Texas Veterans Courts – Why Bell County Needs One

Bell County is home to Fort Hood, the largest active duty armored post in the United States Armed Services.  As a result, Bell County has a lot of residents who are veterans.  The Texas Legislature has provided Bell County with a great opportunity to help many of our resident veterans, but Bell County has yet to do anything about it.

During the last session of the Texas Legislature, a bill was passed to allow the creation of special “veterans court programs” in this state.  The governor signed the bill into law on June 19, 2009, and it became effective September 1, 2009.  What that means is that we could have already started this program.

The veterans court program was a small part of a larger law which was designed to address the special needs of the approximately 1.7 million veterans who reside in Texas.  Specifically, the law created the “Fund for Veterans’ Assistance.”  The fund awards grants “to enhance or improve veterans’ assistance programs, including veterans’ representation and counseling, and to make grants to local communities to address veterans’ needs.”  One of the most important improvements, though, was the establishment of special pretrial veterans court programs.

Here’s how the program works:  The first step is for the county commissioners court to authorize the court.  Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 617 authorizes the commissioners court of a county to establish a veterans court program for persons arrested for or charged with any misdemeanor or felony offense.  There are no limits—it could be as simple as a drug or alcohol-related crime, or even domestic violence cases.

However, there are some limits.  A veteran is only eligible to participate in the veterans court program if: 1) the prosecutor agrees to the defendant’s participation in the program and 2) if the court in which the criminal case is pending finds that the defendant is a veteran or current member of the United States armed forces, including a member of the reserves, national guard, or state guard; and that the veteran suffers from a brain injury, mental illness, or mental disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder, that resulted from the defendant’s military service in a combat zone or other similar hazardous duty area and materially affected the defendant’s criminal conduct at issue in the case.  Finally, the veteran ultimately retains the right to choose whether to proceed through the veterans court program or to just go through the regular criminal justice system.

Once the veteran qualifies and agrees to participate, the veteran participates in a special pretrial program.  The prosecutor and the criminal defense attorney are supposed to work together in a “non-adversarial” fashion to create an “individualized treatment plan” for the veteran. 

The individualized treatment plan lasts from a minimum of six months up to the maximum length of probation for whatever offense was charged.  The veteran can choose to withdraw from the program at any time, but then the veteran loses the benefits which would have been gained by successfully completing the pretrial intervention program. 

What are those benefits?  Well, the most important one is that any charges against the veteran would be dismissed.  That’s pretty big.  Also, the veteran is then entitled to go back and have the offense expunged from his criminal history!  That’s a huge one.

The law states that the cost to the veteran for participating in the program can be no more than $1,000; plus the cost of testing, counseling, and treatment fees in whatever amount is necessary to cover the costs of any such testing, counseling, or treatment provided under the program.

It’s also important to note that the veterans court is required by law to take steps to ensure “maximum participation of eligible defendants.”  Not only are our Bell County courts not ensuring maximum participation, they are not even ensuring any participation.  The courts can only ensure participation, though, after the county commissioners court authorizes the program.  Something our county commissioners court has yet to do!

Tarrant County is already going to be the first county to implement this type of program.  That distinction should have been ours.  If we are going to make this county a “great place” for our veterans, we need to implement this program as soon as possible.

1 Comment

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  By barina@wordpress, December 21, 2009 @ 9:22 pm

  Great Post

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