“No person left behind” is a common theme for individuals serving in the U.S. armed forces. Yet when veterans find themselves entangled in the criminal justice system because of criminal charges, they find themselves in a system that is more than willing to leave them behind. Fortunately, alternative court programs are designed to keep veterans from being left behind.

Alternative courts can be traced back to the opening of the first drug court in 1989 in Dade County, Florida.[1] Alternative courts are designed to deliver justice within the criminal court system in innovative and new ways. Also known as “problem-solving courts,” alternative courts are established with the goal of improving the outcomes courts can achieve for victims, litigants and communities through treatment instead of incarceration.[2] Collateral benefits are seen in families being reunited, criminal offenders being gainfully employed and, ultimately, the courts reducing prison populations, saving millions of tax dollars.

Incarceration of veterans became an epidemic following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the global war on terror.[3] Predictably, these extended wars have produced a significant percentage of veterans with serious mental health and/or substance abuse issues. Service members who served their country on multiple deployments received little support upon return. Many of these veterans are now appearing in our state's criminal courts, charged with offenses tied, in one way or another, to those service-connected issues.

Approximately 30% of veterans returning home from combat suffer from “invisible wounds,” which are injuries that often go unrecognized and unacknowledged.[4] These injuries include post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, anxiety and major depression. Of those suffering, fewer than half seek treatment. These veterans are more prone to destructive actions that bring them into conflict with the law. The most recent data from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that each day, approximately 18 veterans die by suicide.[5] Those working in traditional drug courts found that many of the veterans they were seeing in their programs were not succeeding. Rather than leave these veterans behind, an alternative court program particularized to veterans’ issues was born in Buffalo, New York.

Tulsa County was at the forefront of this solution in Oklahoma, establishing the third veterans treatment court (VTC) in the United States.[6] The first Tulsa County docket was called on Dec. 7, 2008.[7] In Tulsa County, potential VTC veterans are identified by an assistant district attorney, assistant public defender or the court. Tulsa County accepts felonies and misdemeanors into its program. Once identified, the veteran voluntarily enters VTC by pleading guilty to the charges and then participating in a post-plea/presentencing program. Upon completion of five phases, the assistant district attorney often recommends total expungement of the veteran's criminal record or a short, deferred sentence that allows for expungement after the deferred period expires.

Treatment is a key element to participation in VTC. Treatment is provided by the VA or a community provider, which is often determined by the discharge type. Tulsa County accepts any military discharge type and has served active duty and reserve personnel from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard and the Oklahoma National Guard. The importance of community safety is reflected by the requirement for veteran participants to report to a dedicated supervision officer and have random home inspections. While in the program, the veterans are subject to random urinalysis and required to gain employment if able.

One of the crown jewels of Tulsa County VTC is the mentor program. Veteran mentors are recruited and trained to serve the veterans while they are navigating the requirements of VTC. The mentors provide fellowship, rides, support and often just a phone call to their mentee veterans. VTC participants have reported rediscovering their pride for serving in the U.S. armed forces when they connected with their mentors.

One Tulsa County VTC success story: John was a Tulsa-area Army combat engineer who deployed to Afghanistan, witnessed the calamities of war and returned stateside to bottle up the traumas he endured in his relatively short life. While still active in the National Guard, a bad decision led to a DUI for John. Tragically, this wasn't only a DUI. The charges ultimately resulted in John entering a blind plea before a district judge and being sentenced to 20 years in the Department of Corrections on charges of manslaughter. John's attorney argued for, and John was granted, a judicial review after serving three years in prison. He had no prior arrests.

While John was incarcerated, his attorney approached the VTC team to consider accepting John into the program if the judge modified John's sentence to a suspended sentence after incarceration. While drug and DUI courts in Oklahoma operate under Okla. Stat. tit. 22, §471, VTC does not. Without the constraints of a statute, VTC accepts participants into the program who would not be accepted into other alternative court programs due to objections from the state or statutory prohibition.

The VTC team agreed to take a chance on John, and four and a half years after his conviction and incarceration, John graduated from Tulsa County VTC without a single violation. Treatment reported that John was totally unaware of a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder before being ordered to treatment in VTC. John's success left a lasting impression on the program – literally. Each graduate receives a military-style “challenge coin” upon graduation from the program. These coins now feature a phrase that was John's motto for the program, which he picked up in military service, and for his life: “Always Forward.”

Tulsa County VTC has graduated over 400 veterans from its program since that first docket call. Nearly 80% of the veterans who plead into the program complete it with a successful graduation. There are currently five VTC programs in the state of Oklahoma, operating in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Creek, Comanche and Canadian counties. A Tulsa County graduate, requesting to remain anonymous, who served as an officer in the Army, once said, “I would like to see a veteran's treatment court within reach of all of my soldiers in need.”

Veterans treatment courts are designed to leave no person behind. The justice system is not. Are you willing to go the extra mile to help a veteran who was willing to lay down their life defending our freedoms? If you are interested in starting a veterans treatment program in your area, please reach out to Tammy Westcott with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.[8] Leave no veteran behind.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

District Judge Rebecca Brett Nightingale serves as the supervising district judge for alternative courts in Tulsa County, and she presides over the Tulsa County Veterans Treatment Court.

 

 

 

 

 

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ENDNOTES

[1] R.C. Davis, B.E. Smith and A.J. Lurigio, (1994): “Court Strategies To Cope With Rising Drug Case Loads,” The Justice System Journal, 17, 1-18.

[2] Greg Berman and John Feinblatt, (2001): “Problem-Solving Courts,” Center for Court Innovation, 3-4.

[3] E.B. Elbogen, S.C. Johnson, V.M. Newton, K. Straits-Trester, J.J. Vasterling, H.R. Wagner and J.C. Beckham, “Criminal Justice Involvement, Trauma, and Negative Affect in Iraq and Afghanistan War Era Veterans,” J Consult Clin Psychol 2012 December; 80 (6): 1097-102. Doi: 10.1037/a0029967. Epub Oct. 1, 2012. PMID: 23025247; PMCID: PMC3514623.

[4] U. Orak, (2023): “From Service to Sentencing: Unraveling Risk Factors for Criminal Justice Involvement Among U.S. Veterans,” Council on Criminal Justice: https://bit.ly/4r1K6W9.

[5] U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Suicide Prevention: 2024 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report. 2024. Retrieved Feb. 5, 2026, from https://bit.ly/4aAPpGb.

[6] Gary Hicks, U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Vanguard. January/February 2009. Retrieved Feb. 5, 2026, from https://bit.ly/4ajeJiT.

[7] https://tcacp.org/veterans-treatment-court.

[8] Tammy.Westcott@odmhsas.org.