The day after Veterans Day, several former servicemen walked before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mary McGowan to discuss crimes they'd been accused of committing.
Some were on probation and had been charged with violating the conditions. Some were entering a treatment program for the first time, and one was graduating from it.
All were appearing as part of the Veterans Treatment Court, a 5-year-old program for certain veterans who have landed in legal trouble.
They submit to counseling, random drug screening, support groups and meetings with a probation officer to stay clean and out of jail. McGowan tries to make sure they all have jobs or are enrolled in school.
McGowan knew the participants' histories and their weaknesses for certain substances.
She told the three veterans entering the program to have their probation officers write down what they needed to do to succeed -- and to tape it to their walls.
"We just had someone graduate this morning, so there's no reason that you can't do this," she told them.
Five years in, the court has had mixed results.
It's enrolled 141 people, 52 of whom have graduated. Another 42 have been terminated from the program, and 47 are active in the program or awaiting a revocation hearing.
But for the graduates and McGowan, the court has meant everything.
McGowan said that if she can keep people off of drugs and out of prison, then she has helped.
"This program has taught me to slow down," said Dana Hobson, a 43-year-old Persian Gulf War veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression and experiences anxiety.
He said he's always struggled with anger. He also withdraws from people when he's upset or dealing with his memories and nightmares of war. Today, he sleeps on his living room love seat because he wakes up too much in the middle of the night and is always moving around.
Hobson got divorced in 2010. Then he was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome and used marijuana to ease the symptoms, he said.
A drug possession charge later that year led him to becoming one of the first participants in the county's Veterans Treatment Court.
He's tested positive for marijuana a few times since then and was even charged with possession of marijuana another time. But he graduated from the program for a second time this October.
Vincent Whitaker, 53, said he has been clean for going on 16 months after using crack cocaine off and on for 30 years.
"I'm a more honest person today," he said. "I'm a more caring person. I have a better relationships with my family. I have a better relationship with my kids. You grow in so many different areas."
Recent development
Veterans treatment courts, like drug and DWI courts, are designed to help certain offenders in a manner that targets the reasons a person ended up in legal trouble. Many such courts tout lower costs and lower recidivism rates -- or rates of relapse into crime -- than the prison system.
Arkansas doesn't track recidivism for its veterans treatment courts, Arkansas Community Correction spokesman Dina Tyler said, because of their small size and the short amount of time they've existed.
The first veterans treatment court in the United States started in Buffalo, N.Y., in 2008.
Arkansas implemented its first court for veterans in Lonoke County in 2009.
The next court to start up was the one in Pulaski County in 2010, and the veterans courts have since expanded into Garland County, Washington County, Benton County and the 16th Judicial Circuit serving Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard and Stone counties.
According to JusticeForVets.org, 264 veterans courts operated by the end of 2014 in 37 states, and hundreds more were being planned nationwide. About 13,000 people were being treated, and 3,000 veterans were serving as mentors to encourage their fellow veterans to complete the program.
Every drug court is different, said Toby Lambert, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' liaison with the court.
In Pulaski County, McGowan chooses to take in people who suffer from serious mental health issues. Not every court does that, Lambert said.
Coming clean
In Arkansas, the Department of Veterans Affairs decides who is eligible for the program by reviewing each case -- the crime and the veteran's history.
To enter a veterans treatment court, a person must plead guilty to the crime he's charged with.
While she believes the court has has seen "real, true success," McGowan said there is room to improve in getting more veterans to participate.
"We aren't cultivating all of the veterans," she said. "We have to find a better way to identify them and approach them."
The amount of time spent in veterans treatment court varies depending on whether the participant makes it to every meeting or hearing he's supposed to and whether he pass every drug test.
But each participant is automatically placed on three years' supervised probation.
If needed, Lambert arranges housing for the veterans. Lambert also helps make sure they have jobs or are in school.
"I've been surprised at just how many of them have gone back to school and used the GI Bill once they go to court," he said.
Those who have left the program before graduation have often stopped participating on their own, Lambert said. Others have committed new crimes and gotten kicked out.
Hobson re-offended with marijuana charges after graduating from the program early on. That wasn't serious enough to keep him out of the program a second time, McGowan said.
While in the program, veterans must also attend counseling and support groups for drug or alcohol addiction.
Whitaker attends six of those classes a week, even after graduating in October. He's disabled and doesn't work, and he said he prioritizes anything that helps him stay away from drugs.
Whitaker, who is originally from North Carolina, enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1983, then in the Marine Corps in 1990 after attending college. He served in Operation Desert Storm, was deployed twice to the Mediterranean Sea and went to the Adriatic Sea during a conflict in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He was in the Marines for exactly six years, five months and 15 days, he said.
After an "alcohol-related incident" with his then-wife in Okinawa, Japan, he went to treatment but was asked to leave the program and was discharged from the Marines.
He eventually got married again and divorced again. He was diagnosed with PTSD.
He ended up in central Arkansas after his younger brother, who is a minister, told him about a reverend who could help him.
Whitaker went to rehab again and was clean for 11 months. Then, Whitaker said, "I started spinning my wheels, not doing anything worthwhile." He used drugs off and on again from 2004 until 16 months ago, he said.
In 2011, he was charged with first-degree domestic battery and aggravated assault. He negotiated guilty pleas and was sentenced to 10 days in the Pulaski County jail, five years of probation and $1,500 fine and court costs.
But he failed to report for his jail time, risking a harsher sentence of five to 26 months in prison and a $25,000 fine, according to documents he signed in late 2013.
In early 2014, he filed motions to transfer to McGowan's court, where she gave him a chance to rehabilitate himself in the Veterans Treatment Court.
But after failing to appear, he was thrown in jail for nearly a month in August 2014.
After he was released, McGowan said, Whitaker sailed through the program with flying colors. He made every appointment and passed every drug test.
"Vincent Whitakers are rare," she said.
As he recalls, Whitaker had two choices: Continuing to do the same thing and getting nowhere in life or trying McGowan's court.
"For me, I had to make that decision," he said. "Whether I wanted to live like I was living, out on the streets, being homeless, sleeping here and there, not taking baths, eating when I can whatever I can."
He decided he "had to" go to court, where he was eventually held accountable by someone other than himself. He got a "clear head" and routine, he said.
"If you're a veteran and you're struggling with your mental health issues and drug addiction, there's places you can go to get help," he said.
Metro on 11/28/2015