Justice Policy, Data and Veterans

"Remember our buddies in prison"
Veterans' Day, 2010
Phoenix, AZ

----------from the Justice Policy Institute--------

Is Data Doing Justice to our Veterans?

Guy Gambill
Published: August 16, 2011

Following my own military service, I experienced homelessness and plenty of justice contact. In addition, I watched far too many other veterans live shattered lives, in many cases dying at far too young of an age. I had hoped to not see this happen again, but I am afraid, unless things change rapidly, it will be so. And while there are many fronts that need to be worked on, until we have accurate data on the scope of the problems our vets are currently facing, we cannot begin to come up with solutions.

In spring 2008, I was part of a group of veterans’ advocates, criminal justice professionals, federal employees and researchers gathered to brainstorm around what had become, by then, an issue of note: the large numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who were experiencing some level of contact with our criminal justice systems. The product that resulted from this meeting was a policy brief entitled, “Responding to the Needs of Justice-Involved Combat Veterans with Service-Related Trauma and Mental Health Conditions.” The brief noted that on any given day, nine out of 100 men in jail or prison is a veteran; this figure, it stated, was in line with the percentage of the general population that are veterans – that is, veterans were not over-represented in the justice system.

Coming up with an accurate statistical picture of what is really taking place should be one of the first tasks undertaken by any stakeholder confronting an issue. As an advocate for the many veterans who have ended up in prison or jail, it was difficult to believe that “by the numbers,” there was no reason to be concerned. This led me to ask, what do we really know about veterans’ justice system involvement? Rather than my being mistaken about what seemed to me to be a significant problem of veterans behind bars, could it be that the “facts” were wrong?

As I came to find out through my own digging, in this country we had very little in terms of a reliable national body of statistics in this area prior to 1981. It was in that year that the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics published a report on veterans in prison in the form of a six-page bulletin. The bulletin noted no difference between incarceration rates for veterans versus members of the general population. The observation was later echoed in the press release issued prior to the release of the second DOJ report in 2000.

I began looking to see if this data contained methodological flaws and/or possible oversights. The first consideration would be whether the Veterans population could be considered equivalent to the general population. One salient difference that struck me was that people in the military were “pre-screened” prior to military service at point of enlistment or draft. For instance, someone with a diagnosed serious mental illness – which we know to be correlated with more justice involvement in the general population – would have most likely not been eligible to serve. And someone with serious prior justice involvement – another characteristic that makes a person statistically higher risk for future arrest or incarceration – also wouldn’t be accepted into the military. Given these significant differences in the two populations, incarceration rates between veterans and the general population should be expected to be different: veterans should be expected to have lower rates of incarceration. That they reportedly have similar rates should have been of note.

Regarding the data itself, people are not required to declare whether they are veterans when they are arrested or become incarcerated. We therefore have to date relied on surveys. The DOJ-BJS 2000 and 2004 (released in 2007) surveys, done in conjunction with the U.S. Census Bureau, were based upon contact with one percent of all state and federal prison inmates. Of our more than 12,000 state and federal prison facilities, the surveys were conducted in a mere 254 facilities, the identify of which has not been released. This is a problem when one considers that in many states there may be facilities which take higher numbers of inmates who are veterans – for example, around military bases. It is critically important to know in which prisons the surveys were conducted if we are to state with any degree of certainty a difference or similitude in incarceration rates between veterans and general population members.

A further set of concerns arises when we stop to consider what we mean by justice contact for veterans. Are we referring to federal and state prison inmates alone, or do we also include those locally incarcerated and those on probation and parole? What about arrests? The next DOJ-BJS survey is not slated to be conducted until the year 2013 and, based on the prior surveys, will probably not be publicly released until the year 2015. Needless to say, obtaining even a marginal understanding of the emerging picture for veterans in justice will come too late for far too many. Aside from the DOJ and BJS, the Veterans Administration is another possible source of information. However, to date there has been a level of resistance toward the release of any data-sets at all.

Finally, another array of concerns and questions arises around the issue of ethnic and racial statistics. During the Vietnam era, the percentage of “minority” service members within the totality of our Armed Forces was at 15%. In today’s Armed Forces, however, over 40% are soldiers of color. Despite a number of longitudinal studies conducted in the wake of Vietnam, which noted distinctive characteristics for minority population veterans – particularly with regard to such germane topical areas as a culturally-specific resistance to mental health care treatment and diagnosis – very little action has been undertaken to address the concerns raised. In terms of the statistical picture necessary to fully understand possible disparate justice involvement by veterans of color, in the DOJ-BJS Bulletin from 1981 it was noted that nine States did not distinguish between Hispanic-Latino and Caucasian veterans. In the latter surveys, it was noted that Latino veterans were incarcerated at a higher rate than Latino non-veterans, but failed to clarify whether the previously omitted data-sets from the aforementioned nine states were then included.

In addition, given the abiding racial disparities in our justice system, it is surprising that statistics indicate that Black veterans are incarcerated at lower rates than non-veterans. Yet no one is looking to see whether, for example, there is under-reporting of veteran status by African Americans (or whether, as noted earlier, those prisons surveyed may not have been representative).

In order to obtain answers to questions such as why better statistics aren’t available and who will look into what appear to be jarringly unexpected numbers, federal agencies need to be held accountable; and we can start with the Department of Justice.

Those within the upper echelons of DOD or the VA tend to downplay the numbers and the problem in general, often implying it’s just a few “bad apples.” More than 200,000 homeless veterans is not a minor difficulty. Nearly a quarter million veterans in our prisons is not a small problem. As is so often the case in contemporary America, those who are impacted by problems within a given focal area are very often in the least advantageous position to advocate on their own behalf; and not having the facts needed to push for better change is unconscionable. For the hundreds of veterans’ families that have tried to help when their sons or daughters come home only to end up in a jail cell, these are not esoteric concerns or a far-removed research topic. These men and women live the realities of lives that were put on the line at the nation’s behest and were subsequently forgotten. Of the perhaps 75 people calling the shots on addressing veterans in justice across a variety of organizations, two served in the military. None of them, to my knowledge, was ever justice-involved.

The incarceration rates for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will exceed those of the Vietnam era easily. By 2015, without swift action, we can expect to see an influx of young veterans behind bars. Right now, a complex bureaucratic research and policy system is failing to deliver even the basic information needed to address these problems. We can do better.

Guy Gambill, a veteran of the armed services, will spend his 18-month fellowship advocating for alternatives to arrest and incarceration for veterans. Gambill most recently held positions as the Research and Policy Director at the Veterans Initiatives Center & Research Institute and as the Advocacy Coordinator for the Council on Crime and Justice, both in Minneapolis, Minnesota. An Army vet, Gambill did a tour of duty in Germany and received an Honorable Discharge in 1988. For his service, he received the Army Achievement Medal, Primary Leadership Development Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, and Presidential Unit Citation.

When Johnny Comes Marching Home...

We've known for 20 years how to solve a lot of these problems on a large scale, and abolitionist reforms are a big part of that agenda. Anyone clued into what the VA in AZ is doing about homelessness and incarcerated vets? I should know that by now without having to dig.

Anyway, hit the link at the bottom for an article about veterans dying for lack of health care.

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From the Barracks to the Homeless Shelter
Homelessness Among Vets Persists
New America Media, News Report
Aaron Glantz , Posted: Nov 11, 2009


SAN FRANCISCO – Fifty-four-year-old David Harness carries a red, white and blue Department of Veterans Affairs’ identification card around his neck. His face weathered, his mustache speckled with grey, he looks past the reporter standing in front of him and off into the street.

“Tonight I’m on the street because I don’t have a place to stay,” he says.

Harness has been homeless for much of the last two decades. When he first got out of the Navy in the late ‘70s, he found work at San Francisco’s Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, repairing a host of war vessels and commercial ships that came in for repair.

Since the shipyard shut down in 1994, Harness has hardly had any work.

“It’s hard for veterans because if you don’t have a place to clean up, take a shower, do what you got to do, how you gonna get a job?” he asks.

Harness is not the only veteran in this difficult situation. A new study released Tuesday by the National Alliance to End Homelessness found that approximately 131,000 veterans were homeless at some point in 2008. One out four homeless people, and one out of three homeless men, is a veteran.

According to the report, veterans were more than twice as likely to be homeless as those who never served in the military. And while most of the veterans sleeping on the street had fought in earlier wars, a growing number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans reported receiving homeless services from the VA.

Black veterans are largely over-represented. Despite making up only 10 percent of the veteran population, they make up 45 percent of the homeless veterans population.

The number of homeless veterans is “shocking,” according to Steve Berg, the alliance’s vice president.

“Our report shows that the problems that we’ve had for 20 years have not been solved,” says Berg.

If nothing is done, Berg says he expects the number of homeless Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans to rise in the future. That’s because hundreds of thousands of veterans of current wars are coming home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and other mental injuries that – if left untreated – can create a downward spiral that may take years to fully realize.

“We have a lot of work to do if we’re going to prevent the problems of the previous generation from repeating themselves,” he says.

There was some good news in the report, however. The alliance reported that the number of homeless veterans had actually dropped since 2007 – from 195,000 to 131,000 in 2008.

That drop was primarily attributed to the government’s early intervention to help veterans before they became homeless – by handing out transitional housing assistance, emergency rent payments, and facilitating “rapid re-housing.”

The report comes one day after Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki told reporters in Washington that, “President Obama and I are personally committed to ending homelessness among veterans in the next five years.”

In addition to homeless services, the administration’s plan includes “preventive measures” like planning for incarcerated veterans re-entering society, supportive services for low-income veterans and their families and a national referral center to link veterans to local service providers.

“Our plan enlarges the scope of the VA’s efforts to combat homelessness,” said Shinseki. “In the past, the VA focused largely on getting homeless veterans off the streets. Our five-year plan aims also at preventing them from ever ending up homeless.”


On Monday, Berg of the National Alliance to End Homeless declared that he was “cautiously optimistic” about Shinseki’s proposals.

On the streets of San Francisco, Harness, the Navy veteran, offers a reality check to policymakers in Washington.

“I’m seeing a lot of young people on the street who are 24 or 25 and they look like they’re really not taking care of themselves,” he says.

They shouldn’t wait for help from the government, he says, because that may never come.

“My advice to them is to keep doing what you know best,” he says. “Just do what you can.”


Related Articles in New American Media:

Over 2,200 Vets Died for Lack of Health Insurance in 2008

Homeless Veterans: Voice of San Diego

Because so much usually comes before a person ends up in prison...

If anyone finds some good info on women veterans and the criminal justice and/or mental health systems, by the way, drop me a line - I could use a little help researching that.


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Preventing Homelessness Among San Diego's Newest Veterans

Johnathan Pebley, 24, and Brandon Wingle, 22, enrolled in Veterans Village of San Diego homeless veteran programs after their time in the Marines.

 

 

 

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Voice of San Diego.org
By ADRIAN FLORIDO

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009 | Increasing numbers of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, many in their early 20s, are turning up homeless in San Diego County, and local service providers say they are preparing to face even larger numbers of homeless veterans in the coming years.

The San Diego Veterans Administration says the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have received transitional housing services from partner agencies funded by the VA has more than doubled in the last year, to 41.

At the Veterans Village of San Diego, which provides residential treatment for homeless veterans with drug and alcohol abuse problems, more than 30 recently discharged American soldiers have participated in its residential program in the last two years, more than in previous years, said Director Phil Landis.
"There's not a person in this business who doesn't think the problem is going to get much, much worse," said Tom Mitchell, director of communications at the Veterans Village.

The numbers, experts who serve homeless veterans said, are still small. But they said the homeless count is accelerating as more veterans are discharged from active duty and as struggling veterans from the wars' earlier years have had time to succumb to mental and substance abuse problems and fall through the safety nets designed to assist them. Current numbers do not represent the full magnitude of the coming problem, they say.

In San Diego, private service providers and the VA are preparing for a coming swell of veterans returning to civilian life with mental health problems like post-traumatic stress disorder. They are hoping to avoid some of the mistakes they say were committed following Vietnam, when veterans returned to a barren social service landscape that often failed to recognize "invisible" mental wounds that made reintegration into civilian life difficult. They are focusing on preventive services.

In San Diego, which is home to more than 260,000 retired and active duty veterans, the preventive services will be especially important as more active duty veterans return to civilian life.

At the Veterans Village, social workers have started community support circles for combat veterans struggling with the demons of war that often surface as soon as soldiers are expected to readjust to civilian life after spending months or years developing automatic defense mechanisms against the dangers of insurgent warfare.

They manifest themselves in downtown night clubs, where heavy bass beats evoke memories of mortar attacks, or driving down highways and overreacting at the site of a cardboard box on the side of the road, reminiscent of a roadside bomb.

The Veterans Village's Warrior Traditions program is a support group that targets veterans and their spouses who may not understand the complex emotions and reactions they experience in the weeks, months or years after leaving the military.

Their heightened reactions may make them undesirable to employers or strain relationships with friends and family, and lead to substance abuse or other complications that increase the risk of homelessness, the program's coordinators said.

"We're trying to reach them early," said Carla Jurczynski, a former Marine and the program's director. "Before their problems have snowballed into larger and larger problems that over the months and years can lead to homelessness."

The program invites veterans to speak about their wartime experiences with other veterans they can relate to, without strings attached. As they become more comfortable with recognizing their own problems, they are more likely to seek treatment, Jurczynski said.

For veterans in their early 20s, whose regimented military training instilled attitudes of toughness, admitting they may have mental problems is usually the first challenge they have to overcome, the program's coordinators said.

"If you look at this from a broader societal perspective, what 22-year old is going to say, 'let me find myself, let me get help'?" said Carletta Vicain, a coordinator with the program. "Add to that the attitudes they've developed in the military and it's even less likely. They often wait too long to ask for help."

The number of private agencies providing readjustment services for veterans in San Diego is at the highest number the county has ever seen, Jurczynski said, and the cross-agency collaboration is making it easier for advocates to reach out, a shift from previous generations' competitiveness in seeking veteran clients for their services.

Similar agencies like the Soldiers Project, New Directions, and the Focus Project in San Diego help veterans and their families cope with deployment and post-deployment adjustments.

Social workers and homeless service providers assisting veterans say it usually takes years for veterans' financial, mental and social readjustment difficulties to compound and drive them to the streets.

"We know from a historical perspective that it takes time. For people to get into life a little bit and get banged around," Landis said.

But local experts agree that though the numbers are still small as a percentage of the general homeless veteran population, soldiers from the current wars are becoming homeless more quickly than after Vietnam.

"They're not showing up yet," said Yolanda Sidoti, acting coordinator of the San Diego VA's Health Care for Homeless Veterans program. "A lot of them are still couch surfing, trying it with families, or trying it with friends."

Precise numbers are hard to come by, but according to the VA, three to four percent of the roughly 130,000 homeless veterans nationwide are veterans of the current wars.

Last week, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki announced that the federal government would commit an additional $3.2 billion to prevent homelessness among veterans as the country braces for the surge in soldiers returning with mental health problems like post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

Still, veterans will fall through the cracks, experts say. And the increase in homeless veterans is worrisome because it means veterans' readjustment difficulties are starting to compound beyond their ability to address them.

Some tipping points have come earlier than others, but portend what could be in store for many veterans, said Mitchell of the Veterans Village.

Johnathan Pebley, 24, was arrested in March, two hours after being discharged from the Marines following his second tour of duty in Iraq, where he grew accustomed to being constantly on guard against gunfire and mortar attacks.

He was convicted of attempted murder after using a shotgun to fire two warning shots into the ground when the friend he was staying with pulled a knife following a bar fight.

After being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he was sentenced to a year in prison and was released after six months to enroll in the Veterans Village residential treatment program.

Pebley took a shortcut to homelessness. His mental health issues would likely have led him down a similar path, he said, as his personal relationships deteriorated and his substance abuse worsened for months or years after leaving the military.

"We could do that shit forever," Pebley said of his time in Iraq. "Getting out of it is the problem. Having to adjust is the problem."

Please contact Adrian Florido directly at adrian.florido@voiceofsandiego.org and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/adrianflorido. And set the tone of the debate with a letter to the editor.