KMOX
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Odds are, more than half of all offenders released from prison will be arrested again. Yet, one court in the Metro East has cut that figure dramatically.
The Madison County Veterans’ Treatment Court enters it’s fifth year this year. Less than one percent of it’s graduates have ever ended up back in court.
Instead of incarceration, counseling and treatment are the cornerstone of the program. Madison County Presiding Criminal Court Judge Richard Tognarelli says most of the offenders spent time in Afghanistan or Iraq – many suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain injury, depression, and drug or alcohol addiction.
“Because of the service they’ve given to the country and because of the types of situations they’ve been placed in, I think there’s an obligation here,” Tognarelli said. But that obligation, he points out, is balanced with a need to maintain public safety. “We don’t admit people with violent crimes, for example first-degree murder, any sexual offenses, criminal sexual predatory sexual assaults, armed robberies.”
Full story: Court for Veterans Keeps Them Out of Prison