Travis County Commissioners Court
March 9, 2010,
Item 23
No r.
now let's call back to order the voting session of the Travis County Commissioners court.
we noted on the agenda that we would call up item number 23 at 1:45, and we may be 30 seconds early, but let's call it up.
it is to receive brief presentation and discuss implementing a veteran's court in the criminal courts.
afternoon.
>> judge, Commissioners.
there are people hiding in the back who didn't come up.
>> as long as they know they're welcome.
>> they are.
>> judge, Commissioners, I know that you said briefly and I understand you already voted on this last week and on the monies from the state.
we appreciate that.
we just wanted to tell you very quickly about the veterans docket.
i believe you already have -- okay.
let me just quickly say that we seem to have had great support across the county, not only from the judges, judge barrera.
she told me not to call her judge elect, but unopposed judicial candidate brandy mueller.
anyway, they've already agreed to -- I had a witness today on the stand who was 12 years old and it dawned on me I'm five years old in that witness.
i'm having one of those senior moments.
>> [ laughter ] and I was trying to rush.
we have agreed to hold this docket and to be fair, judge o'hen garden and judge earl have said if we get swamped that they will cover for us.
we have great support there.
at the county attorney's office, david is in support.
he made jason do all the hard work.
they certainly support us.
the defense bar voted at one of their meetings to support the docket.
the veterans affairs office is here.
she's been helping us already on individual cases, but now will help us on this concentrated pilot project.
and our e-mails have been flooded with people that are volunteering to help down to and including we're getting groups from the law school calling us thelg us they would volunteer to work as mentors for the vets that come into this court.
a quick thumbnail sketch, what we're asking to do -- and it appears next year there will be money from the state.
essentially we want to start a pilot project this year where we start with 20 veterans, eligible veterans.
they have to have the right sort of discharge.
but essentially if they're suffering from issues that are related to combat or their military service issues that we can provide services for through the veterans affairs office, then we would put them into this court.
they would be monitored closely.
we're going to have what we call mentors, essentially veterans that have volunteered to come down to court, and these are the folks we're hearing from all over, so that we have an environment that is friendly to veterans because they'll be veterans there in the courtroom that they can talk to and we can bring them into the system.
and then we will have counseling that is aimed at veterans and their special issues.
and I guess we should mention, of course, that counseling would be paid for by the va's, not us.
in fact, I think there's even some monies available to help with defense attorneys in this grant as well.
and when we bring them in we will hook them up with the mentor, turn them over to the veterans affairs office so we can hook them into the counseling.
it's not just the counseling that applies to the offense.
i think the great part of this program is if an individual as an example has ptsd, we can hope to address that, but we can also at the same time hook that individual up with housing through the va, job skills through the va, even education.
the va benefits is what put me through law school, and I certainly am looking forward to the day that Karen comes back and tells us that we have somebody applies for va benefits to go to school as well.
it an encompassing way where we're not dealing with the offense itself and an attempt to deal with that so we don't see them again in the criminal justice system, but so we can hook them into all the other services to we can help them when they return from combat and back on our streets.
and we owe them that and that's where we're here to do that.
any questions?
i did that as quickly as I could.
yes, ma'am, Commissioner?
>> I am excited about this, as I have been excited about all of our special courts because I see such a need in our community.
i've said this before, it's an unattractive fact, but the misdemeanor docket is in our community.
i'm looking at the grant that the governor's grant says that this be at least only for this point in time at the pilot be focused on misdemeanor non-violent offenders.
it appears from some of the research out there that special focus courts have a particularly high impact on higher risk offenders.
so I wanted to hear from you all where we might be going, how we might be advocating in the future for that, depending of course on how the pilot works.
but this is -- looking at the misdemeanor, definitely the misdemeanor non-violent offenders deserve these kinds of services as well.
i just -- I get excited to see it expanded.
>> just yesterday I had a defense attorney talking to me about a felon client that he had that he thought was in fact suffering from ptsd.
i thinks that a diagnosis and was wondering about that.
yes, we asked for this grant and we're under those constraints.
i think the hope is at some point, depending on how this grant works the first six months, that we can look at other offenses, other levels of offenses once we get our feet wet and see how well it works.
we're getting pressure from a lot of people to look at a larger program without a doubt.
you're right on the money there.
>> and I think it's a good starting point.
a, we get the grant money.
and --
>> always good.
>> always good.
and bsm, it will give us a chance to start out with some non-violent caseload to make sure that we can work the kinks out of the system before we start taking on more serious case.
but it's something we have already been thinking about.
>> and a more specific evaluation once we look at other kinds of offenses, especially violent offenses.
like jason says, it's a little bit easier for us to get into it.
>> plus you have county budgeted dollars as you see fit.
>> we'll remember you said that.
>> [ laughter ]
>> I appreciate you bringing this to the court and it's very touching in some kind of way when you semen and women done serve this country.
and the armed forces.
and of course, they have issues and of course the court in addressing some of the issues, of course we as a court, we have our veterans services, hhs, which we also try to outreach.
my question, though, is how will you be able to measure the impact on this effort after it is up and running and you're doing a lot of things?
how would that be measured, per se, especially in the recidivism arena.
and of course, a lot of us are strongly aware, a lot of our homeless population here in Austin, a lot of those folks are veterans.
>> exactly.
that's why I said it's really two sides to this.
i see debra sneaking up and she has the real answer.
but not only are we addressing the criminal issue and recidivism is the proper measure, but also before we even have had enough time to look at recidivism, we can look to see what services we've been able to give these people.
as an example, can we come up with housing for someone that's either homeless or near homeless.
can we come up with job skills that helps a veteran who is having these difficulties get a job?
we agree with you 100%.
i mean, we have all been taught every service member has always been taught, we don't leave a comrade behind.
here's a way for us to make good on that promise to our veterans.
and you also -- you congratulated us, but I have to tell you there's a lot of people in this room that deserve the support.
the veterans intervention project is the one that forced a lot of us to say yes, we'll do this and every one of them are the ones that really deserve those things.
>> and since it is more of a wraparound approach, coming up with a solution to decrease some of the crime activity, since that is a wraparound service, I guess I'm getting back to the point, where within Travis County that -- I guess hhs has been dealing with veterans services and things like that, and the other service providers that we have here, especially when you mention the, quote, housing, the other work source situation through the workforce commission, the job training.
i think it's a complete --
>> the county's va office will be a big part of that.
>> exactly.
that's why I brought up the veteran services aspect.
but along with that the outreach I think is something that is really not something that we have been able to put you -- I know you haven't been able to put your arms around fully because you do have folks out in the community that I think would be willing to come forward to assist.
and as you stated earlier about the volunteers.
so I'm excited about this for many reasons, but I really would like to see when it actually becomes fully implemented, the measurable categories that we can look at to ensure that it's having a positive impact and the folks that really deserve a lot of services are veterans out there who have served the nation well.
and of course I'm concerned about that and I just wanted to know the aspect of that measure.
>> I look forward to bringing that back.
>> we're feeling pretty good about that request.
>> okay.
>> we feel good about the grant application also?
>> we do.
>> okay.
remind me how much the grant was.
>> 50 this year for six months.
>> because it's a partial for fy '10.
and then -- in fy '11 the total was going to be 206,000 approximately.
this year it's about 49,000.
>> okay.
>> as I say, we've actually talked to the indigent defense as well and perhaps they'll help us with money on defense lawyer fees as well.
and we've talked to -- as an aside, we've talked to lawyers that are either vets themselves or have worked with service members before and understand those issues.
so we're really trying to put together a package all the way around here.
>> and there's also action to take across the state and across the nation in dealing with our rhett rans coming -- veterans coming home.
i'm on a state bar committee that has a conference call this an hour where they're trying to get resources from lawyers that would donate their time, criminal and also all the other issues they would face coming over.
so this is a broad approach to dealing with the issues that our veterans will be facing.
>> I imagine that this is a no brainer and y'all have already thought of this, but when I was in law school, I was in law school with a lot of guys who were coming back from the first gulf war.
so I'm guessing that might also be a fertile ground.
>> you're right on point.
one of the groups is a law school veterans group who called and said we have a lot of people who want to be mentors.
we sort of understand the system and we've just gotten back from afghanistan or iraq and would like to help.
>> another thing, especially when you have the arena as far as housing and the purchase of homes and a lot of things like that.
one thing that I think the state legislature did this year and something something that we end up mandating is to look at exempting some of the property taxes that veterans have to end up dealing with.
those are some things that we looked at.
and of course, I think it's very important because I think in my mind I think that there is a lot of attempts by other governmental entities other than the federal government that really have taken an interest, and by all means should take an interest, in the plight of our veterans who have served.
so that is probably something else that still need to be probably hammered out as far as advertising as much as possible, getting a tax break for our veterans as far as their property taxes.
, you're right.
we need to reach out to veterans.
i know the veterans are not aware the services exist.
when the constable talked me into doing this and I called the local veterans office to ask them basic questions, they asked me, however sat down with your va ciewnl and talked about your benefits?
and my answer was no and I got out in the '70.
imagine if you're homeless or near homeless, have you tapped into those resources?
probably not.
this is another way to hook these services up with folks.
>> exactly.
>> have we covered --
>> I think so, sir.
>> okay.
we look forward to partnering with you on this worthy public endeavor.
>> thank you for your support.
>> thank you for your time.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 2:53 PM
