SALT LAKE CITY — Several Utah military veterans received a vital second chance in a Salt Lake City courtroom Thursday.
Six vets with prior criminal records graduated from Veterans Treatment Court, a program involving rigorous treatment and a counseling program started nearly eight years ago in Salt Lake County.
Veterans like Zack Tuitavuki who risked his life to serve for the country in the U.S. Navy, but after four years of service he found the transition home wasn’t easy.
“I’ve struggled with addiction and for quite some time, and after I got out of the Navy didn't feel like I had much direction," he said.
Homeless and with 14 criminal cases on his record, Tuitavuiki didn’t see a way out.
“I knew my life was headed in the wrong direction," he said. "I was gonna end up in prison or dead.”
Standing at the Matheson Courthouse, Tuitavuiki says his future looks a lot different than it did 18 months ago.
“Veterans Treatment Court, you know, really gave me a second chance at life,” he explained.
The program began with help from District Attorney Sim Gill.
“They were dealing with the demons of PTSD and mental health issues that were going unattended, and they were finding themselves intercepting with the criminal justice system," Gill said. "Here were men and women who made a commitment to go serve our country and they were willing to risk their lives in that process. And when they were coming back, we as a society were sort of forgetting them.”
To date, 160 veterans have graduated from the program, reducing or dismissing their sentences with an overall 70 percent success rate.
“I've almost two decades now working in a drug court or a mental health court or now in a Veterans Treatment Court, and I do know they work,” said Jessica Mann, the Veterans Justice Outreach Coordinator with the VA.
Mann says the program currently exists on in Salt Lake and Utah counties, but the hope is to change that.
“Our efforts are hoping to grow a Veterans Treatment Court to cover all of the districts in the state of Utah,” she said.
Funding for the program is through the Veterans Administration.
“It would really be if the courts have the funding for a judge to have that much time to commit to a veterans court calendar or law enforcement" Mann explained. "It's really, do all of the agencies, do they have the ability to put that time and attention?”
Whether that looks like funding from the legislature, judges volunteering their own time, or another way to open more Veteran Treatment Courts, Mann hopes other communities find a way to give veterans like Tuitavuiki another chance.
