|
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
Be sure to get all four
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases
Download your
free copy of the
2008 VA benefits
handbook here...
|
Printer-Friendly Version
VETERANS COURTS: STARTING TO RETHINK CULPABILITY --
Unlike other specialty courts - which focus on
the nature of the
problem - veterans courts focus on the background
of offenders.
The following story is a comment made by law
professor Dan Filler. Filler's bio is here...
http://www.drexel.edu/law/daniel-filler.asp
For the latest story about veterans' courts,
click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfJUL08/nf070708-8.htm
For previous stories about the veterans' court
(with backlinks), click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfJUN08/nf060308-8.htm
Today's story here...
http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2008/07/veterans-courts.html
Story below:
-------------------------
Veterans Courts: Starting To Rethink
Culpability
I was reading through the Philadelphia Bar Reporter today and discovered
that one of Pennsylvania's new Supreme Court Justices - Seamus McCaffery -
is pushing to create a statewide veterans court. He explained that "we
have young men and women coming
 back
from Afghanistan and Iraq and... a lot of them try to self-medicate either
through alcohol or through drugs, and they find themselves locked up."
This wouldn't be a suprising comment, except that McCaffery - a former
marine and Philly cop, and the dude who created Philadelphia Eagles Court
(where rowdy fans were tried and convicted all during the course of a
football game) - is all about being tough on crime.
Criminal law followers have been noting the rise of specialty courts for a
while. As I'ved argued previously, these drug courts, mental health
courts, and gun courts are often the brainchildren of street level judges
and bureaucrats using local tools to make sense of an increasingly insane
criminal justice system.
The development of veterans specialty courts - something that has happened
in New York, but nowhere else to the best of my knowledge - would
implicitly reflect a recognition that most people use (and sell) illegal
drugs because they are vulnerable, ill, and addicted. Unlike these other
specialty courts - which focus on the nature of the problem - veterans
courts focus on the background of offenders. Once we accredit individual
background as an explanation for drug crimes - that is, once we move
beyond simple notions of free will, or even organic mental health
disfunction, as the source of these addictions - perhaps it will be easier
to convince legislators and judges that people from disrupted communities
and families are also profoundly influenced by prior experiences. This is
not to suggest that individuals don't bear personal responsibility for
choices, but backgrounds matter. Veterans courts are a good start, but
they are only a beginning.
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
Don't forget to read all of today's VA
News Flashes (click here)
Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage
email Larry
(go
back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page) |
Military
Medical Malpractice
Legal
Network
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
|
