From the Chair

This experience, combined with an abiding belief that our nation can and must do better by those who serve it, drove me to join and chair the Council on Criminal Justice Veterans Justice Commission. Our charge is to examine why so many veterans land in prison or jail and recommend policy changes to interrupt that cycle and enhance public safety. In pursuit of those goals, we are looking at all facets of veterans’ journey to and through the criminal justice system, including their transition out of the military, their first contact with law enforcement, their case processing, their incarceration, and their reentry into the community. I am joined in this work by a stellar group of commissioners with broad experience and expertise in the military, the criminal justice field, veterans’ affairs, and the public health sector. While we do not see eye to eye on the intricacies of every policy or practice, we are united by a commitment to honor those who have served our country by advancing bold, actionable proposals to reduce veteran involvement in the justice system. Our first report focuses on the front end of the system, from initial detention to sentencing, and includes three recommendations. We propose a more expansive definition for veterans within the criminal justice system; recommend that the federal government and states adopt statutory frameworks that incentivize and improve veterans’ diversion, deferred adjudication, participation in treatment courts, sentencing mitigation, and record clearance; and call for the establishment of a National Center on Veterans Justice to improve outcomes for former service members. Our second set of recommendations target the challenges service members face during transition and the lack of support they receive from the nation they volunteered to serve. Among other proposals, we urge the Department of Defense to make successful transition a core priority mission, both for the well-being of individual veterans and their families and to improve retention and recruitment to ensure the reliable defense of our national security. We also call on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to expand benefits eligibility in alignment with the GI Bill of 1944 and mandate automated enrollment in VA health care for all eligible discharging service members. Another key part of our work has been the development of a policy framework that expands opportunities for veterans to access community supervision instead of prison and identifies evidence-based practices that can help those eligible address challenges underlying their criminal behavior. We are grateful to see multiple states considering legislation based on this framework, which was adopted as model policy by the American Legislative Exchange Council. The next Commission report will tackle problems veterans face at the back end of the justice system, all toward the goal of improving public safety and support for the men and women who have given so much.