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From Sacramento News & Review, by Anne Stokes

SACRAMENTO, CA | October 26, 2023 — While post-traumatic stress disorder affects millions of people, veterans suffer at higher rates than civilians, three times more for those who were deployed. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 11-20% of veterans who served in operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom have PTSD in a given year. Approximately 12% of Gulf War veterans and an estimated 30% of Vietnam Veterans struggle with PTSD. Symptoms include persistent flashbacks or nightmares, difficulty with emotional regulation, particularly anger management, and reckless or self-destructive behavior. Through California’s Veterans’ Treatment Court, veterans facing criminal charges may be eligible for treatment rather than punishment.

“The most common [struggle] for vets is PTSD [and] TBIs, which are traumatic brain injuries, just from service. That can turn into addictions, can turn into anger issues, and those can turn into other criminal activities if it goes far enough,” says Kevin Cadena, senior deputy probation officer with Sacramento County.

“Approximately 90% of the veterans in Veterans’ Treatment Court are combat veterans from mainly the First Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Many have experienced gruesome events.”

The goal of Veterans’ Treatment Court is to address the underlying issues at hand in the hopes of getting those who have served their country back on their feet.

By Karen Pank, Executive Director, Chief Probation Officers of California.

Every day, new reports of crime shake communities across California. Recent high-profile violent crime incidents have intensified concerns about public safety and the policies guiding safety decisions in our state. But it’s not just the high-profile cases that have California residents shaken, it’s the too-close-to-home incidents we all see on the streets of the communities in which we live every day.

It’s natural to wonder who or what is to blame and ask why this surge in crime is happening and what went wrong within our communities and public safety systems. The reality is that the situation is both straightforward and complex.

As on-the-ground experts in community safety and rehabilitation, Probation officers have seen firsthand how the state’s efforts to dictate how to address policy issues that impact public safety are attacking the problem from the wrong point of view. While well-intentioned, the state’s top-down approach, which has not fully taken into account the expertise and input of the professionals who do this work every day at the local level – is failing.