Baker’s editorial on vet’s courts: Better for society as a whole

Aug 31st, 2010 by Barbara L. Jones

Maplewood attorney John Baker, chair of the MSBA Military Law Committee, published an editorial in yesterday’s St. Paul Pioneer Press about veteran’s courts, now getting underway in Hennepin County.

The court is intended to help veterans who are in trouble with the law get help for the mental illness, PTSD or addiction that got them there. Baker, a retired Marine, wrote that his first veteran’s court client did not come out of Iraq or Afghanistan, but Vietnam. He has never received any treatment for PTSD and is now facing his second felony DWI.

Baker wrote, “Veterans Court is not a get-out-of-jail card for veterans. It does not give them a pass on criminal offenses. It holds them accountable for their actions at the same time that it gets them help for any psychological trauma they may have. Non-veterans have access to specialty courts in Minnesota. Veterans Court is modeled after those courts but adds in existing services, such as the Veterans Administration.

“There will always be some veterans who are simply criminals and should go to prison. But if they are committing low-level crimes before the serious crimes, and we can divert them to treatment, that’s a better outcome for society as a whole.”

The veteran’s court is an important achievement. Let’s hope it receives the resources it needs to stay effective.