Justice-involved Veterans
Over two million people are incarcerated in the United States, 2.3 million to be exact. I love this visual from the Prison Policy Initiative which displays all the facets of incarceration. Depending on the research, we don’t always consider the entire system resulting in under estimates of how many people are actually incarcerated. On top of the 2.3 million people incarcerated, another 1/53 adults are on probation and parole. As we consider, develop, and implement interventions to reduce the number of people who are incarcerated and under community supervision, it is important to consider the many subpopulations of people who require different resources, different services, and different kinds of rehabilitation and who are also impacted by different kinds of policy.
I’m focusing on one subpopulation today: military veterans. Roughly 8% of the national prison population identify as military veterans. This is likely an underestimate because people may conceal their military background in these studies relying on self-report. Among veterans who have been arrested, there are high prevalence rates of mental health problems, substance use difficulties, and trauma exposure. In fact, the needs among veterans in the criminal justice system are so complex that targeted interventions for veterans have emerged across the criminal justice system including veterans treatment courts, specialized wings in prisons for veterans, and reentry programs for veterans exiting jail and prison. Veterans face elevated risks of homelessness and poverty, problems made worse by those who have criminal convictions. Evidence shows that many veterans face elevated risk of mental illness and substance use, leading to difficulty adjusting post-deployment and elevated risk of arrest.
Mental health and substance use problems are not just issues veterans in the criminal justice system face. However, we don’t have a clear understanding if justice-involved veterans have unique experiences that contribute to their criminal justice involvement. In order to explore veterans’ experiences, my research team conducted a series of research projects to better understand, from veterans’ perspectives, what led to their arrests. We found that substance use is a significant contributor to arrests for veterans which was not a surprise. Substances, however, were used to cope with trauma, interpersonal stress, and veterans’ transition from military service to civilian life. Some veterans said their substance use was problematic prior to military service, while others found the military culture and conditions post-service contributed to problematic use. Veterans also entered the criminal justice system due to difficulties adjusting to civilian life and economic disadvantage. You can read the full report here.
There are many ways to research a problem area. Researching justice-involved veterans’ experiences through the eyes of veterans was missing. As a social worker, I want to understand what people experience without imposing my own view onto them. We worked closely with the research participants to make sure we understood them which included meeting on several occasions to process and analyze the data together. In the spirit of hearing veterans’ voices, I want to share one profound quote from a research participant: “…any military really does a good job of teaching you how to survive. They teach you how to weather the storm, but they don’t teach you how to dance in the rain. And by that, I mean they teach you to be a survivor, and so we vets — we survive. We can be drunks for a long, long time. We can still be semi-productive. We still have — we can still pull it together. We’re just not functioning right. And our way of dealing with things is ignore it, put it out of your mind, do what you’ve gotta do to get through that day. Survive at all costs.”
This quote, in particular, highlights the ongoing intervention that is required to help military veterans. It may not be enough to let them know about resources when they exit the military. We may need to reach out time and time again. Social workers are often unaware of the many ways they can help veterans, so training centered around veterans’ issues is important. Veteran Justice Outreach workers are examples of the engaged and supportive roles social workers can play for veterans and their families who are arrested. More efforts are needed to keep our military veterans out of the criminal justice system altogether. In order to improve prevention efforts, veterans, providers, the VA, and researchers need to come together to form innovative approaches to help people before they are ever arrested.
Reducing the population of people in prison and on community supervision will never happen if we are only focusing on micro or individual-level interventions. A multitude of interventions at the policy, program, and individual-level are necessary. Most military veterans are not going to end up in the criminal justice system, but for those people who are at risk, we need more innovative approaches to prevent arrest and recidivism. Read more about existing programming for justice-involved veterans here.
