Thank You, Veterans

Veterans with PTSD are about 60% more likely than Veterans without PTSD to have justice-system involvement, according a study released earlier this year. To celebrate Veterans Day this year and to honor all Veterans, we are asking Gov. Roy Cooper to use his clemency power and all other means to decarcerate immediately.

While we wait, browse the following resources for more information about justice-involved Veterans.

The National Institute of Corrections has some good research about Veterans Treatment Courts and Veteran specific housing units. They use the sequential intercept model as the framework: https://info.nicic.gov/jiv/

Below are two recent articles from Military Times about disparities within the military justice system:

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/12/19/armed-forces-to-track-race-ethnicity-and-gender-of-criminal-suspects/

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/06/16/frustrated-advocates-say-racial-biases-within-military-justice-system-remain-despite-repeated-alarms/

For historical context, the Equal Justice Initiative released the report Targeting Black Veterans in 2017: https://eji.org/reports/targeting-black-veterans/

Read this heavy-hitting poem from Korean War Veteran Etheridge Knight, who served 8 years in Indiana State Penitentiary: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51374/at-a-va-hospital-in-the-middle-of-the-united-states-of-america-an-act-in-a-play