Summit Country’s new Valor Court has chosen a target date to begin helping veterans caught in the criminal justice system.
Not just any date.
It’s Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
Valor Court, a bipartisan effort headed by Akron Municipal Judge Jerry Larson and Common Pleas Judge Amy Corrigall Jones, is a diversion program that will provide treatment, counseling and other services for veterans who commit nonviolent misdemeanors or low-level felonies that ordinarily qualify as probationary offenses.
Larson, a Democrat who has worked on the project for more than a year, said one of the objectives of the new court, which will begin screening eligible candidates within the next 30 days, is to help returning vets who need help making a better adjustment to home life.
“We’re not in any way suggesting that every veteran has some type of chemical dependency or mental-health issue, but if a veteran has either of these issues, putting them in the Summit County Jail for 30, 60 or 90 days is not addressing the underlying problem,” Larson said.
Jones, a Republican who won election to a six-year term on the Common Pleas bench in November, said studies across the United States have shown that veterans returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are “a special population, especially if they’ve been returning from combat.”
“They’re dealing with housing issues, financial issues, foreclosures, substance abuse, chemical dependency and traumatic brain injuries, which require structure and treatment apart from our, quote, ‘typical defendant’ that we would see at the common pleas and misdemeanor level,” Jones said.
Each of the two judges will operate the court procedures under separate jurisdictions, but both will share an advisory committee of area officials, a mentoring program with fellow veterans experienced in counseling and services, and a proposed citizens advisory board for feedback from residents of the community, Jones said.
Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a former Summit County prosecutor and common pleas judge, delivered introductory remarks Tuesday at the county courthouse to announce the opening of the new court and to swear in the two judges. She called it “a really important event.”
“Summit County is fortunate to have Judge Corrigall Jones and Judge Larson, from different political aisles, who are working together in the best interests of the county and the residents and the veterans whom they serve,” O’Connor said.
The bipartisan effort, she said, proves a point that “party affiliation does not matter in judging.”
O’Connor said Jones and Larson spent the past year in research, planning and speaking to other veterans courts about their operations to “ensure that the success of the Summit County court is a reality.”
Larson began planning for the court early last year. A proposed startup date was in place for late in the year, but it was delayed when the Ohio Supreme Court decided it was best to implement a set of guidelines and procedures to standardize the operation of specialty courts across the state.
Fred Stratmann, chief legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Veterans Services, attended the ceremony. Afterward, in a Beacon Journal interview, he said 2012 Veterans Administration statistics show the importance of the work of such specialized courts.
There are 22 million U.S. veterans nationwide, 900,000 in Ohio — among the top five states in number — and about 40,000 in Summit County alone, Stratmann said.
“In a 2012 Veterans Administration study on veterans’ suicides,” he said, “it showed that the vast majority of veterans who committed suicide are age 50-plus, meaning they’re Vietnam veterans.
“Sixty percent of them had opted out of the VA health-care system, with similar things such as substance abuse issues and undiagnosed mental-health issues. So if we don’t get this kind of help for the ones who are in trouble now,” Stratmann said, “we’re just going to be repeating what’s happening in another 20 or 30 years. That’s why this has been such a priority for our agency.”
O’Connor said she expects the Supreme Court will approve Summit County’s formal proposal for its Valor Court within the next several weeks.
Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.