Fort Benning looking at Veterans Courts

In Military Courts, Considering Alternative Punishment for Troubled Service Members
By JAMES DAO
May 7, 2012

By treating the underlying condition that led to the charged offense, Major Seamone writes, “The military can meaningfully reduce recidivism and restore veterans to a status where they can contribute to society, even if they are unable to continue their military service.”

Since the first one opened in Buffalo in 2008, veterans treatment courts have spread to more than 80 locations across the country. The special courts give civilian judges discretion to consider a veteran’s service-related drug or mental problems in sentencing, and have been praised by many experts as helping to ensure troubled veterans get needed treatment.

Now a senior military prosecutor at Fort Benning, Ga., is arguing that the same concept be applied to the military’s judicial system so that judges can sentence service members to treatment programs rather than automatically issuing punitive discharges that put them on the street without benefits.

In a deeply researched, 200-page article published in a recent edition of The Military Law Review, Maj. Evan R. Seamone argues that military courts may be aggravating the problems of service members by discharging them without first treating them for conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder. (The article can be found in Volume 208, the summer 2011 issue, which was actually released earlier this year.)

And when those troubled service members become troubled veterans — who, because of their punitive discharges may be denied certain veterans benefits — they are likely to create problems in civilian society, he contends.
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