Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Welcome Home is a Willing Warriors and the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run project. The program highlights activities at the Warrior Retreat and issues impacting all Veterans. For questions or feedback, please email us at podcast@willingwarriors.org.
Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Navigating Justice: Donna Harrison on Supporting Veterans in the Criminal Justice System
What unique challenges do justice-involved veterans face when navigating the criminal justice system? Join us for an enlightening discussion with Donna Harrison, the Director of Housing and Criminal Justice for the Virginia Department of Veteran Services, as she unpacks the complex journey that veterans experience from pretrial to post-conviction and incarceration. Donna shares her insights on the pivotal role veteran treatment courts play and the significant outreach efforts being made to identify and support veterans entangled in the legal system.
We also explore the pressing need to expand veteran treatment court dockets, especially in smaller counties where such resources are limited. The episode delves into the importance of educating judicial personnel on veteran identification and discusses potential legislative solutions to enhance this process. Discover how early intervention and the dedication of veteran justice specialists are crucial in providing comprehensive support to veterans, particularly those grappling with substance abuse or mental health issues due to their service.
The discussion shifts to the critical resources available for incarcerated veterans, with a strong focus on housing and connecting them to VA benefits. Donna highlights the unique barriers justice-involved veterans face in securing housing and the ongoing efforts to provide trauma-informed care. Special attention is given to the distinct needs of female veterans and the importance of collaborative support systems. As we conclude, we express our heartfelt gratitude to Donna for her invaluable insights and remind our listeners of the significant impact they can have by advocating for justice-involved veterans. Tune in to learn how you can make a difference. For more information, call 804-801-2520 or send an email to justice.vvfs@dvs.virginia.gov. You can download their brochure as a PDF here.
Good morning. I'm Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services here at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, and this week joining us is Donna Harrison. She's with the Virginia Department of Veteran Services, the Virginia Veteran and Family Support Division. She's the Director of Housing and Criminal Justice for that agency and I've asked her to join us because for quite some time I've been wanting to have a episode about incarcerated and justice-involved veterans and some of the issues that surround veterans who have trouble and that trouble leads them into the court system. Trouble and that trouble leads them into the court system. Unfortunately for many it leads them into jail and I don't think they get as much help as they need while they're incarcerated. But I'm really happy that the Department of Veterans Services sees it as a real issue and I'm glad Donna was able to join us. So, donna, thanks for coming on the podcast.
Donna Harrison:Good morning, thanks for having me, it's great to be us. So, donna, thanks for coming on the podcast. Good morning, thanks for having me. It's great to be here, great to talk about this subject.
Larry Zilliox:So I think we could start, so the listeners have an understanding, sort of a baseline, of if you could define what our Department of Veteran Services describes as a justice involved veteran, what that definition is.
Donna Harrison:Yeah, so normally the justice-involved veteran definition that we use and a lot of criminal justice partners use when we're talking about justice-involved veterans is really a US military veteran that's detained by or under the supervision of criminal justice systems. So that could be a veteran in contact with local law enforcement, a veteran diverted from arrest into mental health or substance use treatment, a veteran diverted from jail or prison into mental health or substance use treatment, or a veteran in a local jail, either on pretrial or serving a sentence, or a veteran in prison serving a sentence, or just a veteran that's having some type of monitoring by the court. So whether that's on probation or parole supervision, so it really it's a veteran who's just in different phases of the criminal justice system is how we as a program define Justice of All Veterans and how other programs do normally as well.
Larry Zilliox:And delivering services to veterans through your agency there? How many veterans do you interact with, say, on an annual basis? What percentage or what's the number of veterans that require this type of service?
Donna Harrison:So as a program. So Virginia Veteran and Family Support serves about 400 or so veterans a week. So, and those could be new or existing clients and our program serves about 10% of that whole population. So of Virginia Veteran and Family Support, so we serve a small subset and I will say that's partly because we just don't see veterans coming to us as easily from the criminal justice system and it's partly because the criminal justice system does not always do the greatest job of identifying veterans in their system, and so that's a whole other issue when we talk about data. But we're serving a small subset. We're actually seeing increases in our numbers of just small veterans and that's partly because we're doing a lot of outreach to our partners to try to let them know who we are and how we serve our justice of all veterans so they can connect with us, to connect them to resources in the community.
Larry Zilliox:Is that mainly getting the word out to police departments, sheriff's departments, probation offices, courts that they need to ask that question on intake or during their involvement with a potential veteran?
Donna Harrison:Yes, so we serve a variety of criminal justice partners. So, whether it's law enforcement or sheriff's offices, local jails, our state prisons, our local and state probation and parole officers, our veteran justice specialists and these are the folks that actually serve justice of all veterans, in our program we have five of them, only five, throughout the state. They work with veterans that are in veteran treatment courts. They work with veterans that are incarcerated in jail or prison, usually when they're just about to get released, and they work with veterans that are on supervision. So we partner and try to work with all of those entities. But we also work with community partners. You have veterans that come to our local community services boards, our local mental health boards. We also have veterans that just go to some of our homeless and housing service providers that may be justice involved. So we try to do outreach to as many community partners they're not always veteran-specific partners as we can so that we can get the word out about the services that we provide for justice-involved veterans.
Larry Zilliox:Looking at a kind of standard flow of things in the court system with contact with law enforcement and that kind of thing. Court system with contact with law enforcement and that kind of thing. Looking at kind of three processes usually you have a pretrial, then post-conviction and then incarceration. So if we go through those three pretrial services.
Donna Harrison:What services does the agency offer there? So normally if we see someone in pretrial, if they are being diverted to a veteran treatment court and we only have nine of those in Virginia if they're diverted to a veteran treatment court, our veteran justice specialists will know about those cases because they sit on those veteran treat court docket teams in Virginia. And so pretrial is a little bit different. Folks that are veterans, that are in that phase in the system, are a little harder to serve because sometimes one, they're not identified so we don't always know about them. And then two, sometimes it depends on what happens in pretrial they may go through that process and may need to go through a preliminary hearing and next thing you know, they might be incarcerated for a period of time or they could go out into the community. So we really sometimes have to try to identify them and try to reach out to them where they are, and that's a little more difficult at that phase. But if they're going through a veteran treatment court docket, we know about them because we are those veteran justice specialists, are sitting at the table, but as they, if they get convicted they're incarcerated in jail or prison, then we have a way to know about those veterans as well, because our partners have a way to refer to our program. We have a referral process in place that we use to connect with those partners who have sent that referral and then we do an assessment, we meet with those veterans and then, of course, if they go out in the community even if they're out in the community and somehow we've missed them our partners in the community have a way to refer to us as well if someone was previously justice involved or is on supervision. So we try to connect with them wherever they are.
Donna Harrison:It is difficult if our partners aren't identified, but wherever they are in the system we can connect them to resources. Even as early, even before pretrial, the goal is to identify them and then try to get them connected as quickly as possible. I will say our biggest gap is data. You know, a lot of times we don't know about them, but we're really trying to encourage our partners to not only ask the question, have you ever served in the US military? But also use a system that the VA has where they can identify veterans. So that's something we're trying to put out there. But, yeah, we do try to connect with them wherever they are in the system.
Larry Zilliox:If an individual was arrested for some sort of offense and the family believes that the root of the issue is either substance abuse or a TBI or post-traumatic stress, something like that, Is there a way for them to reach out, the family, to reach out to your agency and say my brother, my son, my cousin, he's in jail right now awaiting trial on this offense, but we think he would benefit from the Veterans Treatment Docket and that your agency would advocate on their behalf, or how would it work?
Donna Harrison:So it looks a little different in different jurisdictions, but our agency, our main role, is to sit on those Veteran Treatment Court docket teams and, once they've been screened for a Veteran Treatment Court, we help connect them to resources. If someone is in a jail, though, depending on where they are, those veteran treatment court docket teams have a way to identify those veterans and get them connected if they are eligible. So there is an eligibility process that veterans have to go through in order to qualify for a veteran treatment court docket. Of course, it has to exist in the community as well, and so we do not necessarily have a lot to do with that process, but once that veteran is connected to a docket, we do have a way or a say in providing those resource connections with the team, providing those resource connections with the team. So we normally and usually I get those calls because I screen a lot of the referrals that come through families that have individuals that are incarcerated in the jail Usually I let the families know where those veteran treat dockets are, who our veteran justice specialists are and what they do.
Donna Harrison:Even if that veteran is not able to connect to a veteran treatment court docket, I try to let them know about the services we provide, particularly if someone is in jail or getting ready to be released from jail or if they're in that beginning phase. Sometimes we connect with our VA partners as well. So we use a lot of our collaborative partnerships to connect our veterans to services. So we work directly with the VA, who also has a justice team, and we connect with them if they want to be screened for substance use programs through the VA or some type of inpatient residential program. So our partnerships really help us make this work, and so I think that's partly what we do when we talk to families and then we try to let them know that we're here throughout that process. Even if someone becomes incarcerated, we try to remind them that, hey, they can reach out to us even when that person gets maybe near the end of release, if they're convicted police, if they're convicted.
Larry Zilliox:Unfortunately, there's not many veteran treatment courts. There are quite a few here in Northern Virginia. I know Fairfax, loudoun, prince William, all have them. I think some of the larger courts down South, like Norfolk, have them, but is there a reluctance on some of the smaller counties to have them? Do they cost more or what do you think is the reason why every circuit court or every jurisdiction doesn't have a veteran treatment court?
Donna Harrison:Going back to my earlier statement, is data. A lot of times when I talk to judges, I talk to attorneys. A lot of times they don't know they're there, they don't know where their veterans are and even in our local jails Although some do identify, they do not have mechanisms in place to identify veterans throughout the system and so a lot of times they don't know they have them, so they don't think to start veteran treatment court dockets because they don't know they have veterans in their system. So this is when we really try to educate judges, attorneys and other folks in the jurisdiction about identifying veterans and using a system that they could use through the VA. It's free, it's web-based and or making sure they're asking the question throughout the process through booking pre-trial, you know, whenever they see this person to ask the question.
Donna Harrison:So I think once we see veteran identification pick up, we will start to see more veteran treatment court dockets. Of course there's always. When you first start a veteran treatment court docket, it's not necessarily a cost. But later to sustain those dockets, if you want to get a docket coordinator or other tools that you might use to keep your veterans engaged in the program, sometimes those might cost, but for the most part, there's no cost up front. I think the hesitation a lot of times we see is that they don't know they have veterans. It's a big need, not just in Virginia, we see this nationally when it comes to identifying veterans in the system.
Larry Zilliox:I kind of wonder if it wouldn't be an idea to find a legislator who would be willing to put up a bill that would make it mandatory for all agencies involved in the judicial process in the state of Virginia, mandatory that they ask this question and that they identify whether or not somebody is a veteran. I mean, I think that's got to be the simplest and most direct way to deal with this issue. I mean, you know, I mean you can go out into the community and you can talk to judges and sheriffs and all of them and you know, in the next month there's a new guy there. Yeah, you know. So that's only going to work so much. I mean, if it's mandatory by law that these questions have to be asked by everybody and it becomes part of the process, I think that's really going to go a long way to solving that problem and certainly recognize where the issues are.
Larry Zilliox:I mean it may turn out that there are smaller counties and places where it wouldn't be cost effective to have it, but I just think it's missing and anything we can do to help stop repeat offenders, especially if the reason that the veteran is involved in the justice system is because of their conditions, either substance abuse or mental health issues that result from their service. We owe it to them to get them all the help we can Now. When we then move to an incarcerated veteran, I believe you mentioned that you begin to be more involved with them prior to their release. After their sentence, is that where most of the action is?
Donna Harrison:Yes, that's correct. A lot of times when we get those referrals, usually they are in actually the Virginia Department of Corrections system. So that's our state system right. And so Virginia Department of Corrections identifies veterans in multiple ways through asking the question, they use that VA system, then they also verify, usually with the DD-214 or other methods, and so we get a decent amount of referrals from Department of Corrections. So we have a streamlined referral process for all of our partners, but Department of Corrections probably uses it the most.
Donna Harrison:And we're also seeing a pickup in referrals due to the governor's transformation office.
Donna Harrison:We're seeing a pickup in referrals from probation and parole parole. So DOC has been very targeted about making sure they identify their veterans and then send those referrals for folks that are even on probation or parole supervision that we may have missed while they're incarcerated or, for whatever reason, did not send the referral at the time. So we're really seeing most of our referrals come from that population and normally our veteran justice specialists start working with them about 120 days, sometimes much, much farther out before release, and sometimes it just takes that long for us to connect with the veteran or at least connect them to services, and so we are, you know we're really excited that we're seeing the pickup and referrals, and we've seen some from our jails as well. There are certain jails where there's more veterans or they're seeing the pickup and referrals, and we've seen some from our jails as well. There are certain jails where there's more veterans or they're using the system and so they're identifying them easier and sending those referrals too. So that's where the bulk of our referrals are from.
Larry Zilliox:And what would you say is the number one service that veteran justice specialists are providing to incarcerated veterans?
Donna Harrison:Housing, if I can say that louder Housing, housing, housing, housing is the number one need. It's actually it's the number one need for the justice-involved population in general, but it's also the number one need for justice-involved veterans, and it's mainly because of their criminal history. It's very difficult for justice-involved individuals to connect to housing. There's not only a lack of housing stock and a lack of affordable housing in general for everyone, but there's also that additional barrier that veterans have in the criminal justice system related to their criminal history. It's our highest need. It's our even across our Virginia Veteran and Family Support Program. It's the highest need. But definitely housing is the number one need and I would say next is probably benefit A lot of our just as well. Veterans have never connected to VA benefits or they didn't know they qualified. So that's usually our second request and then, along with treatment, From a benefit standpoint.
Larry Zilliox:You're connecting them to VA so that they would get a disability rating, maybe get a check each month. Is that the kind of thing you're talking about?
Donna Harrison:Yes, yes, usually we're connecting them to our benefits team. So, along with our Virginia veteran family support service line, we have our benefits service line and we work closely with that service line we're even co-located and with some of our benefits partners and so we work with our benefits team and sending those referrals for veterans that want to connect to their to their VA benefits, even while they're incarcerated, to their disability benefits.
Larry Zilliox:What's the best way for either a veteran or a family to reach out to you? I know the number, I have the number here, but is by phone or internet, or what's the best way? By phone or internet, or what's the best way?
Donna Harrison:We prefer all ways, so whatever we usually try to make this as low barrier as possible when it comes to connecting to families or getting our veterans to connect to us. They can use our phone number to connect to our Justice Involved Services program directly at 804-825-8000. 801-2520, or they can email us. We have a justice mailbox and and some of our, our veterans and even some of our family members prefer that route. So they can email us at justicevvfs at dvsvirginiagov. And, of course, they can also go to our DBS website at wwwdbsvirginiagov as well and connect with us that way. So all kinds of ways they can connect with us to get services.
Larry Zilliox:Great Female veterans. I know that people tend to overlook women who have served and I'm sure that some of them are incarcerated. Do you know? Have a sense of what the percentage of the incarcerated veteran is female in the state of Virginia?
Donna Harrison:I don't have the percentage of females and, like I said, that's partly related to the lack of data that we have for incarcerated veterans in general in Virginia.
Donna Harrison:I know in Virginia we have about 6.5% of incarcerated veterans in the state prisons and so that's with Department of Corrections numbers, and then veterans represent about 3.6% of the state supervision population Of that is an even smaller number of females. When it comes to incarcerated veterans in our state prisons, I do know that when we go out so our veteran justice specialists go out, our staff, we all go out to provide veteran info sessions and we have been out to the women prisons and talk to female veterans. We also, our veteran justice specialists, also serve them in the community. We have had some female veterans come through the veteran treatment court docket and of course we've seen female veterans on supervision. But it is a it's a smaller population but we do try to connect them to resources and services that are specific to their needs, even if that means connecting them to our Women Veterans Program here in Department of Veterans Services. So we try to tailor when we do those needs assessment, we try to tailor it to the needs of the veteran and that includes our female veterans as well.
Larry Zilliox:I just think what you guys do is wonderful. I know that it's a number of veterans, a portion of the veteran population that's often overlooked and kind of written off, which I think is so unfortunate because so much of the problems that they have are substance abuse and PTS related and of course that's service connected. You guys just do a wonderful job. You know trying to help and it's all you can do. It doesn't, I'm sure, work for everybody and there's going to be repeat offenders and some people that are going to want help but just ignore it or don't take it. But by and large I know our listeners appreciate what you all do for our veterans. It's just wonderful.
Donna Harrison:Thank you. We appreciate you highlighting You're right it's a population that often feels forgotten about. There's a great deal of shame, there's extensive barriers, but we're advocates for the population. A lot of times even their trauma is pre-military, post-military, enduring military. So there's a lot of this population has a lot of trauma and so we really try to do trauma informed techniques and care to try to connect them. And it takes partners and individuals like you who kind of are voices and highlight what we're seeing with the population and really try to bring it to light so people can understand the barriers that the justice of all veterans face. And I think that's key. Our partnerships really make a difference when it comes to supporting justice of all veterans.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, that's for sure. I want all our listeners that have a loved one or a buddy or somebody that they know who's a veteran, who's in trouble with the justice system, to reach out to the agency, make the call, send the email. Don't assume that they can't help because the problem is not that important or you're writing off the veteran because this is the third time they've been in trouble or you know whatever reason. Don't make that judgment on your own. Contact the veteran services and talk to them and say this is the situation, what do you think, and let them give you their professional opinion and assessment, let them tell you what resources are available and let them help you make the decision. Hopefully it'll get you where you need to be with your loved one. All the contact information will be in the show notes. I really appreciate it. So, donna, thank you again for joining us. I really do appreciate it.
Donna Harrison:Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it as well.
Larry Zilliox:So, for our listeners, we will have another episode next Monday morning at 0500. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can reach us at podcast at willingwarriorsorg. Until then, thanks for listening.
