Army vet struggles with PTSD behind bars

Yesterday I had several conversations with people working with incarcerated veterans. Some of them do not belong behind bars because clearly they were reacting to what PTSD was doing to them. There are some that we just automatically pass off because of what they "did" and not being "good guys" that got into trouble.

There are so many things we just don't talk about normally and reporters all too often don't understand enough to know what questions to ask.

One of the things is PTSD can leave some feeling as if they have become evil but instead of attempting suicide, they believe it so deeply that they act as if they have in fact become evil. There are many veterans with no history of doing anything to hurt someone then suddenly commit serious crimes. They just don't know how to see themselves behind what they have become. If they don't understand how combat changes them, then how can they ever find peace even within the walls of a cell?

For those who do God's work for these forgotten souls, I admire you. It takes a special person to do what you do!

Army vet struggles with PTSD behind bars
Apr. 13, 2013
By Rebecca S. Green
The Journal Gazette via AP

DECATUR, Ind. — The tattoo on the inside of Justin York's left arm is hard to discern. Glancing at it one way, you can see the word "Life." If you look at it another way, it reads "Death."

If you look at it without knowing how to read it, it looks like an ornate, inky blue blur.

Life and death blurred together for the 25-year-old U.S. Army veteran to such a degree that he left his beloved Army with an extreme rating for post-traumatic stress disorder, making him unable to continue wearing the uniform.

Now he finds himself trapped inside an Adams County Jail cell, in an unwanted uniform of a different color.

Arrested in late December on a felony charge of resisting law enforcement with a weapon, York is desperate to get out, to get the charge reduced to the misdemeanor he feels is more appropriate and to get back to treatment for his PTSD.
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