Bloomberg news reports 1.2 million veterans arrested every year?

Bloomberg news reports 1.2 million veterans arrested every year?
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
November 3, 2012

After seeing this article show up every where including Stars and Stripes and San Francisco Chronicle, I wanted to look into it. Something just didn't make sense. It was the 1.2 million veterans arrested every year. Considering I track all these reports, I think that fact would have been repeated all over the country, but this was the first time I have seen it and so far I've only seen figures from individual states. Nothing came close to this figure. Considering I am only human and a one woman show here, I decided to try to track down the original report to find the data.

The only times I saw this figure mentioned were links back to this story and one done in 2009, 1,200,000 Veterans Arrested- DOJ Study Discussion in 'Medical Club' started by monkeybone, Jul 29, 2010. without providing links to the original report.

I find it very interesting that a figure like this is not available for study. What are the demographics? What are the charges and were they convicted? What are the details?

I did discover an interesting article asking these questions here.

Is Data Doing Justice to our Veterans? Justice Policy Institute, Guy Gambill August 16, 2011

Veterans Courts were established in 2008. Reuters reported in 2011 that there were Veterans Courts in 20 states addressing all generations of veterans facing charges of all different types. Had there actually been 1.2 million veterans arrested every year, that would have been too important of a figure to not mention in this report.

War Heroes Gone Bad Divided by Courts Favoring Prison or Healing
Bloomberg News
By Elliot Blair Smith
Nov 2, 2012

Heroes when they came home in 2009, Mike Jones and James Sosh dealt with difficult returns to civilian life through bleak hazes of drugs and alcohol.

Both were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Within a year of hanging up their uniforms, each faced felony charges, Jones accused of threatening to kill a friend, Sosh of selling prescription painkillers to feed his pill habit. Jones went into therapy and is engaged to be married. Sosh is in prison, getting divorced.

When troubled soldiers are discharged, they become civilian society’s burden. About 1.2 million veterans are arrested every year, the Justice Department estimates. Many wrestle with substance abuse and mental illness, conditions associated with elevated risks of arrest. Some leave the service addicted; drug and alcohol use in the military is so excessive a Pentagon- commissioned report deemed it a “public health crisis.

This story leaves a lot of questions that need to be answered but you have to admit, that figure does grab attention. Too bad it makes half the OEF and OIF veterans look like criminals. About 2 and a half million served already so many people will read this article and think half of them ended up facing a judge. I think the title of "War Heroes Gone Bad" is bad enough.