The Hawaii House Judiciary unanimously passed House Bill 1942 today to create a hybrid treatment court for veterans.  Hawaii’s Veterans Court will be the first in the nation to design a treatment track for National Guard and Reserve soldiers in addition to active duty soldiers.  National Guard and Reserve troops comprise 30 percent of the combat forces now in Afghanistan and Iraq.  As a group, National Guard and Reserve soldiers have a higher incidence of combat related stress conditions like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) than their active duty counterparts.

At today’s hearing, I was asked by Judiciary Chair Jon Riki Karamatsu, “Are Hawaii Drug courts meeting the needs of veterans?”

“No,” was my reply.

Hawaii’s treatment and problem solving courts, including Drug Courts and Mental Health Court, are  highly successful in rehabilitating offenders, reducing re-arrests, and saving the State millions of dollars.  However, Chief Justice Moon made it clear in his State of the Judiciary speech to lawmakers several weeks ago that extreme budget cuts over the last year has reduced the capacity of existing treatment courts. The Chief Justice warned that deeper cuts will produce devastating outcomes. A Veterans Court could relieve some of the pressure by tapping Federal dollars to fund and operate it.

Establishing a Veterans Court is smart, visionary public policy.  It will attract significant Federal dollars, dramatically save millions of State dollars now spent on incarceration, repeat offenses, and transfer medical costs to underutilized Federal health systems that are best equipped to help.