From Council on Criminal Justice:
Veterans housing units are specialized quarters offered to incarcerated military veterans in both jails and prisons. Typically accompanied by supplementary programs, these units may be peer-led or run by trained staff or volunteers with a military background and are designed to address the unique needs of veterans experiencing incarceration, offering them tailored services along with rehabilitation and reintegration support. The first unit opened in 1987 in Wilton, New York, at the Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility. In 2024, the National Institute of Corrections listed 105 veterans housing units in jails and prisons across the United States.1
To be eligible for veterans housing units, incarcerated people typically must verify their military service, either formally (providing military record, verifying through online systems) or informally (self-reporting military service). Although specific components vary, most programs serve only men, as few female veterans are incarcerated in most correctional facilities.
Veterans housing units have not been evaluated for long-term effectiveness to assess whether they help participants succeed during reentry and desist from further criminal behavior. This report seeks to partially fill that gap using data on veterans who participated in the Veterans Housing Unit (VHU) in a large county jail, and veterans who were booked into the jail but not referred for VHU participation. Read more >>>
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