Tennessee Veterans Treatment Courts

Chapter 6 of title 16, the Criminal Justice Veterans Compensation Act of 2015, gives Tennessee's veterans treatment courts a statutory basis. Section 16-6-101 defines a veterans treatment court program as a stand-alone program established by a judge of a court of this state exercising criminal jurisdiction, or a veterans court track created within an existing certified drug court. Both forms are recognised, which matters in the many Tennessee counties too small to sustain a standing court of their own. The same section defines the nonadversarial approach the model runs on: the district attorney general and the defense attorney work together for the benefit of the veterans treatment court program participants and the program. That is a genuine departure from how a criminal case normally proceeds, and it is written into the definitions rather than left to local practice. Section 16-6-103 sets out the key components a program must have, following the national veterans treatment court model: judicially supervised treatment, regular status hearings, drug and alcohol testing where relevant, graduated sanctions and incentives, coordination with VA health care and benefits, and volunteer veteran mentors. Participation is a condition of probation or a diversion program rather than an alternative track a defendant can demand. A veteran does not have a right to be admitted. Admission is decided locally, and the eligibility rules are set by each program: typically eighteen or older, a veteran or active duty, voluntarily agreeing to participate, with other legal matters in other courts and jurisdictions resolved, and without the categories of violent charge that the local program excludes. Because eligibility is local, the question for a veteran facing charges is not whether Tennessee has veterans treatment courts but whether the particular judicial district has one and what its admission rules are. Nashville and Rutherford County run established programs; coverage across the ninety-five counties is uneven. What the program is worth is a treatment-based disposition and, on successful completion, the outcome the diversion or probation agreement provides for, which in many cases means the charge does not result in a conviction. That is a larger benefit than anything else in this catalog for the veteran it applies to, and it is the one most often missing from a list of state veterans benefits. The Department of Veterans Services and county veterans service officers can help establish VA eligibility and connect a participant to VA care, which most programs require.