Legal Action Center addressed the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
on April 13, 2011. A copy of the letter read to the committee was sent out by H.I.R.E (Helping Individuals with criminal records Reenter through Employment)) to organizations concerned with the barriers veterans with a criminal history face when they seek employment.
According to the Legal Action Center, many veterans suffer from mental illness such as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and also have substance abuse issues.
LAC asserts that veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with a higher rate of PTSD than those who fought in earlier wars. Because these wars are fought “up close and personal,” and Improvised Explosive Devises are used to kill and maim troops, traumatic brain injury (TBI) is another casualty our men and women face.
Over two million Americans have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, in the past ten years. Many of these combat veterans have experienced PTSD, TBIs, and have developed an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Treatment for these issues are minimal at best, claims LAC. Like veterans of the Viet Nam war, some of today’s veterans experience homelessness, unemployment , and increasingly, incarceration. LAC predicts that the rate of veterans with a criminal record will rise because veterans are not receiving the treatment or support they need.
The message to the Veterans’ Affairs Committee included the fact because of certain policies, combat veterans with a criminal conviction can be denied housing, employment, grants for education, certain public benefits, and treatment for substance abuse/mental health problems. LAC would like to see these policies examined and amended. There is a growing outcry among Americans that those who answered the call to duty must not be dismissed once they come home burdened with mental or physical disabilities incurred by the government’s bidding.
One of the ways to help our service men and women, declares LAC, is to remove the barriers to employment veterans face, and to recognize that veterans with criminal histories often obtained them due to undiagnosed or untreated mental or physical issues that have a strong connection with being in combat.
Source: Legal Action Center and H.I.R.E.
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