County Considers Veterans Court

Allegheny County, Pa. - Leave no one behind. It's a concept understood by anyone who served in the military.

And it provides the foundation for a veterans court that could begin as soon as spring, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Michael E. McCarthy told lawmakers Friday.

"The purpose of this court is to make sure vets who are incarcerated or suffering from things like addictions or mental health problems are not left behind," McCarthy told the state House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts during a hearing at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Oakland.

Rep. Don Walko, D-North Side, chaired the hearing on the court program that would offer psychological counseling, job-placement services and medical treatment to veterans who commit nonviolent crimes.

It would function similarly to drug, drunken-driving and mental health courts in Allegheny County, said Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning, administrative judge for the criminal division.

"We didn't have these programs when we came back from Vietnam," said Joe King, 59, president of Pittsburgh Firefighters Local No. 1. As a Marine special operations corporal, King said he served two tours in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969.

Common Pleas Judge John A. Zottola, who presides over the county's mental health court, said the rate of repeat offenders who go through his court plummets to about 15 percent compared to 70 percent to 71 percent who don't.

"This makes sense for taxpayers, victims and offenders," Zottola said.

The court would be the state's first, said state Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery, who testified at the hearing. McCaffery said if the model works in Allegheny County -- which he said is home to the most veterans in the state with about 143,000 -- he'd like to form veterans courts in Erie, Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Scranton.

A veterans court would save taxpayers money by diverting veterans from the corrections system to treatment facilities that don't use taxpayers' money, Walko said.

"For every dollar invested in addiction-prevention and mental-health programs, we will save $3," he said. "That's really very good."

Focusing assistance for veterans in those areas is crucial, said Michael E. Moreland, a network director for VA Healthcare in Pittsburgh. Three of five veterans in jail have substance-dependency problems, almost one in three have serious mental illnesses, and one in five is homeless, he said.

"For incarcerated veterans, 70 percent committed a nonviolent crime," Moreland said. "These statistics suggest that there is a significant need for services for veterans who are facing criminal charges."

Walko hopes to secure a $25,000 state grant to pay for a case manager for the veterans court.