BUTTE — For the past three years, a small city courtroom on the fourth floor of the Butte-Silver Bow County Courthouse has been a place of respite for veterans who find themselves in legal trouble as a team from the veterans' drug court helps veterans work toward a new chapter in their lives.
"The veterans are an underserved population in the criminal justice system. With veterans, you know, they have unique needs so I think you just need a specialty court," says Mike Clague, a deputy county attorney and Navy veteran. He joined the veterans' drug court team upon the program's inception in 2021.
The court helps veterans address substance abuse problems that may stem from untreated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder obtained during their service.
"The sacrifices that a lot of these men and women—and we haven’t had any women yet—but a lot of the sacrifices that these men have made, they have seen a lot of violence. You know, stuff that is just really hard to process," says Judge Jerome McCarthy, a US Air Force veteran who spearheaded the program.
Judge McCarthy says helping struggling veterans is the least the justice system can do for those who have sacrificed so much for the country. Judge McCarthy also says that treatment courts are "the way to go" when dealing with issues related to substance abuse.
The specialty court only accepts individuals who are willing to participate in the rigorous program. McCarthy says veterans charged with offenses like DUI, robbery, and domestic violence are accepted into the program.
"You can't jail your way out of substance abuse. You have to find ways to try to deal with this," he says.
The veterans' drug court is a non-adversarial court designed to help individuals break the cycle of addiction and get back on their feet.
"They didn’t have these programs when I got discharged in 1969 and I had problems reassimilating after Viet Nam and it means a lot to me to be able to help these guys—keep them from stubbing their toes like I did in a few places," says Mike Vincent, a Marine and the veteran mentor coordinator for the Butte-Silver Bow Veterans Treatment Court.
The United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance recently awarded the program $999,984 to be used over the next four years to enhance and continue the work of the BSBVTC to assist veterans involved in the justice system who have chemical dependency and or mental health issue related to their military service.
Vincent hopes the funding will help the program expand to veterans in other areas of southwest Montana.
"We want to get down into Dillon. We’d like to get down into Virginia City because these veterans that are having the problems, they won’t stay in the big cities but we want to help these people because they sure went out there for us at one point in their life," says Vincent.
