By Cathering Tsai
Associated Press
CANON CITY, Colo. — John Brownfield Jr. became a corrections officer following deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Brownfield was later charged with accepting bribes from inmates seeking tobacco at the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colo. He told the judge that when he came home, he suffered insomnia and nightmares, drank more heavily, was quick to anger, “reckless with everything” in his life.
U.S. District Judge John Kane suspected post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Figuratively speaking, Brownfield returned from war but never really came home,” Kane wrote in a ruling sentencing Brownfield to probation and treatment.
Nationwide, law enforcement groups are taking notice of veterans starting or returning to jail or prison jobs.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press