in a little bit.
Thanks, Chris.
Uh, one thing I can do is, uh, with all
of these expensive Apple devices, is tell time.
So I have 10, 10.
I'd like to, uh, go ahead
and introduce Mr. James Puckett, who I mentioned earlier,
the Department of psychology assistant lecturer at the
University of Wisconsin Lacrosse, a friend, a colleague,
a panelist at our conference, uh, and,
and an individual who's just all in
and helping, being a part of the solutions facing, uh,
the challenges of our veterans.
So, James, over to you, please.
Thank you, general T Good morning, everybody.
Um, as said, my name is, uh, James Puckett.
I live in lacrosse, Wisconsin,
and I wear a number of different hats, um, professionally,
otherwise, I would get quite bored.
Uh, so as, uh, general T said,
I'm a assistant teaching professor at the University
of Wisconsin Lacrosse in our psychology department.
I'm also a, a professor, assistant professor
for Bradley University in our Master's of Arts, uh,
counseling program.
Um, I have my doctoral degree in counselor education
supervision, but I'm a trained clinician.
You know, my background's from the,
the mental health side of stuff.
Um, so, uh, a real honor to be here.
I do have some military blood myself, both my parents.
Um, I retired army veterans, have a grandfather
who served in the Korean War.
Um, after high school, I did enlist to the army,
some health complications, um, derailed what I hope
to be a 25 year career.
But, uh, being able to sit here today
and do this work as a civilian, um, is just one
of the ways I try to, to serve.
Um, and as a person in private practice who has worked
with veterans and veteran families, uh, families
who have people in active duty, this is very,
very important work.
What I wanna talk about today, um, are some considerations
for justice involved veterans, looking at the mental health,
trauma, addiction, suicide, and, and, and more.
And, you know, David did a,
a wonderful job talking about the military culture.
And I'm gonna bridge, uh,
from his talk into talking about those things
that I identified,
because I do think it's important if you're coming from the
civilian world, to really, really have the perspective
of the military culture to help maybe understand why, uh,
veterans may struggle, why veterans may have a hard time,
um, reaching out for assistance
and advocating for themselves.
Uh, go ahead with slide please, Shante.
So, the, the objectives of a, just a, a, a brief overview
with, uh, military culture.
'cause again, I think from a civilian perspective, um,
we have to have it, uh, overview of mental health, trauma,
substance use disorders, suicide, homelessness, talk about
barriers to treatment, um, and,
and things that we, we can do, um,
whether it is in our communities, in our law practice,
in our, in our clinical settings, things that we can do to
bridge the civilian veteran gap.
And, um, talk about something that's not talked about very,
very often, which is a trauma-informed legal practices.
Next slide, please. I always like
to give a general content warning.
Uh, you know, whenever I, I talk about subjects similar
to this, just because, you know, none of us are immune to,
um, having traumatic experiences.
Um, there might be people in our audience
who are working really, really hard right now, um, in,
in their recovery from, um, the struggle with addiction.
Um, you may be related to somebody who has died by suicide.
Um, none of us are immune to this.
And, you know, especially if, if working
with a very vulnerable population, we get, you know,
affected by this every time, you know,
we step into our office, into the courtroom
because we're not sure what is gonna come into that office
or courtroom that day.
And we can hear some very, very troubling stuff.
So whatever you need to do for yourself to take care
of yourself during this time, please do so.
Um, 'cause really, you know, at the end of the day, we have
to really take care of ourselves if we wanna make, um,
do the impactful work that we're all doing.
Go ahead with next slide, please.
So, David already talked about this, and,
and we're not gonna, uh, have time for this.
Oh, if you can pause that, you can't really hear it anyway,
but I'm gonna encourage everybody to, uh,
I can definitely get the link out to this,
but this idea of intersectionality
and David had talked about, you know, different,
different factors of a person's identity that might make,
um, receiving care, um, having access to care, um,
a little bit more difficult.
Um, go ahead with next slide, please, Shante,
but also not just the person that we're serving
or the family that we're serving,
the veteran that we're serving.
Also, what we bring into the room too, you know, each
of us come from a very unique cultural group,
and that's the, the family of origin we come from.
And although we can check very similar things on our census,
um, we come from a very, very unique culture.
That's the culture we're raised in.
So one of the things that I think it's a very,
very important to do is to just sit back
and reflect about who you are as an individual,
and these different pieces of the puzzle that,
that make this puzzle.
That is you. Anytime we go into an office, we sit
with somebody, um, we're talking with somebody,
our identities are in collision
with the identity of other people.
Now that collision doesn't have to be, you know,
conflictual, but we are each made up
of different components, you know,
whether it's age generation, developmental level,
if we identify if we have a disability
or not, we're all carrying stuff with us.
We all have a unique culture and perspective,
and it's important to just recognize that before we sit down
and work with other people to respect their identity
and even get to learn about it too.
Because as you will talk about part of the identity
and culture, uh, can be strengths for people.
Go ahead with next slide, please.
So, 2020, approximately 19 million US citizens,
um, identified as veterans.
And that's roughly 10% of the population.
Numbers will, will ebb and flow between there.
But y you know, I think it's important for civilians, first
and foremost, do we even ask if a
person identifies as a veteran?
Um, because if they do, there's an opportunity to, um,
connect with them and learn about some of the strengths
that they may have from their services.
But also there are very, as we know, specific services
that might be available to that veteran.
So first and foremost, are we asking people A lot of times,
you know, in, in my career, we,
I can't remember a time early on
where we were actually taught to even
ask for a consideration.
Um, it took my clinical supervisor, who was a veteran
to really, really teach me the importance
of asking this question,
because there's a lot of possibility, like I said
before, to tap into some strengths and connect with them
and to learn about their identity
and what's important for them.
Go ahead. Next slide, please.
So, kind of unpacking again, the,
the excellent presentation David did for us.
So, military culture, like any other culture,
it can impact initiation of care.
So how do we ask for help? Uh, perception of symptoms.
If I'm isolating
because of the depression, it means that I'm weak.
I'm a coward. If I have anxiety, I'm,
I'm too afraid to do something.
And that goes against, you know, who I am as a,
as a veteran perception of treatment options.
I can't go to this group because that's a sign of weakness.
I can't ask for help.
I can't take medication
because I don't wanna become dependent on it.
I love this quote down here by, uh, William Osler.
It is much more important to know what sort
of patient has a disease than what sort of disease
a patient has.
And this is a very, very person-centered approach.
It's a trauma-informed approach.
It's an empathic, uh, approach.
So getting to know the person's worldview
and the things that impact that worldview is ultimately
what is gonna give us the best opportunity
to not only connect with people,
but to help them identify what they need for supports.
Next slide, please. So, military culture.
Uh, there's this, this concept called ethos,
which is Greek for character.
And David talked about some of the real obvious stuff.
So our rank, you know, if you have, uh,
certain color bars under your uniform, if you have the
insignia of a non-commissioned officer,
then we have the uniform, you know, itself, you know,
the class a's your, your PT gear, your, um, bdu,
you know, bdu, you know, it can depend on, on seasonal,
it can depend on where you're deployed.
Um, all the little patches
that you have from different schools that you went to,
to earn the salute, you know, the salute of who, you know,
standing at attention, standing at parade rest.
Those are things that are very, very obvious.
But below the surface, military culture,
as David talked about, um, it's about much more than that.
So, discipline, teamwork, it's a higher calling to serve.
You see something greater than
what you're looking at in the mirror.
It's purposeful loyalty sacrifice
in this fighting spirit, all of these wonderful traits,
all these wonderful strengths that we have an opportunity
to connect with and,
and help the veteran use from, from their military training
to trans transfer over into civilian life.
Next slide, please. The warrior ethos.
It's what bonds various ranks and specialties together.
You know, David did a, a good job talking about kind
of like the, um, the chatter amongst the, the,
the different service members and whatnot.
But, um, it is this warrior ethos in the military culture
that brings people together.
It instills loyalty and commitment to other service members.
Resilience, resilience, resilience.
Such an important concept, such an important term
resiliency for some people.
It's the idea of being able to bounce back from something
that is very, very difficult or challenging.
You know, I look at resiliency a little bit different.
I, I think it's the ability to take what you've learned
and move forward with it.
A anybody I know who has gone through difficult,
difficult times, um, resilient individuals, they always seem
to come out on the other side with a new sense of, um,
new source of knowledge, uh, a new skill and,
and a new way to look at the world.
One of the things that we do in, in the clinical world
that's very important, and I think this is one of the areas
that all of us can do a better job in with connecting
with veterans, is helping them
draw back from their experiences of tough times and,
and identify what it is
or what it was that helped them get through it,
and helping them explore how to, how to use that skillset,
that strength, um,
to whatever the current struggle might be.
It's a protective factor, right?
I talked about this idea of being part of something bigger,
you know, um, it's kind of an existential kind of view.
This comes in handy when we talk about
things like suicide assessment.
It guides decision making.
So this idea of prioritizing what's the greater good,
what is going to help accomplish the mission?
Next slide, please. Our
shift with working with veterans, as with all people, I, i,
i, is what happened to you?
Not what is wrong with you?
And when you think about that, the difference
between the two questions,
the first one invites the story, what happened?
You get context with that.
The second one is judgemental,
and it really, really focuses on symptom chasing, right?
It doesn't give us a story.
We don't get to learn about the individual,
the strengths, the journey.
But when we ask the question, what happened to you?
It opens that up. Even with my 8-year-old son,
I have shifted instead of asking what's wrong to
what happened, and even my 8-year-old is able
to give me a story
and walk me through his experience
so I have a better understanding of, uh, one,
how he might feel based on the experience.
Um, but two, it helps me understand his worldview.
When I ask what's wrong, it, it, it kind
of stalls him, you know?
And the the last thing we want people to do is, is
to reflect on why might they be bad?
Why might they be a mistake?
So what happened to you instead of what is wrong?
So if you're working with an individual
who experiences a relapse, instead of asking
what went wrong, ask them what happened.
Tell me a little bit about what, what happened.
Next slide, please. The
shift of what happened allows us to go
through the transition of understanding, um, the needs
that the individuals we serve has.
Now, when you look at what I have in front of me here,
it's called Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
It's an attachment theory that basically says
that people behave in a certain way
to get certain needs met.
We have physiological needs, food, clothing, water, shelter,
safety and security.
Um, not just physical safety, but emotional safety as well.
Um, is, am I safe to talk to you about, um,
you know, feeling lonely?
Am I, I, am I safe to tell you that sometimes I get really,
really sad, and sometimes I wonder if
it's even worth living anymore?
Loving and belonging.
So that connection piece, and we heal through connection.
We struggle with disconnection.
And if you think about the, the, the, the comradery
and the bond, uh, the ethos, you know,
that is speaking directly to that importance
of connection, esteem needs.
You know, am I able to, uh,
do I feel good enough about myself?
Do I feel good enough about myself
to be assertive and set boundaries?
And in self-actualization?
Am I flexible or, or do I remain rigid with change?
I want to tell a quick story about how we can look at, um,
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
and understand something like addiction.
For example, there's a great book called In the Realm
of Hungry Ghosts, written by a physician named Gabor Mate.
And in the book, he talks to two 16-year-old boys who are,
um, homeless in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Both boys struggle with methamphetamine addiction.
And the doctor has basically asked them, you know,
what is it about methamphetamine that you like?
And one of the, the young men re responded that,
when you're homeless, it's very, very hard to get food.
But when we use methamphetamine, it curbs our appetite,
and we no longer are hungry.
The second boy said, when you're homeless,
it's really dangerous.
But when we're using, we can stay awake
and alert and protect ourselves.
And if you look at this pyramid right here,
we have physiological, again, that food, clothing, water,
shelter, and then the second rung up, we have safety.
So being able to protect yourself,
that crystally little powder for those 16-year-old boys
gave them a sense of safety,
and it took care of any hunger that they might have.
And so, when you're asking people
to reconsider their substance use, it's important for us
to understand why the substance is there to begin with.
Next slide, please.
Let's talk about post-traumatic Stress Disorder.
First thing I wanna say is just
because a person doesn't have PTSD, it does not mean
that they have not been traumatized.
PTSD is a very, very specific set of criteria, um,
to get the diagnosis, uh, rates, uh, according to the va,
uh, the Korean War, is it, it's really unknown, um,
based on symptom analysis.
We think they're pretty similar to Vietnam War veteran eras,
Vietnam era, approximately 30% throughout their lifetime.
The Gulf War Desert Storm, 12% in any given year.
And then we have some of our, our most recent conflicts
with, um, operation Iraqi Freedom
and Operation Enduring Freedom, 11 to 20% in any given year.
Now, I think it's important to, uh, you know,
talk about the, the context within the war, too.
We know that, um, for a variety of different eras,
veteran reception, um,
how combat was viewed was really, really different.
So when you think about Vietnam, for example, our, our, one
of the first wars really kind of televised, um,
what some veterans came home to, it was not a, a welcoming,
uh, thank you for your service.
You know, many of them were, were protested, um, you know,
assaulted called very,
very derogatory names when they were sent over there to,
um, you know, do a job.
But then when I think of the Gulf War Desert Storm, I think
of Win Houston at the Super Bowl, right?
Um, very, very different perspective.
Uh, very, very different, um, kind of, kind of overtone
that was at least, you know, publicly made.
And then we have the most, most recent ones
where it's become, you know, kind of pop culture ish to
be very, very cognizant of veteran issues.
Um, but when it really comes down to it,
not enough is being done.
So just the context about, you know,
the con the particular war, um, the time
and history that we're at are also very important.
Next slide, please. So
let's talk about sexual assault.
Um, again, one of these, um, you know, crises, uh,
public health issue across the board.
But, um, what's unique to the military is the, um,
the, the code of honor that is kind of attached to it.
So these are self-report numbers.
I always take statistics, um, regarding, you know,
these types of public health issues.
Um, I, I, I take them, you know, as not rigid numbers,
because I do think that a lot
of times there are underreporting with this.
Um, but accordingly to the, the most recent statistics
to over 20% of women have reported experiencing a sexual
assault wi in the military over half,
and almost 40%, over half of women,
and almost 40% of men
who report sexual harassment while in the military,
overall convictions are, um, down.
And these numbers vary from branch to branch as well.
And again, this idea of code ofop,
and, um, do I disclose, do I,
um, do I come forward and risk the chance of promotion?
Uh, do I risk the chance of having somebody demoted or,
or, you know, experiencing some type of discipline for it?
There's a, a real, real kind of conundrum
that survivors are in,
and a lot of, a lot of it has to do with power
and control dynamics,
and as well as concerned about, um, being able
to get promoted, being eligible
for a certain slot at like jump school, um, deployment
and whatnot within this population, uh, of survivors, uh,
a significant higher level of self blame
and a perceived failure to kind
of live up to standards as well.
So there's a lot of shame that's associated with this.
And individuals who, um, operate from a perspective
of shame often view themselves as, as defective, um,
that the, the, there's something wrong with them.
Um, they don't look at, um, you,
you know, having guilt.
The shame says, I am a mistake
where guilt says, I made a mistake.
Next slide, please. We also have this,
um, phenomenon called betrayal trauma,
where there's complicated grief associated with it.
So with the complicated grief, it is, um, not only the,
the grieving of, um, identity
and who you are from the sexual trauma,
but there's, uh, a, a grief of perhaps a military career
that might come to an end grieving the loss of, um,
if there's issues with promotion,
just the standing within the unit, I talked about shame.
There's distrust and judgment that is associated with this.
How do you get con, um, close to, um, you know,
colleagues within the, the branch that you're serving in?
And it goes directly against the stuff I was talking about
earlier, and David was talking about, about this culture of,
uh, connectedness being, um, uh, you know, being attached
to something, something greater than yourself.
If there's distrust and judgment
and then isolation that goes against, um, it completely,
and all of a sudden you're living a life
that's very incongruent.
You know, on the one hand, I really,
really rely on my teammates
and, um, you know, my unit, my platoon,
but it might be safer to just kind of isolate over here.
And we have within betrayal trauma, um, the spin
of if I would have, so a lot of self blame for it.
Um, and a lot of people in my experience working
with sexual assault, one
of the reasons people blame themselves for what happened is
it, it, it helps them create a story
and wrap their head around the big
thing that kind of happened.
Um, it, it also helps them shield the blow
of if there's not accountability.
And the story is, I take blame for myself.
I, I, I did this to myself.
Um, for some survivors, it, it, it, it,
they trick themselves into thinking
that it's actually very helpful
to assume blame rather than wait for accountability.
Next slide, please.
Let's talk about mental health substance use disorders.
So again, self-reported numbers.
Uh, 15% of veterans identify as having a mental illness.
Uh, a quarter of those report
of having a serious mental illness.
So something like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, over 6%
of veterans identify as having a substance use disorder.
And then the breakdown of the percentages there.
So, uh, quarter of those 25
or 25% illicit drugs, 80% alcohol use,
and then just under 8% for the combination of the two.
Um, I, you know, a a lot of, and,
and rightfully so, we talk a lot about fentanyl
and opioids, um, within the general population,
but also the veteran population.
But I just want to, you know,
talk a little bit about alcohol.
Um, alcohol is, you know, it, it consistently,
whether it's in civilian world
or veteran world, constantly kind of gets a pass.
Um, here's kind of the, the, the dark side of alcohol.
It's the number one drug associated
with non premeditate suicide.
It's the number one a, uh, drug associated
with domestic violence issues.
Number one, drug associated with child abuse issues.
Um, so when you think about the complications that our,
our veterans might be experiencing on a social level,
difficulty with marriage, um, there,
there's financial issues.
All this stress that we know, um, predates any sort of abuse
or, or a lot of times domestic violence.
You know, are we doing enough
to really talk about the difficulties with alcohol?
Uh, just over 2% identify as having a co-occurring disorder.
And I was looking at this number earlier,
and I was thinking to myself, well,
if somebody has a substance use disorder, they,
there's something mental health related going on, too.
The reason that that number is where it is,
I think it's something my field has to own.
We sometimes focus way too much on the alcohol versus
focusing on the cause of the use of alcohol.
So depression, anxiety, trauma, whatever it may be.
Um, and we don't inform our clientele enough of this idea
of having a co-occurring disorder.
So, you know, I have never treated anybody who's struggled
with a substance use disorder
that did not have a mental health disorder.
And the mental health disorder was kind of the, the,
the lead diagnosis where the more behavioral disorder, um,
not to, you know, minimize the importance of it came second
because the, the primary diagnosis was causing, um,
the, the use of alcohol or whatever it may be.
Numbers have been on the rise since 2018.
Um, and again, this is important to have some context too.
You know, we talk about pain management, um,
other illnesses, you know, associated with substance use
and mental health disorders.
So for example, alcohol, depression.
Um, those two are, are very, very much connected
and for like health outcome issues, uh, higher prevalence,
higher risk for things like diabetes, um, hypertension and,
and different things like that.
Um, social norms, you know, depending on
where you live in the country, in my neck of the woods, um,
alcohol is just part of the culture.
Um, if you were to present to treatment, and
although I think this is training, uh,
changing a little bit, I think those who present, uh,
to treatment in some pockets get ridiculed and shamed.
Um, so the norms around substance use, um,
can have a huge impact in the way veterans, uh, choose
to move forward and get help,
or it serves as a barrier for them.
Next slide, please.
So when we talk about, um, substance use,
mental health disorders, trauma,
it all starts with the brain.
And, um, you know, just a, a couple slides that I think are,
are important for consideration.
So the brain, um, where we have the,
the prefrontal cortex lit up in red, if you look at the nine
functions of the prefrontal cortex
and why, what, what it does, um, you can see that empathy,
insight, re response, flexibility, managing emotions,
controlling your body, morality, intuition, so
that gut feeling, attune communication,
which means vulnerability, um,
and fear modulation, identifying what is a real threat,
what is not a threat.
We have veterans who are, are coming to us
and they're having a hard time accessing part of that brain
where many of 'em might live.
Is the limbic part, um, the fight flight
or free stress response, am I safe?
Um, you know, do, do people want to hurt me?
And it's also where emotions live.
So if you think about the veterans that we serve,
and you read the story,
or you get the story about what happened, um, a lot
of times, you know, the story has something to do with a,
a mis assignment of threat for people.
Um, they're not able to access
that prefrontal cortex, right?
And they can't make the, the decision or trust their gut
or have the insight that, you know,
alcohol is really causing problems in my life
or, um, how
to control themselves when they're getting into
an argument with their spouse.
The other slide, or the, the other side of the slide, um,
you're looking at the brain.
So, uh, TBI,
and you can see the, the, what we see as a normal brain,
the normal brain functioning.
Um, you know, it looks, you know, relatively smooth,
you know, the, the synapses are connected,
but then we have, uh, the post-traumatic stress, um,
disorder brain, and the overactive limbic system.
So the overactive limbic system is that fight flight
or, uh, freeze response.
And then we have traumatic brain injury where there is
a physical injury to the brain, as you can see there,
and it's a very underactive prefrontal cortex.
But then we have some veterans who are coming to us
that have both things going on.
Not only is their fight flight
and free system, you know, just activated constantly,
they also have a compromise, uh, prefrontal cortex.
And we know all behavior begins with the brain.
So when we're seeing some of these behaviors that are,
are veterans are engaging in, um, being mindful
and empathic, that they really might be doing their best
and not knowing what they have gone through, um,
will really, really hinder our understanding of
what they're currently going through.
Next slide, please. When you think about brain,
you know, there's a lot of big names.
Um, I'm not a neuroscientist.
The, a lot of the, the language is,
is very intimidating to me.
But one way to think about it is this.
So our typical development, we want
what we call top-down control.
That means our prefrontal cortex, the part
where rational thinking lives really controls
are survival brain.
So you get an impulse check in with your frontal lobe,
nah, probably not a good choice.
And then you do something that fits your values,
that is safer, um, that prioritizes the greater good.
But for those that we are working with, who may have, uh,
post-traumatic stress disorder, um, depression that has led
to stimulant use
or anxiety that has led to opiates, um, that have a TBI,
their brain flips.
It is the survival brain
that is controlling the cognitive part.
So in other words, you have an impulse to do something.
You can't get to this part to really question
what you're doing, and you're stuck right here.
And, you know, impulsive behavior, compulsive behavior, it,
it's all about survival for the individuals.
Okay? Um, you know,
my example earlier about the two teens in, in, in Canada,
um, that's where they're at.
You know, the impulse to go do what they need to do
to get methamphetamine.
It is part of their survival. Now, next slide, please.
And then one more. And, and I think this is important
because even though this is a three-year-old child,
this is from Dr. Bruce Perry from Baylor University on his,
uh, extensive research on extreme neglect.
One of the things we know about PTSD, one
of the things we know about TBI, one
of the things we know about just toxic chronic stress, um,
and even some foods ingested, is
that it can have a shrinking effect on our brain.
And you can see a three-year-old brain here,
what it looks like under normal, what we would say, uh,
safe circumstances versus what we see with extreme neglect.
Um, kids who are left to fend for themselves,
who don't have adult interaction, um,
who do not have an empathic adult to sit with.
So they get what we call mirroring neurons.
And what mirroring neurons does is when I'm sitting
with a client who is struggling, um,
because of a traumatic,
from a traumatic experience they experience,
when I'm providing that attuned space of communication,
that empathy, they've done research
where my prefrontal cortex is lit up, theirs is lit up too,
because they're experiencing empathy.
This 3-year-old, probably not many of those situations,
but you can also see the big gaps right in the gray area.
And those big gaps suggest
that there have not been learned experiences, um,
around safety, around communication,
around emotional regulation.
So these are the kids who might, um, who,
who probably are very impulsive.
They cause a lot of disruption in schools
and in the environment.
They may be aggressive.
And these are the individuals
that are more at risk for substance use.
And so, like I said before, TBI, um,
PTSD, chronic stress,
when you think about adults whose brains go from what we see
as normal, normal meaning most,
and transition to this, more behaviors come out from us.
I do wanna, next slide, please.
I do wanna circle back and just say one thing
regarding substance use.
One of the many, many, um, priceless
lessons that we've learned from our Vietnam veterans is the
importance of understanding,
um, substance use and addiction.
So there were many who are now veterans were active duty
during the time that were using opiates to kind of just get
by, um, just to get through the day, the members who
returned back to the United States, who continued
to struggle with addiction, opiates, the one thing
that they had in common was, um, childhood maltreatment.
The ones who came from, uh, you know, safe, uh,
well adjusted families, um, who had a normal,
normal, you know, normal childhood.
Um, they were able to, with the supports
and being back with, uh, connection, um, not struggle nearly
as much, but those who returned home
and continue to struggle with opiate addiction, um,
the one thing they had in common was childhood maltreatment.
Let's talk about disordered eating.
This is a, another, uh, public health issue that
much like in the civilian world, in our military, uh,
veteran world does not get probably enough press.
I have never served, um, an individual, adult, adolescent,
um, kid who has struggled with disordered eating,
that has not had a, a, a traumatic experience, um,
that has not been tied to it.
Um, whether it's relational trauma, sexual abuse,
physical abuse, it, it ranges from person to person.
But when we look at, um, active duty members, specifically
in disordered eating, you know, the one thing to,
to take into consideration is, you know, what are the,
what are they coming into the military with?
What has happened to them prior to, um,
enlisting commissioning?
Uh, the other thing too is just when you think about, um,
you know, perceived standards within, you know,
how you get rank and how you move up the ladder, um,
these kind of success myths that people have regarding
physical fitness and physical appearance, uh, appearance.
But when you look at the numbers for women,
active duty women, uh, just over 1% met criteria
for anorexia nervosa.
Uh, two and a half percent amended
and a half met criteria, eight to 12 had met, um, criteria
for bulimia nervosa,
and almost 7% of men for, uh, bulimia nervosa
for binge eating disorder.
Uh, the numbers range for, for women, 36, uh, to 62%,
and about 42% for men.
Um, of all the disordered eating, um, 68 per 68%
of all the, um, excuse me, I got my my words mixed up there.
Um, 60 per 8% of all disordered eating
diagnosis are women.
Of those 16% identify as service members.
Um, these numbers
for men are three times higher In the Navy,
having combat exposure increases the risk two
and a half times, um, 15 to 25%
of all veterans meet criteria for some, um,
disordered eating diagnosis when assessed appropriately.
So when I, when I say assessed appropriately,
that is all about having a conversation, um, getting to,
to know the person, getting to know their,
their habits and their patterns.
Um, because a diagnosis is far more than just about
symptoms, it's about how the symptoms impact
the life of the individual.
Next slide, please.
Let's talk about homelessness.
11% of the homeless population identify as being a veteran.
Um, I put the identify as being a veteran there,
and I think it's important to recognize that
because we do have some veterans who may not
because of experiences, um, may not, um,
willingly, you know, admit that they have, um,
service experience.
20% of men who are homeless identify as, as, as veterans.
Over 50% of homeless veterans identify
as having a disability.
And 51%
of homeless veterans have a
diagnosable mental health disorder.
One word about disability,
and I think I talk about this in a upcoming slide,
but, um, not all disabilities are visible.
The number one, um, number one, filing
for disability claims around the world is depression.
Actually, it's not, uh, missing a limb.
It's not being, um, you know,
using a wheelchair, anything like that.
It's actually depression. Next slide, please.
Suicide. Second, leading cause of death among veterans
right now, just over 17 deaths by suicide a day
between the years, uh, uh, 2001
and 2020, we saw the increase, uh, for ages 18
to 34 active duty, um, military, uh,
those are active duty numbers.
18 to 20 or 34-year-old active duty members increased
by just over 95% during covid, uh,
suicide was the leading cause of death for veterans.
The number for suicide are 50% higher than other
adults who did not serve.
And I talked about disability early, earlier,
but folks who identify
as having a disability are three times higher.
Um, risk of suicide ideation.
A couple things to note about suicide.
Um, I mentioned alcohol already as being the number one, um,
drug associated with non premeditate suicide, approximately.
According to some studies, approximately 15%
of all individuals who are identif
or who are diagnosed with depression will die by suicide.
That's a staggering number.
If you think about how many people
a day may be getting diagnosed or screened for depression.
And over half of all deaths by suicides,
there's at least one symptom of depression.
Now, notice I didn't say a diagnosis of depression.
There's one symptom of depression, okay?
Suicide is the number one cause of death for those
who are struggling with addiction.
And so, when we think about the, the numbers
that are prevalent within the veteran rate, uh,
veteran population, um,
these numbers are very, very serious.
And one of the things, I think it's very important for all
of us to do, and,
and you don't have to be a, a licensed clinician
or therapist to do any of this psychologist,
but when you start looking at risk factors, all
of a sudden the snowball goes from very, very tiny
to massive.
So, again, if you think about somebody
who has combat experience, um, if they struggle
with depression, if they're using substances,
think about everything, all the public health issues
that they become more at risk for.
And that's not even including what happened in their life,
uh, that predated, enlisting
or commissioning into military service.
Next slide, please.
Let's talk about barriers to treatment.
You know, the number one word is down below in all caps.
Empathy, you do not have to have lived experience.
You do not have to have experience using kiwi on your boots.
You do not have to have experience doing pushups
on a hundred degree gravel to step
your feet into a veteran's shoes,
because all of us, at some point has have felt scared,
lonely, sad despair.
Many of us have grieved.
And if you can imagine somebody grieving,
losing a battle buddy in combat, coming home to nothing,
not having anywhere to lay their head anywhere
to get their basic needs met, we can imagine how
awful that must be.
Okay? So lead by empathy.
First and foremost, veterans are America's largest gated
community according to Dr.
Brand. I, I, I just, I I love that, um, love that quote,
because it, it's, it's, it just brings it alive to us.
21% of all civilians wish
that they had more in common with veterans.
Um, I would ask those 21%, um, you know,
to name the things you do have in common.
Let's talk about where we can connect and,
and maybe the 21%, um,
that are talking about this can
learn something from veterans.
You know, David Ma made a comment
before about the things veterans can teach civilians.
70, uh, 70%
of all service members see themselves
different from civilians.
Around 80% of veterans active duty
and civilians think the average civilian often struggles
to relate to veterans.
Um, you know, I, my my comment to
that is gonna echo David's too, is, is about communication.
I mean, I am, I'm guessing that there, if we put a bunch
of people in the room who were surveyed, um,
they would walk away and,
and some of these numbers would change.
Yeah, they, we have a lot in common.
Their path was just different than mine.
Another barrier to treatment is, does the service, um,
and the provider meet the veteran's needs?
You know, is it a good match?
I, I think it's, um, it, it's kind of a game of roulette.
If you're just calling
and making an appointment without really vetting
who it is, you're making an appointment.
Um, maybe general take can share the information about the,
the podcast that I, um, I did for Justice
for Vets about demystifying therapy
and the, I get into the specifics about how
to go about finding a service provider.
Next slide, please.
Shante. Next slide, please. Oh, go back one.
Thank you. Oh, okay. That must've got taken. Go forward.
Again, my apologies. Another barrier to treatment is, um,
when we look at ideals, you know, there's two sides.
You know, on one hand, um, this will maybe suggest that,
you know, there's something wrong with me.
Um, on the other hand, you know,
this can actually be away from me moving forward.
So when we look at ideals, you know, selflessness,
placing the welfare of others above one's own welfare.
So the flip side of that is, I can't put myself first.
I can't ask for help. I'm not the priority.
Then we have loyalty commitment
to accomplishing missions and protect others.
But then there's this survivor's guilt piece
that people experience.
And survivor's guilt is, is a very, very challenging thing.
It, it's, it's right up there with like complicated grief,
stoicism, toughness, and the ability to endure.
But in my stoic, if I acknowledge that I'm suffering
and I'm struggling, there's a moral code.
We file an internal, internal moral compass.
But when we bet if we, if we reach out for help
and we break that code,
if we talk about the things we're not supposed
to talk about, am I breaking, um, trust?
Am I stepping out of bounds, achieving excellence,
becoming the best, most effective
professional, um, possible?
But on the flip side, if I have to let you know
that I'm struggling, um, I may become ashamed.
I may have to identify that I'm not Perfect.
Next slide, please. Another
barrier, uh, for, for treatment is,
are we doing trauma-informed practices, right?
So trauma-informed practices is, um,
it's, it's about a way of being.
It's not a set of protocol, it's a way of being.
And relatively recently, the CDC added a sixth,
uh, criteria for trauma informed.
Number one is safety. So the people who are coming to us,
no matter what our profession is, um,
does a veteran feel safe?
Are we trustworthy? Have we earned their trust?
Underline the word earned. Do they have choice?
Or are we imposing on, are we telling them that they have
to do something a certain way or, or at, in this timeline?
You know, change is, is is very,
very different for all of us.
Collaboration, are we working together, right?
Am I learning about you to help, um,
give you options that fit you?
Empowerment, empowering people, you know,
giving them the information, um,
allowing them to speak their truth.
And the sixth one that's not up there is, um,
cultural considerations, right?
And again, this goes, I'm gonna challenge everybody to go
beyond what might be obvious, gender, skin color, um,
you know, in some cases it could be, um, religious,
but go beyond that
and get curious about what were the family dynamics
that you were born in.
And again, the magic question, what happened to you?
Next slide, please.
Trauma informed legal practices.
So this is for, I think most, if not, you know,
everybody else on, on, on the call right now.
Um, vicarious trauma can actually take place
for every professional working within the system,
whether it is law enforcement, the mental health clinician,
the public defender, uh, defense counsel, the bailiff,
the stenographer, the, the judge.
Because we hear things day in
and day out in our job that are very,
very hard to listen to.
Sometimes it's stories about what happened
to them in childhood that led to them enlisting to get out
of that awful situation.
And sometimes it takes us right to the battlefield
or coming home or whatever it may be,
or the night, um, you know, you got arrested,
whatever happened, we all are vulnerable
to vicarious trauma, secondary trauma,
and ultimately burnout.
Um, there's some research that suggests
that once you hit burnout, there's no coming back.
It means that your perspective is, is no longer able
to be a objective.
But trauma-informed legal practices.
It, it, it's, it's a real thing.
Um, it's been around, um, you know,
I think the first article I found was written in the
eighties, but you don't hear much about it.
But think about if we are experiencing vicarious
or secondary trauma or compassionate fatigue, how
that's gonna impact our ability to do the job
for the person that we serve.
Okay? Um, there's a link there that, um, I'm guessing these,
this PowerPoint will be
provided that you can, um, click on for just secondary
trauma competencies for trauma-informed supervision.
This is important, especially for, um,
drug treatment court teams
who have a mental health clinician.
All right? I, I strongly recommend
that if you have a mental health clinician on your drug
treatment court team, that they engage in some type
of clinical supervision.
Clinical supervision has been tied to client outcomes, okay?
So any judges on the call right now, you want
to go a courtroom to look effective, you want the people
that you're serving to walk out into the
community feeling empowered.
Um, and, and even though they're wonderful people,
you probably wanna see less of them under circumstance,
certain circumstances.
Next slide, please. Alright,
reference list, available upon request.
Um, otherwise, I think the next slide has some
of my contact info, and that's what I got.
Thank you very much,
James. Let me join,
uh, what I suspect
to be everyone's reaction here, which is, uh, proud
to have you part of this discussion.
Grateful for your willingness to always share your insights
and help us better understand, um, the unique components of,
of veteran trauma.
Um, so the all important, if
as James' presentation wasn't important enough,
we have the code for attendance verification.
I'm getting much better at these
administrative announcements.
So, uh, let's take a 10 minute break.
If you have questions for James, we can take 'em up later.
We can get back to you, whatever the case might be.
But I would appreciate if we could come back in at 1110
Eastern, where we will begin the second half
of this presentation, which really digs into, uh, the,
the aspects of the, the transfer law.
So see you shortly. Thank you, and thanks again, James.
Thank you.
Okay. I'd like to, uh, to go ahead and get started.
And as, as you're getting settled in,
I just wanna reflect on, on a couple of things.
First of all, this is Butch Tate Army veteran Chief Counsel
for All Rise.
Um, love the quote on, on James
slide quote, Dr.
Brim said, the veteran community is, quote,
America's largest gated community man.
Is that true? And it, it takes a while to get your
credentials in order to, uh, to enter that, that community.
But that's, that's why we're here today.
Um, tremendous initial presentations dealing with
what I describe at the outset as context.
Certainly, uh, David gave you a better understanding
of military culture.
Um, I read one of the comments
that you had posted the best presentation on culture you've
seen, and that's true because, uh, there are some bad ones.
This was, this was not, this is the best I've seen.
It always is. But secondly, James's presentation on sort
of the, the nature of trauma associated with,
with military service.
Uh, James just crushes it every time.
So why, why did I want to get us started
by talking about context?
I, I think simply put it,
understanding the context in which you
as a stakeholder in this criminal justice system operates,
uh, will lead to improved outcomes in our VTCs.
And at the end of the day, that's really
what all this effort is about, is improved outcomes, uh,
in our VTCs.
Um, but you know, there's something else.
And Shante, if you could hit that next slide for me, there,
there's something else that understanding context brings,
and that is it, it allows us to make the right choice.
And what do I mean by that?
As a, as a criminal, um, justice practitioner
or as a society, you know, we have a choice in
how we handle veterans who come in contact
with the criminal justice system and,
and law enforcement, a choice to, to lump them into, uh,
all other, uh, individuals in the system.
Uh, or we can step back
and go, look, what's gonna work here?
Uh, what, what, what can we do that draws on
the veteran's unique culture?
What can we do that appreciates and, and,
and acknowledges the potential sources
of unique veteran trauma to improve the outcomes
for those in the system?
And that's why we have VTCs understanding all that context.
Understanding the science behind this helps us
as a society make the right choice
for our justice involved veterans.
But of course, you don't, you don't get to even make
that choice if a vet doesn't have access,
if she can't find a,
a veteran's treatment court in her county to,
uh, to reach out to.
And, and think about that for a moment.
Think about the veteran in the adjoining county may well
have access to a court that recognizes their culture,
their unique experiences,
but yet, that's not the case for someone in, in this county.
Well, that's what prompted, um,
the New York Health Foundation to think through, okay,
how do we improve access to veterans treatment courts
in our state just yet, the next step in New York,
leading the way in addressing justice involved veterans,
um, I don't think I have to sell this group on, you know,
why do we have a Veterans treatment court?
Chances are you're on this call
because you already buy into the concept.
But secondly, you just,
after you buy in, you wanna make sure, um,
you do all you can in your piece of this process to improve
outcomes for the veterans.
So I'm gonna take a minute now,
and of course I'll introduce, um, our
featured guest speaker here in a, in a moment
as if he needs an introduction.
But, uh, let me,
let me offer just a little bit on the methodology
that we assisted.
We, meaning Justice Vets assisted the New York Health
Foundation in figuring out how to improve access.
So, Shante, if I can have the next slide, please. Okay.
Um, had that come up with a plan, right?
Like you just, uh, that, that's, that's part
of anybody's culture, I hope, uh, is
to figure out, okay, what do we got?
What's the issue? And the issue was access.
Certainly the idea that you have courts in one county,
but next county over, you don't.
Uh, how's that a good thing? Well, it's not.
So let's come up with a plan.
Let's increase the access for all veterans in New York,
not just the ones we like, not just the heroes,
not just the combat, but all veterans,
and for that matter, active duty.
And I'll get to that in a moment in New York.
So let's go to the next slide.
Now, I'm gonna do what I would describe as the,
I'll just use the word easy.
Uh, nothing easy about this, but,
but in a moment, I'll turn this over to, uh,
to Judge Russell to, to walk you through the ins
and outs of this, um, transformational, uh,
legislation and how it works.
But, but first, let me, let me help you.
I'm all about context. You may have figured that out by now,
but, but how did we even go about tackling this?
As I said, the, the foundation identified the issue,
and that was access, and had
and turned to us at Justice, prevents,
and said, can you help us come up with a plan
to improve a access?
And we said, yeah, we absolutely can.
This is the logical next step in the proliferation
of the treatment courts.
So we went about improving access. How do we do it?
Do we make more courts?
Well, you, you
and I both know that there's a resource tail,
a resource cost,
or just say, yep, every county has
to have a veteran treatment court.
Of course, we're not gonna give you the money to do it,
but you guys in the county, you just figured
it out because you're great.
New Yorkers. Other states have tried that.
They have tried to just mandate that there'd be, uh,
a court in every county.
And, uh, yeah, great, you did that.
And you can say, thank you for your service.
Happy Veterans Day. Mattresses are half price.
Uh, and we're gonna put a court,
but we're not gonna give you any money.
So we knew that wasn't going to work.
We had some, some smart folks around the table
that just said, yeah, let's,
let's come up with something better than that.
Uh, we wanted one that, you know,
obviously promoted inclusivity.
Uh, as I said at the, in my introductory comments
to this segment of the, of the presentation, all veterans,
all meaning all veterans who were otherwise eligible.
Let's don't forget that piece of this,
otherwise eligible
for entry into the Veterans Treatment Court.
Um, we wanted to preserve judicial flexibility.
Now that, that came from a good friend of mine who was part
of this group who said, look, let's, let's not
overlook the fact that these cases are owned
by the judges in whose court those cases sit.
So if you do anything that limits
or reduces a judge's flexibility,
you're gonna have trouble getting this across
the finish line.
So some of you will, will look at, um, the components
of this long go, well, yeah, you didn't talk about this.
You didn't talk about this, you didn't talk about this.
And you know, the answer is, yeah, you're exactly right.
We didn't. And why is that?
Because we wanted the judges to have flexibility on how
they ran their courts.
And we'll, we'll certainly talk about that, uh,
in a little bit more detail.
And then finally, the plan had to be one
that solved the problem, but doesn't create new
ones for heaven's sake.
How many times have you seen that, uh, in legislation
where it's not thought through The second
and third order effects aren't thought through, uh, how we,
uh, solve a problem, but yet now we've just created two
or three other problems.
So that, again, was part of what we, we thought about
as we put our plan together.
So we combined efforts with the foundation,
the methodology very briefly,
and again, I want you to understand this
because it gives you the context of how we came
to this legislation.
But the methodology was in 2018, which I find it hard
to believe that it was that long ago,
we had four different sessions that we held in New York, uh,
representing 30 different stakeholder groups, stakeholders,
meaning those who had a, a play in this, if you will,
in the criminal justice system,
representing 20 different government agencies came together
those four different times to talk this through.
Uh, it was, it was a discussion
built toward improving access.
But how do we do it? Factoring in all the other
considerations of the plan, uh, the result that we came up
with this, this will be talk about Hyatt and the lead
or the yeah, the lead.
But the, the, what we came up with was legislative change
that was necessary to, um,
effectuate the increased access.
And that's really when the hard work began.
But I'll just share one other thing on, on our sessions
that, that were guided by certain broad principles,
because again, I help,
I think it helps you understand the
legislation as it currently is.
Uh, again, some broad principles, every veteran had
to have access, but of course they still had to be eligible
for the Veterans Treatment Court.
But yeah, it kind of makes sense, but,
but at least they would have access
provided they met that eligibility criteria.
It would include active duty, US Army Reserve,
national Guard, um, that's a big deal,
especially the active duty.
But that was the goal of this group, is that everybody
who would benefit from the unique structure
of a veteran's treatment court would
have access to that court.
Uh, it would be, as I said earlier, a transfer as opposed
to mandating additional courts
that would've been a disaster.
You have 62 counties.
I usually throw out numbers about New York
and get 'em within, I don't know, 5% or so of accuracy,
but I think you've got 62 counties.
I always throw out how many courts you have, which
that allows, uh, Skye to jump in
and say, no, that's not current.
But I think you have 38 courts now, which is pretty cool.
Uh, some counties have more than one court.
And again, uh, sky will help me, uh,
if those numbers aren't exactly right.
Uh, and then finally, you know, one
of these broad principles was, uh, sort
of this adaptive legislation, not trying to proscribe
wait, not trying to mandate every possible issue
that may be addressed in a veteran's treatment court
and in the transfer, because
you just, you're just gonna fail.
And we'll talk about that more detail later.
You're just going to fail, fail, uh,
if you try to cover everything.
Now, uh, you, you've heard enough from me.
I want to, I want to introduce the person who, the,
the reason you joined this call is
because you saw that we had Judge Russell, uh, the man
who in 2008 started all this, that we now have nationwide,
over 400 and some courts all started with him in Buffalo,
you know, the story, uh,
but started with Judge Russell, his incredibly talented,
insightful, uh, forward-leaning team.
And that's what he'll give credit is to his team.
But, um, I, I would like now Judge Russell to come on board
and just sort of talk about some of the, the specifics
of this legislation, some of the things we included,
some we didn't and why we didn't include him.
But Judge Russell, uh, always an honor to, uh,
to share the cyber platform with you.
Over to you, sir.
And General Tate, thank you so much for your kindness.
Oh my goodness. You're too kind.
And yes, indeed, I had an awesome team that I worked
with in Buffalo.
I am grateful to them. Uh, Pam Laman Cusso.
Uh, of course we have, um, the District attorney,
the defense counsel, the Defense Bar Jack O'Connor,
overseeing our volunteer veteran mentors as our coordinator.
Uh, but let me, let me say this.
Uh, this is a special week
and it's nice to be part of this webinar during the week
that we're going to, and hopefully we do this every day.
But it's a special day set out, uh, on November the 11th,
veterans Day, and to thank our men
and women particularly recognizing, honoring them
on November the 11th.
But that's something we should be doing every day.
Uh, but for those who have served,
thank you very much for your service.
Uh, general Tate, I am grateful to.
It was nice to hear Derek Coy earlier from the New York
Health Foundation.
Uh, David Pier on, of course,
the military culture.
Skye Davis, someone who I could never do without.
She makes things run. She is awesome.
She's gonna talk about some of the things that the Office
of Court Administration are doing to make this legislation
not just a written document, but give it the heart
and the feeling and the reality, uh, to provide access
to a men and women who've served in the military
who are going through challenges, whether it's, uh,
mental health, whether it's substance dependency,
whether it's traumatic brain injury, uh,
or whatever it might be, uh,
for our Marines in the audience.
Uh, happy Birthday. I know that's going
to be celebrated on November the 10th.
Uh, I also want to give thanks to the Office
of Court Administration being supportive
of Veterans Treatment Court
and the work that's now being done by the Center
for Justice Innovation on the strategic planning
of our Veterans Treatment Court statewide, uh, in New York.
But what, let's talk about our veterans.
You know, when I think about when I was growing up,
I had certain dreams,
and, you know, sometimes we encounter people
that they'll use the cliche
and you ask, how you doing today?
I'm living the dream. Well, you know,
we're gonna talk about people who defend that dream,
and that's the men and women who served.
When I think about Veterans Treatment Court, I think about
a entity, a location with so many resources
and services are brought together that are specific
to our, our veterans.
And, uh, I forgot to mention Shante,
could you advance the slide for me, please?
And we're talking about change.
And when I think about the creation
of Veterans Treatment Court, it was done with a goal
of providing the best opportunities for our men
and women who've served, who are going through challenges
with mental health, substance, traumatic brain injuries,
other related issues that a court could intervene
to help them reach stability, to help them
get in recovery.
When I think about all the parts
that are brought together in the Veterans Treatment Court,
the United States Department of Veteran Affairs,
the State Departments of Veteran Affairs, county Department
of Veteran Affairs, the, uh, US
and State Department of Labor, working
with our local colleges, universities, working
with our veteran housing entities, working with our local
volunteer, not only veteran mentors,
but veteran service organizations.
A number of courts work to assist veterans
with benefits that they earned that many
of our benefits didn't, many
of our veterans never realized that they earned.
These are a number of things in addition to employment,
in addition to job training skills
that a veteran's treatment court may have
or provide a number of our veterans treatment court work
with local military bases
and work with the commanders of their basis to provide
and assist veterans
or assist active duty members, uh, working
with the National Guard, working with, of course, the,
uh, other entities to provide high quality services.
But something that Derek Coy had said earlier,
and that is, how do we work to take the luck out of it?
And one was the fundamental for change was looking at
maybe we should amend our criminal procedure laws.
'cause in the state of New York,
a court will have jurisdiction if the offense occurred
within that county,
or elements thereof occurred within that county.
There had to be a nexus,
otherwise, a court could not have
jurisdiction over the case.
Now, we tried to be creative in, in New York state, some
of our courts and say, you know,
send us your vet from your neighboring county,
and what we would do is put 'em in a Veteran's Treatment
court, but we have to send a case back to you
because we don't have jurisdiction for final resolution
or disposition of your case.
For some, it, it kinda worked, but it wasn't the best
because that court that
presides over a veteran's treatment court
knew about the various, uh, uh, journey that
that veteran was on.
They knew some of the various nuances with respects to, uh,
their journey in treatment,
their journey in recovery.
So legislation, uh, was the avenue
and the answer that we looked upon.
And what's nice about the legislation,
it does authorize the removal of an indictment
and other actions to veterans treatment court,
but it also retains the autonomy of, of counties
to decide how are they going to support justice
involved veterans in their respective county.
Uh, the next bullet point,
all right, if that's the, all the bullet bullet points, then
we'll go to, there we go.
Thank you. The new legislation, however, does not commit
or mandate additional veterans treatment court in the state.
And, uh, general Tate explained it so eloquently,
and that is, it becomes a resource issue.
Sometimes it becomes an issue of, uh, the number
of veterans that they may have in their respective county
that are coming through the criminal court system
that may not justify, uh,
establishing a veteran's treatment court in
that respective jurisdiction.
But also of note is if you have a
resource latent, uh, adjoining county
that does have a veteran's treatment court, then
this legislation allows that court to transfer it
to the adjoining court, adjoining county court
to be able to assist that veteran.
Can we go to the next slide, please?
So let's talk about the elements
and yes, uh, in order for this
to be operational, uh, it makes reference
and the statute itself is fine.
And New York State Criminal Procedure Law section two
30.21, it has to be initiated
by the defendant.
In other words, there has to be a request by the Veteran
Veterans Counsel that they would like
to participate in the Veteran's Treatment Court
in the adjoining county.
Uh, in order for that to happen, the, um,
prosecuting attorney or the da,
which the District attorney in the state of New York has
to consent to send it to the adjoining county.
And the adjoining county district attorney has to consent to
that case being transferred.
The receiving court must be an adjoining county.
In other words, it's boundaries.
One county boundaries must touch another
county's boundaries.
So you can have multiple counties that touch a county
with a veteran's treatment court.
Uh, it does, and it is noted in the Veterans Treatment Court
statute that, uh, family offenses, uh,
sometimes we call them domestic violence related offenses,
are not permitted to be transferred to an adjoining county
or veterans treatment court.
Uh, there are several more bullet points.
Shante. Yeah, thank you.
Uh, and you can, yeah, we go And there is a grace period
before transfer to allow for consent.
In other words, if a court
district attorneys have signed off on it on the original,
uh, court that has jurisdiction,
when the transfer is done
and the transfer order is done, they have a grace period
for notice to, uh, be returned that the case has been
accepted and receiving court must, uh, accept
or reject the transfer,
and they must notify the all parties.
I think there is, uh, another, um, two more bullet points.
Thank you. And they must provide notice to the defense, uh,
counsels and both district attorneys in addition
to the referring court.
However, once the case is fully transferred,
what is neat is the receiving court may take full, uh,
jurisdictional, uh, uh, qualities of the case.
In other words, they could take it to judgment
or other final dispositions.
Uh, they could take it to judgment for purposes
of sentencing.
They could, they could dismiss the charges
or whatever the agreed upon resolution is going to be for
that veteran to participate in the program.
Can you advance to the next slide, please?
Eligibility for transfer.
This note, there's not a big laundry list for eligibility
criteria except what is developed
by the Veterans Treatment Court.
But in the statute, the eligibility criteria is that
of course, you have to have both judges, the
original judge and the judge who's gonna be receiving the
case to consent to the transfer.
Both district attorneys from both counties must consent.
Uh, DV cases are excluded, family offense cases,
and does it must be a transfer
to a designated veterans treatment court.
What do I mean by designated?
That is a court where our New York State Office of um,
administration has designated that court as a viable
Veterans treatment court.
It's a veterans treatment court
that follows the 10 key components.
It follows the best practices,
it has the necessary resources
and component to really
maximize its potential in assisting our veterans.
And of course, it has to be an adjoining county,
a county whose borders touches the other county.
But a big part when we talk about, uh,
veterans Treatment Court is being able to identify
whether that person, first of all, is a veteran.
And it is, it is noted, one of the resources,
and it's two resources I wanna mention
that can assist with that journey.
One is the BRSS,
which is the Veterans Reentry Search Services,
which your core can be able to have access to.
This is web-based, uh,
web-based entity that is overseen
by the US Department of Veteran Affairs.
And it enables both correctional
and criminal justice entities to be able
to identify whether a person is incarcerated, uh,
is temporarily in jail,
or a person is in your court
or prospective person to be in your Veterans Treatment court
as to whether they have served in the
United States military.
The other is also a web-based instrument
that is overseen by the US Department of Veteran Affairs.
It's called Squares, which is the status query
and response exchange system.
It is also a web-based approach that VA employees
and other outside organizations such as law enforcement,
veterans, treatment courts, courts itself,
where you can be able to discern a veteran status,
their eligibility for healthcare,
and whether they also qualify for homeless programs.
What's, and, uh, general Tate kinda explained some
of the things, uh, when the group was brought together,
uh, to discuss how can we ensure access
as best as possible for all veterans who qualify
for a veterans treatment court to be able to have access
to a veterans' treatment court.
But part of the discussion, when we talked about what, uh,
we proposing for the legislation, we discussed veterans,
but we made a decision not to define
what a veteran is.
In other words, uh, a lot of statutes that we looked at,
and it was numerous.
Uh, they had different definitions for veterans.
And typically these statutes, definition for veterans
was done in order to discern whether
that veteran was entitled to certain services.
For us, it was not to have veterans defined, except for
to say that they served in the United States military
that way we made,
and we worked to ensure
that it did not exclude active duty members, those
who served in the reserves, those
who served in the National Guard,
and also ensured that it did not include what the character
of discharge were, uh, that way.
We purposely wanted to have the widest net
to provide the widest benefit and services for our veterans.
We also discussed,
'cause we, we know that sometimes part
of the discussion well is the reason
for their mental health, their dependency on substances,
their brain injury, so forth, is it due
to their military service?
And should there be something in the legislation that says,
uh, there need to be a nexus
or it must be combat related, or things of that sort.
We purposely, uh, wanted to ensure that
that was not part of the legislation
because that area is one in which it could be
quite subjective.
And having a group of criminal justice personnel
and maybe those from the treatment community to sit there
and say, well, I think it's the nexus.
Oh, I think it's not, let's get the department of, uh,
defense records and all their records
and no, these individuals,
they took the oath, they swore to defend our country.
They made the sacrifice.
They're home, they're going through challenges.
Let's see what we could do to provide the best
system of care
and services to help them on their journey to recovery.
All right, next slide, please.
Challenges or opportunities,
and this is something both, uh, general Tate
and I are going to discuss together.
And yes, you could do all the bullet points.
Shante, you are awesome.
And as general Tate talked about it, it was intentional
to have a degree of ambiguity in the statute
to preserve, uh, the various county's autonomy on
how they develop not only their veterans treatment court,
but some of the other issues
that they might wanna work through.
Uh, part of it is when the case is transferred,
what's the preferred method?
If there is a preferred method, that's something
that the Veterans Treatment Court may wanna, uh, look at,
explore and discuss with the neighboring counties
who desire to send a case.
It's a case sent post plea or pre plea.
Maybe it's a revocable plea
since the receiving court is going
to have full jurisdiction, what's the preferred method?
The other question is, I am in the original jurisdiction
where my case is pending.
I have my defense counsel,
and let's say my defense counsel is one that is assigned
or appointed by the court due to my indig indigency
where I can't afford counsel.
What happens when the case transfers?
Do my original defense lawyer comes
to the neighboring county.
If so, who's going to pay
that defense council for their services?
Right? Because, uh, our assigned council program,
they are paid by each county.
So what happens? Who accepts
and continues with, uh, representation?
What about probation supervision, community supervision?
Who handles that? The original county
or when you transfer it to the receiving county?
Those are questions, uh, some might call it cha challenges.
I think, uh, both General Tate and I
and others, we look at it as opportunities.
Opportunities for growth, opportunities for dialogue,
opportunities for collaboration.
Where does this veteran needs to be?
Uh, do they need to be a resident of your county,
but they're coming from another county?
Can they still, uh, reside in their present county?
Uh, is there a need for cost
for temporary lodging if they're coming to your county
and if they remain in the county
that they're presently living in, what about transportation?
How is that handled? Is there things that we can do
as a Veteran's treatment court to assist in that regards,
not only with regards to housing,
but with regards to transportation?
Uh, general Tate, anything additional you'd like to add
with regards to this?
Thank you, judge. Uh, two, two comments.
Um, most calls I receive on this legislation begin with,
but you guys didn't cover, and then you fill in the blank.
And my answer is, you're exactly right.
And it's, uh, sky will talk shortly about how this, uh,
law has been implemented in like real life
and amazing how when the parties want this to happen,
how they were able to just to work
through some of these details.
And yeah, it takes time for sure.
Um, but, but fortunately we have participants in this
process and we have stakeholders willing to give that time.
So don't be dissuaded by, uh, nobody's done this before
because they have, and secondly, but there's this gap.
Like we, we don't figure out how
to, how to do transportation.
Well, you know what? I, I bet you can figure it out.
I, I bet if you're really serious about providing access
to these courts, you'll figure out a way to do this.
These costs, whether it's, for example, the establishment
of a nonprofit, like they've done, for example, in Buffalo
to help the mentors, uh, defray costs.
So yeah, you're right.
Uh, we've said it a couple of times now.
We didn't cover everything, but we would not even be having
this conversation if we'd, uh, we'd still been sitting
around that table trying to figure these things out.
Uh, and the second thing I,
I've probably been remiss in not mentioning one
of our partners earlier in this,
but that's Gary Horton with the Veterans Defense Program
as part of the New York State Defenders Association.
Gary's been in this from day one.
Uh, he was part of the stakeholder meetings
that we held in, in New York.
He was then part of the event we did in Syracuse, similar
to what we're doing today.
He was then part of, um, the recent gathering we had with,
uh, judge Russell mentioned in the group, I think it's CJI
to sort of think strategically about the future.
So Gary Horton has been involved in this from the
defense counsel perspective.
He is very well versed.
He has a sort of outlined a step-by-step procedure.
That's, if he wants to talk about it someday
or release it, he will.
But, but helping defense counsel
and of course prosecutors think through this.
So important partner, I should have mentioned him earlier
and I didn't, but a great resource for the defense counsel.
So that's all I wanted to offer at this point, judge.
Alright, thank you.
Next slide, Shante
and yes, awesome.
And Gary Horton.
Shout out to you and I agree with General Tate,
you've been awesome and thank you very much
for the work that you've done.
Uh, for our men and women who served in, in support
of Veterans Treatment Court, uh, we, we do realize
that whether you're the receiving court
or you're the referring court,
that there's different motivations, uh, as to why you send
and why, uh, and the motivation of the court receiving it.
But all in all, our, our goal is to provide the, the best
services and provide the best opportunity for restoration
with respects to our men
and women seen in our veterans' treatment court.
I, I guess one of the questions as you talk about, uh,
uh, general Tate, where they said, well,
this wasn't answered in the statute,
and that is, can there be conditions set
on why a,
before a court would accept a Veteran's Treatment court
transfer, I want certain things,
certain conditions set out before we accept it.
And if so, what are the conditions?
Hypothetically, you could think that, uh, they might say,
well, have a person conditionally, um,
plead guilty and we'll reserve on it once the
case is transferred.
Or it could be that they are willing to move
to the neighboring jurisdiction.
I don't know. I guess there are a number
of hypotheticals we can come up with,
but what this does do is at least fosters dialogue
and cooperation between, uh,
adjoining counties to discuss
how best can we accomplish this goal.
Uh, the same with respects
to the district attorneys from both counties.
Some of the things where we talked about are there certain,
uh, uh, cost that might be incurred.
But one of the options
to look at is the Federal Enhancement Grant
as possible solutions to cover these gaps such
as transportation, such as housing,
things of that sort.
So please do consider that a as an option.
The other is, uh, one of the challenges,
but I look at it as an opportunity as we move forward,
and Sky Davis is going to be speaking about this, is
that there was some challenges
with our New York State Unified Court System database
and our New York State Division of Criminal Justice database
as to whether they're able to process
case transfers.
Now, what do I mean by that?
We wanted to, and we do want to avoid
where it appears on a veteran's rap sheet,
as if they have pending, uh, the same
or similar type charge in two different jurisdictions.
Let's say there is a burglary charge, all of a sudden
when the case is sent to the adjoining county,
a case file is produced,
there's also a burglary charge listing, what we know
from the referring county, that it is no longer
existing there because it's been transferred
full jurisdictional transfer.
But the computer system
that's having challenges in recognizing
that it's not two cases pending, but really just one.
And Sky Davis, her team, the Office of Court Administration,
they've been working diligently, uh, to resolve this
and she'll be discussing that shortly.
Can we go to the next slide? Oh, I'm sorry.
I prematurely did that. Can you go back one, uh, I'm sorry.
General tape.
Why don't we go to that next slide here.
Here's a thought, here's a thought.
Now folks got real work to do today in addition
to this great presentation.
So why don't we, uh, judge, and I'll wrap up
and then Sky will go straight into
your presentation without, without taking a break,
and then we'll wrap up whom we wrap up.
But I think that keeps the momentum going
and keeps everybody's head in the game.
And, uh, Ashley man, I think has a great question that,
that I will, uh, get to near the end of Skye's comments.
So thanks for the question, Ashley. We'll get back to you.
But Skye, judge Russell, if you're,
if you've concluded your remarks, um, not
Necessarily. I'm wanted to
go to the next slide.
I wasn't sure if you had something on this slide.
No, sir. Go ahead, please.
Okay. Uh, welcome home.
It's a nice comment
and something that, uh, uh, we love
to say, hopefully we do.
Uh, some of our Vietnam veteran did not receive that
when they returned home from Vietnam,
but without a doubt welcome home.
And as one writer has stated that the truth is that
all veterans do pay with their lives, some pay all at once,
while others pay over a lifetime.
And, and the question for us as a justice system
is what can we do to relieve part of that
burden and suffering that a veteran may be going through?
Uh, president China f Kennedy once stated that
as we express our gratitude, we must never forget
that the highest appreciation goes beyond the mere utterance
of words, but to live by them, let us do all
that we can to be able to assist
that veterans who's going through challenges,
whether it's mental health, substance, physical,
traumatic brain injury, to have a journey
of recovery and restoration.
All right. And, uh, I wanna thank you for
affording me this time.
Thank you, general Tate, and to awesome Sky Davis.
Uh, well, I'll turn it over to you, general Tate.
Thank you, judge. Um, there's the all important,
what is this thing called the, uh, code
for attendance verification?
Um, so please make note of that.
But honestly, I think Sky, you're,
you're up and ready to go.
I, I think, I think we should just, just press on
and, uh, uh, uh, hear from Sky
and then we'll take some questions at, at the end,
and I'll have a few more administrative things.
But Skye, if you're ready to go,
why don't we just launch on your presentation?
I'm good, thanks. Thank you, general,
and thank you to all the previous presenters
for sharing your expertise on trauma,
veterans treatment courts, military culture,
and to all the veterans on this call.
Thank you for your bravery. Thank you for your service.
I'm going to cover, uh, CPL 2 30 21, which is
what we technically call the Veterans Treatment
Court Transfer Legislation.
Uh, next slide. Ch Shante. Thank you, Shante.
Um, so I want you
to imagine meeting a justice involved individual,
and you find out that he has served in the US armed forces.
You learn that he has no hope,
he has constant suicidal thoughts, he has lost contact
with his family because of a drinking problem.
Imagine that you have the ability to help this veteran
to point him in the right direction, to connect him
with services, uh, that address his mental health issues,
his alcohol use, uh,
and address his military benefits
that he didn't even realize that he was entitled to.
Imagine that you are the seed that plants hope
for this person and for so many others in this situation
by referring a case to a veterans treatment court.
But you say there are no veterans treatment courts in my
county or where the arrest took place
or anywhere in my state.
I know that we have folks on this call that are not,
uh, from New York.
We have folks on this call outside of New York, so I'm going
to talk to you about how you can take advantage
of this legislation that allows you
to access the Veterans Treatment Court,
even if it doesn't exist, where the case originates.
And even if you're not from New York, I'm going
to share some operational considerations so
that you can have some takeaways about this legislation.
Next slide. So this law effectuated in April
of 2021, and it does two overarching things.
The first is that it amends this criminal procedure law
to allow for a case to be transferred
to a veterans treatment court of an adjoining county
if there is no veterans treatment court
where the case originates.
The second element of the law is
that it amends our judiciary law
to establish veterans treatment courts.
And this means that veterans treatment courts now have
to be designated as such by our chief administrative judge.
So they must all undergo planning, training,
and operate with fidelity
to the Veterans treatment court model
that Judge Robert Russell established in 2008.
Uh, and you heard earlier
that he opened the first Veterans Treatment court in
Buffalo, uh,
which was also the first Veterans
treatment court in the country.
Next slide. And here is a map
that outlines the 36 designated veterans
treatment courts in New York.
They are spread out over, uh, 25 out
of the 62 counties in New York.
And I work for the unified court system at the Office
for Justice Initiatives.
And one of my, uh, proud responsibilities is that I get
to work and to plan and implement
and support our veterans treatment courts statewide.
And currently we have three veterans treatment courts
that are in the planning stage.
So over the next few months, I will be meeting with them
and the court staff and the community stakeholders
to share best practices
and guidance so that they're ready to open
and understand how to best serve justice involved veterans.
Next slide.
So here are our criminal procedure law statutes in New York
that allow for transfers of
problem solving courts within a county.
And when I say problem solving courts,
I talk about drug court, mental health court,
human trafficking, intervention court, et cetera.
Uh, the last one is the one that allows the transfer
of a case to a veteran's treatment court in
an adjoining county.
Uh, next slide. Um,
but where are these justice involved veterans?
You know, I heard, and I believe David, uh,
mentioned this in a previous presentation, that less than 7%
of the general population are veterans.
And we see a similar number
of justice involved veterans in the court system as well.
Most veterans treatment court don't have a high number
of veterans participating, and that is okay.
I mean, we want to have veterans treatment courts
because when we encounter a veteran that's justice involved,
we want to make sure
that we have the appropriate infrastructure
to assist him or her.
You know, there are many legal definitions for veteran.
I think Judge Dressel had talked earlier about, um,
when they created this legislation, they didn't want
to address the legal definition of veteran,
but for the court system,
and this is in the spirit of helping veterans,
our definition is that if you put on the uniform,
we will consider your case for a case review, right?
Regardless of good paper, regardless of bad paper, um,
or whether you served in combat
or whether you didn't serve in com combat experience, um,
we want to consider your case for review.
And if you don't have access to VRSS
or squares that Judge Russell talked about earlier,
we want attorneys, law enforcement treatment providers,
we want you to ask your clients, ask your arrestees,
have you served in the US armed forces?
Have you served in the reserves or in the National Guard?
We know that veterans don't like
to self-identify right away.
So having different people asking this question
during different stages of a case is a strong way to,
um, identify veterans.
Uh, next slide. Um,
recently I attended a veterans treatment court graduation.
And for those of you who are not familiar
with veterans treatment courts, it's, you know,
it usually happens at the end of a case when a veteran, uh,
has gone through, um, all of the requirements, uh,
in the court, and they get the opportunity to speak
about their experiences, uh,
in the Veteran's Treatment Court prior
to the Veteran's Treatment Court during,
and then what their life is like afterwards.
Uh, in this, at this graduation,
the defense attorney had an opportunity to speak out on the
graduate's behalf, and he mentioned
that he wasn't sure if referring the case
to the Veteran's Treatment Court was gonna be something good
for the veteran because he didn't think
that his veteran client would do well.
He knew that the Veterans
Treatment court had a lot of structure.
You know, participants have to attend treatment, they have
to report for drug testing, they have
to see their case manager, they have
to attend court session.
But when he explained this to his veteran client,
the veteran had a very flat affect.
Um, you know, the veterans aspect
looked like he didn't really care.
But during the graduation ceremony when the graduate talked,
he mentioned that during his first four court sessions,
he was so distrustful of the process
that he woke up daily contemplating suicide
because he felt so guilty
that his military family was gone and he was still around.
So I mentioned this
because these are some of the things
that you may not be aware that your participants
or your clients are going through, right?
The veteran also said that it wasn't
until his fifth court appearance where everything turned
around for him, he felt like he had seen enough
that he learned that he was in a safe setting with people
that cared about his military service.
And he started to trust the process
and he started to surrender to change.
And today he's doing wonderful.
He's giving back to other veterans.
He has reconnected with his family,
and he has a job that he loves.
And all of this,
because a defense attorney took a chance, he planted a seed
and he referred his case to the Veteran's Treatment Court.
And if you heard Professor Puckett's presentation earlier,
he gave you staggering information on the
veteran's mental state.
Um, you know, for those that include depression,
alcohol use, these veterans have higher suicide rates.
And Professor Puckett also mentioned that trustworthiness
is an element of trauma informed care, something that we
tend to forget about.
Uh, next slide. So
what do you do if you know a justice involved veteran?
But there is no veteran treatment court in the county
where the veteran got arrested?
Well, in New York, we only have had a handful
of cases transferred pursuant to this legislation.
And I will tell you that each case has required a lot
of coordination, a lot of communication,
and each case requires a lot of time.
Next slide. So I'm going to use this
as our first case as the guide.
And this is just an outline of the element
that occurred during the case.
So here, the veteran was arrested in Livingston County
where there is no Veteran's treatment court,
and Livingston County is adjacent to Monroe County
where there is a Veteran's treatment court.
Uh, next slide. And some of the issues that were addressed
were that the veteran had to agree to waive indictment
and consent to being prosecuted
by a superior court information.
The veteran resides in Livingston County, which is
where he got arrested.
And Monroe Veterans Treatment Court requires
probation supervision.
So something to be mindful of is that
each veteran's treatment court will have, um,
certain requirements based on the resources
that are available to them in their county.
And in Monroe, probation supervision was required.
The veteran, however, was not eligible
for probation in Monroe County
because he was not a resident of Monroe County,
but we have a wonderful coordinator there.
Her name is Elizabeth Burrick.
And she, uh, was able to work out a plan
with both probation departments.
So just something to be mindful of.
Uh, another issue that was addressed is
that the veteran resides in one county
and he attends treatment in that county,
but he has to travel to a court in an adjoining county.
And for some folks, this could be a hardship.
The transportation issue could be a hardship.
Um, and I don't have a bullet point about this,
but, um, this particular case, the person was able
to maintain the same defense attorney
to represent him in both counties.
And this may not be the case for some,
because if you have a public defender, um,
in one county, you may not have
that same public defender if you go to the next county.
Uh, next slide. Um, another issue, uh,
on a statewide level,
and I think Judge uh, Russell mentioned this a little bit,
is that we have a court database
that does not communicate with our, excuse me,
with our statewide division of Criminal Justice services,
which we call DCJS.
And DCJS is the, uh, maintains and collects
and reports criminal justice histories.
They report to the FBI and other, um, entities, um,
and they collect information from us.
But the way that the databases, um, were designed,
um, DCJS was unable to collect,
uh, transfers from our court database.
And we understand that that is being corrected
before by next month, actually by the end of the year.
So, um, this issue was a big issue for us
because it resulted in the court system creating
so many workarounds, uh, so that a
person's criminal justice history was accurate, right?
Because if your criminal justice history
or your rap sheet was inaccurate,
that would affect you adopting a child.
It could affect you gaining employment, it could affect you,
uh, gaining public housing and other benefits.
Oh my goodness, I feel like I've been talking forever.
Okay, so next slide.
Uh, and I often get a lot of emails
and questions about operational procedures
of this transfer statute.
So I've included them here.
Uh, and here is a scenario that just
to give you a better illustration of our state
and where our counties are mapped out.
So if we had a veteran who had a case in Delaware County,
which is in our sixth Judicial district,
and there is no Veterans Court in Delaware County,
but the veteran, uh, lives in
Sullivan County, right?
Can the case be transferred to Sullivan County
where there is a treatment court, right?
So this is a little quiz,
and if you answered yes, you were correct.
Why? Because the counties are adjacent.
So pursuant to this legislation, you would be able to
transfer, uh, the case from Delaware to Sullivan.
Uh, next slide, please.
Um, if there is a veteran's case pending in Yates County,
which is in our seventh judicial district,
and there is no veterans' treatment court, there,
can the case be transferred to Buffalo's, um,
veterans Treatment Court, which is in the eighth jd?
And the answer here is that no,
because the districts, the well,
the judicial districts are adjoining, the counties are not
pursuant to this legislation.
The counties need to be adjoining.
Okay? Uh, next slide please.
Um, again, KUER County is in the Fifth Judicial District,
and, um, they have no veterans treatment court.
Can they transfer their case to Syracuse
who has a Veterans' Treatment court,
and they are in the same judicial district?
The answer is no,
because while both counties are in the same
judicial district, they are not adjoining again, adjoining,
uh, is the, uh, key word to understanding,
uh, the legislation.
However, can we get the next slide please?
Thank you. Um, in New York, we have
what is called courtesy monitoring Supervision
and Courtesy Monitoring supervision is mostly used when
there is a geographical distance between
where the person lives to
where the person got arrested, right?
The originating court would retain jurisdiction
and the supervising court would supervise the participant
for the originating court,
and both courts would communicate with, with each other
regarding the individual progress.
So the person, the, the participant would still go
to treatment, have to come to court, um,
and have to see that their case manager in court, um,
it would just be done in a county that is closer to
where he or she lives.
And then the coordinators in both courts would
communicate about progress.
If a sanction would have to, um, be done
that like a, an incarceration or,
or a warrant, that case would have
to be called in the originating court,
and the originating court would be able to,
uh, take care of that.
Um, next, thank you.
So here are some other frequently asked questions that, um,
we have been asked about this legislation, so I just decided
to put them into this slide.
Um, so if there are two adjacent veteran treatment courts,
where should the veteran's case get referred to?
So we want you to consider, obviously,
the financial hardship of traveling.
We want you to consider maybe the person is working right?
So we want you to consider the port that accommodates, um,
that, so the financial hardship, the transportation issues,
and that is where you should consider, uh, sending, uh,
referring your case to that particular county.
Another question we get asked is, uh, does the attorney have
to put the motion in writing, right?
Earlier, uh, I showed you the case steps
for Livingston County,
and, um, in that particular case,
all the motions were put in writing, right?
But you don't have to put your motion in writing.
Um, but it would be helpful
for the prosecutor receiving the case
to have his motion in writing.
And, uh, another frequently asked question that we get is,
can the Veterans Treatment court coordinator travel
to another county
or judicial district
to interview the veteran if the veteran is incarcerating?
So the receiving Veterans Treatment Court
should conduct an initial interview
because they would be familiar
with the Veteran's Treatment Court,
with their own Veterans Treatment Court,
their own veterans treatment court courts rules
and processes and procedures,
and they would be able to answer questions.
Um, as I said earlier,
these courts are established based on the resources
that are available to them in each county.
And the receiving veterans treatment court coordinator would
be more familiar with the process of
how the Veterans Treatment Court operates in that county.
And obviously, you know, now with teams, we can, you know,
you should consider virtual, uh, um,
doing a virtual interview if, if, uh, that is available.
Um, next slide. So I liked,
I think I, hopefully I
provided you with enough information on, um, on the
transfer legislation and some
of the operational considerations that we, we have, uh,
um, encountered.
But I want to thank you all for what you do
to instill hope in people.
Uh, no matter what your profession is
or your role here today, you are able to plant seeds
and you're able to change lives.
And I believe that together we can identify veterans so
that we can address the underlying issues
that bring them into the criminal justice system.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity
to talk to you today.
Um, I do see that in the chat box,
there is a question about, uh, the VJs
and how they, uh, play in the state legislation.
And let me answer that.
I am a huge VJO fan, huge.
We could not do what we do without the VJs
and the amazing mentors
that we have in these veterans treatment courts, the mentors
that volunteer their time to come and support
and encourage our veteran participants on a,
on a regular basis.
Um, and so the VJs are
an integral part of the Veterans Treatment Court team.
They are able to provide us with a verification
of military service,
and they are able to, um,
review benefits for veterans.
50% of the veterans never go to the va,
so they don't even realize what they're entitled to, right?
So we, um, our co coordinators work very,
very closely with the BJs, um,
and I believe some of them are here on this call.
Uh, but big, big fan of the BJs, they're very,
very important to us.
Um, and General Tate,
I will hand it over to you,
Sky. Thank you so much.
Oh my gosh, you, you never disappoint.
You never talk too much. You always deliver.
And in a candid way, you're right,
this takes coordination and communication.
Um, but I go back to, you know, making the right choice.
If you believe in making the right choice
for your justice involved veterans,
you will undertake the coordination
and communication necessary to make this happen.
Um, thanks for,
and I'll, I'll, uh, I'll open it up to my colleagues
to make any other comments.
Uh, they'd like to make. I I did want to get to one
of the questions that I mentioned earlier.
First of all, I think you nailed the response
to the VJs is I recall, uh,
we had A-A-V-J-O representative in one
of the stakeholder meetings we held in New York, but,
but even if we didn't justice for vets, there is no space
between us and the VJs.
We love them as much as Sky loves them. I tell that to Mr.
Boler all the time when I see him.
He's a senior va, um, staff member.
Uh, in fact, he even came to our last conference just
to address the VGAs.
And why is that? Is because we love them
and they, the VJO os just do magic.
Um, Ashley, back
to your question a while ago on whether we are aware
of anybody, um, any active duty being,
uh, the beneficiary of this legislation.
Uh, I am not anecdotally,
I recall a soldier from Fort Drum who was, uh,
allowed to participate in a veteran's treatment court,
but I don't think it was done
through the transfer legislation.
I think it just happened to be, uh, that the,
the command let him, uh, participate in the court.
Now, think about the Fort Cavazos, previously known
as Fort Hood, Texas situation,
where in their magistrate court on the installation,
they have opened a veteran's treatment court.
So you have active duty soldiers participating.
I say participate, they're, you know, they're, they're going
through the, they're not participating as a volunteer.
There's nothing voluntary about their role.
They're there because I think they've got a
charge facing him on post.
Uh, but, but that certainly is a court
that handles active duty.
But my point being, I don't know, Ashley,
if anybody's used active duty to use this legislation,
I'll ask my colleagues if they're aware of any circumstance.
Yeah, it doesn't sound like it.
Um, but you know, it probably hasn't been asked before.
There'll be some salesmanship.
You talk about some coordination and communication.
The thought of going to a commander to say, Hey, I need, uh,
I need four months for Specialist Jones
to complete this program, but you know
what you don't know till you ask.
And if I could help you guide that discussion,
I am more than happy, uh, to talk to you about how
as a defense counsel, you might help guide
that discussion. So,
I will comment though that Yes, sir,
Veterans Treatment Court have worked with, uh, vet
or active duty individuals that may have come
through the criminal justice system
and worked with the commanders on the,
on the base or commanders for the National Guard
or the Reserve, and working with that individual.
Uh, so relationships have been made.
Uh, some Veterans Treatment court are in the same community
with, uh, military bases installation, so forth.
And it's important to build those relationships
because for some, it might save a, uh,
an active duty individual's, uh, career
or their career in the National Guard or the Reserves.
Um, some it may not be able to save,
but for others, particularly those that, uh,
the service have invested quite a bit in the training
of this individual might be able to save their careers.
So, uh, kudos.
I do want to make one, uh, comment as part
of the BJO.
Yes, we love them dearly.
I am so grateful
and thankful for the Veterans Justice
Outreach representative and them being granted permission
to attend and assist Veterans treatment courts
and justice involved veterans.
But one of the questions included,
or the second part of the question was, what part are they
to play in the state legislation?
Uh, they do provide advice,
uh, guidance.
At the same time, uh, legislation is not appropriate
to have any mandates with regards to, uh, BJs of,
uh, veterans Justice Outreach worker, they're federal
employees, and by the grace of the federal government
that working closely with us
in the criminal justice community
and Veterans Treatment Court. Thank you.
Thanks, judge. I wanna get to a couple of other questions.
Uh, as all of you know,
I'm just like all over the administrative of aspects
of today's training.
So the, the workbook, um, that I said,
that's facetiously in case you're wondering,
but the, the workbook is available on the same site
that you registered to attend the training.
So you'll find the workbook there.
What I don't know is about the recording where you can find,
I think it was James who said,
is there a link to the recording?
Um, I don't know the answer to that.
David Shante, do you know the answer?
I mean, why would we record it if we
wouldn't provide a link to it?
I'm not sure. So
The recording will be available on the authorized
website at a later date.
Boom, right there as Shante.
I was just, just getting ready to say that.
Shante, thank you. You're welcome.
Um, also the podcast we had, uh,
I believe James ask about the podcast.
We did a series of podcasts, maybe eight sessions.
Uh, absolutely, uh, enjoyed doing those,
but those are available as well on the Justice for Vet, uh,
justice for Vet's website.
Um, okay.
Did we get, oh, you know, I, um,
I had a question I didn't quite understand, Arthur,
how can I partner in a welcoming home
and welcome home as an apprenticeship?
Man, I, I don't, I assume we're talking about the National
Guard Welcome Home Program, but I don't really know David
or any, my, any
of my colleagues have any insight to help Arthur.
Arthur with his question. If
I were to base it on kind of how you navigated that
or illuminated that, I think, um, the first would be
to determine, you know, based on where they're located,
if there is a veteran treatment court, right?
And how they can connect with that court to serve
as a resource for those participants to navigate into
that, um, that system.
Um, certainly connecting with the VJO,
just from a standpoint of
where else are they connected, right?
And that's an e Google VA, space, VJO,
and you'll be able to determine by region,
you'll get an email address
and you can, they can help you, um,
potentially navigate a more local right place, um, to make
that connection, uh,
is certainly another option, uh, as well.
Thank you, David. Um,
I should have known Ashley was a former military paralegal
with the brilliant question she asked.
Um, Ashley, thanks.
I hope you commemorate Veterans Day
in a way meaningful to you.
As I said earlier, uh,
and we hope today has been of assistance to you, talk
to Fort Cavazos Mag Court
and they'll tell you all you need, need to know
for your research about how
they went about establishing a veteran's treatment court.
To my knowledge, still the only one
on a military installation.
Um, but commanders were all in,
so it's possible.
Um, let me get Greg's question here.
Minnesota sends service officers to demobilization sites
to welcome them home and start completing
necessary documentation.
Uh, the warm handoff is how I would describe that.
That's, you know, again, someone mentioned earlier,
do we just say, welcome home, turn in your stuff
and have a nice day?
Or do we aid in the transition?
And Minnesota, uh, I mean they, Minnesota is
where Brock is from, right?
Brock, or yeah, Brock.
And the legislation they pursued to assist veterans facing
or participating subject to the,
uh, criminal justice system there.
So good on Minnesota for providing that, that warm handoff
In general. Tate, I think
the o the other note there in that question,
for a lot of other non service officers,
and you know, as Yvette myself, we often forget, right?
There's federal va, every state has their own version,
and generally there is a county veteran service officer.
So it's a state employee at the county level who is there
as a liaison, as a connection to the veteran.
Um, they are not often connected to the vets
that are in the criminal justice system.
And so utilizing them as a resource
for those additional ancillary needs, assistance
with transportation, those types of things
can really help the criminal justice space understand the
local veteran space.
Um, so the county veteran service officer in your local
region, um, and they have a, you know, state affiliation
and then their own associations as well are,
are phenomenal resource.
Thanks David. Um, so to my colleagues
before I offer just a one final,
and I'm not kidding, final thought,
anything else you'd like to say, please?
Okay. With that said, let me,
let me just thank my colleague.
I'm, I'm completely jazzed right now over
the work that each of you offer today,
the insights you offer today,
and what a great week to do it the week,
rolling into the Veteran's Day holiday.
Um, so thanks to my colleagues for their time, their energy,
and their effort, but I, perhaps even more importantly,
I'm gonna thank the 160 people who are still connected
to this session today.
Uh, you are, you are part
of helping us make the right choice
for our justice involve veterans.
We hope that today's presentation has aided your awareness
of this legislation, which I say new,
it's a couple years old,
but you know, in the world of
legislation, that's kind of new.
So I hope we've aided in your awareness.
I want you as you go about implementing this
to realize you're not alone.
There are so many resources, resources
that didn't exist when Judge Russell made
that first step forward in 2008.
The resources are out there now.
We hope you'll take advantage of them as you, uh,
continue your journey to assist our
justice involved veterans.
Thanks to everyone for your time and your commitment.
That's all I've got.
Uh, and we look forward to, uh,
to seeing you again in the future on similar presentations.
Um, oh yeah, question again,
I'm all over the, the administrative stuff.
How do we apply for attendance verification?
Shante $5, if you can answer this,
You'll surely receive if you haven't already,
an evaluation link.
And in that evaluation, there'll be a question for you
to answer to put in those codes
Exactly what Judge Russell and I were gonna say.
But thanks for doing that for Asante.
Okay, everyone, thanks so much.
Uh, take care and thank you again for being a part of this.
I'm, uh, I'm out here. I.