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Monday, July 14, 2008

Stop telling PTSD vets they are suddenly worth less

Judge Robert Russell is a great example of the search for justice and the need to address the unique circumstances of the warriors we send. These men and women were willing to lay down their lives for this country. That alone should be obvious to everyone. If they are not treated with all the facts, including being wounded, that is not justice for them.






What appears to be emerging in this initiative is a move – at least from some quarters – to create a victim mentality toward veterans, to give the impression that they are so psychologically damaged by their experiences while in military service that they are incapable of readjustment to civilian life and are unable to cope with normal society.



Helping the Vets or Smearing the Service?
By Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu
FrontPageMagazine.com Monday, July 14, 2008

When does “compassion” to veterans become an assault on the military they served? When the Left is involved.

A report from the Buffalo, NY, Courier-News highlighted an innovation in our legal system. Buffalo has established a special court to deal exclusively with veterans accused of crimes.

The presiding judge, Judge Robert Russell, takes a paternalistic approach to the defendants. “He will mete out justice with a disarming mix of small talk and life-altering advice,” the report said. Local statistics indicated that over the past year, 300 veterans have appeared in local courts. The judge therefore “tailor-made the treatment court to address not only vets’ crimes but their unique mental health issues.”
go here for more




http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=2E01119B
-458E-4C15-9DE4-AD7053540D8E




Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu must have forgotten that the troops are still just humans and as susceptible to human illnesses of body and mind as much as the rest of us. Using them as some kind of political weapon only serves himself. Right off the bat, he blames the "left" instead of addressing the fact that since the beginning of time, the traumatic events in combat have changed warriors simply because they are human!

What is Cucullu saying? Is he saying that the veterans are all just criminal types who should be afforded no special treatment? Is he saying that they were criminal types to begin with? Then he's slamming the military in a lame attempt to slam the "left" and it's disgraceful. Isn't he aware of the fact the military is made up of Democrats, as well as Republicans and all other political affiliations?

This rant has appeared on too many sites for me to remain silent and not address the fact what the judicial system has begun to do is one of the greatest steps toward honoring the honorable wounded. Some judges in this country have opened their minds to the fact PTSD can, will and does cause some to commit crimes, not as criminals, but as wounded veterans, trying to get from day to day. Some do drugs instead of take medications to cope with everything happening inside of them. We saw this happen to Vietnam veterans when far too many of them landed in jail for self-medicating. This did not happen before Vietnam because drugs were not illegal before this time.

Next, the need to address the events caused by flashbacks must be faced with knowledge. To say that someone had intent to do something, when they had no clue who their target was at the moment is not justice. In a flashback, they are not here, but facing the enemy all over again. While we may see a civilian, they see a member of the enemy forces who were trying to kill them. Too many have been charged with assault when they had no clue what they were doing or who they were doing it to.

Cucullu apparently has no idea how PTSD envelops every aspect of a life, no matter if it was caused by combat, law enforcement work, crimes or even natural disasters. These type of court programs will go a long way in treating wounded people with justice, the need to protect the citizens measured with compassion. Otherwise, we dishonor the men and women who serve in combat and come home wounded by telling them they are suddenly worth less than when they were doing it.

They are trained to use weapons to kill. That's their job. What they have inside of them, giving them the desire to serve and the willingness to risk their lives, was something they were born with. It is something that is still inside of them when they no longer have to risk their lives going up against the "enemy" they are sent to fight. When they come home with the enemy inside of them, the person they were before is still there, but trapped behind the events of combat. Some can adjust easier than others. Some need help to do it. Some many never be able to heal enough. We have to stop treating wounded veterans like criminals and provide them with the honor they deserve. This rant by a Lieutenant Colonel trying to attack the people fighting for the honor the wounded deserve, has managed to prove he hasn't the slightest clue what PTSD is or what it does to the men and women serving this country. Do all PTSD wounded commit crimes? No, far too many of them commit suicide instead. I bet he's also of the mind-set they don't deserve a military funeral when they do.


Are there exceptions? Absolutely. Take the case of Lance Cpl. Briones.



Lance Cpl. Briones' criminal history in Kings County began long before he experienced the stress of a combat zone, and that criminal history is directly connected to his ending up in Iraq.

"He wasn't a person who I would classify as a real upstanding citizen, before or during the military," said Kings County Deputy District Attorney Adam Nelson.

Briones was arrested on felony drug charges on July 20, 2003, after Hanford police received complaints about intoxicated people at a convenience store. Officers found seven baggies in Briones' pockets that they reported contained marijuana and money, an indication he had been selling drugs, according to Nelson.

Briones was "very intoxicated," the police report says, and he "was out of control at the jail and had to be restrained several times to keep him from hurting himself or others."

Later, Nelson said, "his attorney contacted our office and said the guy wants to go into the military. At the time, we said that would probably be the best thing for him."

The office agreed to drop charges if Briones enlisted, but Nelson now believes that agreement was a mistake.

Shortly before he deployed to Iraq in 2005, Briones was charged with drunken driving in Orange County, not far from the Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years' informal probation.


It is yet one more case in support that justice has to take all things into consideration.


"The trauma of war is unfortunate, but justice for crime victims and the safety of the public must remain a paramount concern of the criminal justice system," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote in his veto message.

The version signed by Schwarzenegger in September 2006 empowers California judges to bypass sentencing guidelines and choose between treatment or jail for veterans convicted of any crime.
go here for more of this

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1080273.html


The need for more recruits has caused the military to waive standards. The true patriots, those willing to serve, are now mixed with those who are forced to serve or go to jail because of the crimes they committed in their civilian lives. Again, justice depends on looking at the whole history of the person. If they have never been in any trouble with the law before deployment into a combat zone, then that needs to be taken into account or it is not justice.

PTSD is not a one size fits all wound. It strikes a wide range of humans. The judges deciding the proper response to charges need to decide with all the evidence and all the facts. While there are some who served to avoid justice, in too many cases, justice avoids taking into consideration the wound when it is the only reason behind the act itself.


This is not a new idea. The need to treat people with special needs has been around for a long time. This is from 1999.

Court for mentally ill offenders advocated


Judicial officials at seminar told treatment is lacking


BY RANDY McNUTT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — Creating special mental health courts will help local governments better handle a growing number of disturbed people in the criminal justice system.

That was the point made by speakers at the Southwest Ohio Regional Forum on Mental Health Courts and the Mentally Ill Offender, held Tuesday at Miami University Hamilton.

About 250 people attended, including mental health workers and police officials.

“The response to this kind of program is an indication that I'm not the only one who has heard the cry: "Somebody help me,'” said Randy T. Rogers, presiding judge of Butler County's probate and drug courts.

Butler County is preparing its own mental health court, which officials hope eventually will become an outgrowth of the drug court. About $370,000 in operating money has been pledged by the state, and more is expected from other sources.

U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, supports proposed legislation that would make grants available to counties that want to create mental health diversion courts. They would redirect nonviolent, mentally ill, petty offenders out of jail and into treatment.

Seminar speakers said that option is needed nationally because 13 percent of the 10 million people arrested each year suffer from severe mental disabilities. About 685,000 people are detained in jail with serious mental illnesses — eight times the number admitted to state hospi tals, said John R. Staup, executive director of the Butler County Mental Health Board.

“There's something wrong with this picture,” he said.

Though Butler County's criminal justice system treats the mentally ill better than do many other communities, he said, improvement is necessary.

“We've known how to do this (deal more effectively with the mentally ill) for years,” he said. “We just haven't found the wherewithal to do it.”

Several years ago, officials in Broward County, Fla., established a special mental health court.

Judge Mark A. Speiser, one of Tuesday's speakers, said many times the mentally ill were picked up by police and taken to jail for minor offenses. He said education has helped police and others in the system become more sensitive.

“My frustration was: Who to call? How to deal with these people?” he said. “I did not want them to become a part of merry-go-round justice. As a former federal and state prosecutor, I used to be under the impression that you lock up everybody and throw away the key. But gradually, I changed. I realized that it's easy to be tough, but tough to be fair.”

go here for more

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/1999/11/10/loc_court_for_mentally.html


I had the pleasure of hearing Judge Speiser at the NAMI convention here in Florida. Whenever we talk about the need to take into consideration the mental state of the accused, we need to look honestly at the whole person.

These people are not given a "get out of jail free card" as some want to assume they are. They have court ordered treatment they must attend and if they do not, they do risk jail time. No one can force someone to get well and citizens need to be protected when they opt out. Yet when they do want to get better and are willing to do all they can to do it, they deserve all the support they can get.

So why should we treat veterans differently than others who are suffering? The veterans deserve to be treated fairly and honestly. This all grew out of the fact our jails are overcrowded because too many do not belong there. They should have been in treatment programs instead. Sending them to jail instead of treatment will only release them back into the public after they have done their time in the same mental state they were in before, yet again jeopardizing society needlessly. Sending them into treatment programs instead gives them the chance to recover from the illness and stop the revolving door of prison life. In the case of PTSD veterans, we owe them at least the same opportunity.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

Namguardianangel@aol.com

http://www.namguardianangel.org/

http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

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