Trading military uniforms for prison attire

From combat to lockdown: Vets in trouble
Trading military uniforms for prison attire
By Matthew D. LaPlante

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 04/24/2010 01:24:39 PM MDT


Click photo to enlarge«1234»Ray Lara, an Army veteran from the first Gulf War, attends a veteran support group that meets once a week at the Utah State Prison in Gunnison. (Al Hartmann / The Salt Lake Tribune)Related
Vets behind bars
Apr 24:
Sex offenses common among troubled vetsJohn Pace stumbled to his car, slipped Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" into the compact disc player and turned the key.

From half a century away, one Air Force veteran crooned to another:

When I was just a baby, my mama told me, 'Son,

Always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns.'

Five years as a military police officer, including a stint in South Korea, a tour of duty in Afghanistan and multiple deployments in Iraq, had all come to this: a drunken 23-year-old combat vet behind the wheel, determined to find another bottle to empty onto his pain.

Pace pulled into the dark parking lot of a TGI Friday's restaurant in Riverdale, broke a window and crawled inside. He took one bottle, then

another. Then he decided to empty out the entire bar.

More than 2 million American military members have served in the nation's ongoing conflicts, and many are returning home deeply troubled by their experiences. About a third suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury, depression or other mental illness. At least a fifth struggle with drug or alcohol dependency.

Mental illness and substance abuse are the greatest predictive factors for incarceration in America. And that has put thousands of veterans on a collision course with the nation's criminal justice system.

But no one has a handle on the extent of the problem because most police agencies, prosecutors and prisons aren't tracking who, among the accused and the convicted, has served in the military.
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Trading military uniforms for prison attire