MALS
CORNER MALS and Veterans Treatment Court Partner to Provide Needed Services to Veterans by JIMMY HOOD1
I
n an unassuming auditorium on the second floor of 201 Poplar, something amazing was happening, a handful of veterans were getting their lives back. One by one they took the stage and told their stories. A former Marine Corps Drill Instructor recalled being pulled from a car after getting stopped for a DUI. A tall, commanding man from Kenya recalled attempting to join the Army after his first day in America. Another veteran gave a detailed account of all the other treatment programs he had completed to varying degrees of success and failure. Some veterans chose not to speak at all. They all shared something in common, they were graduating from a radical, relatively new experiment within the judicial system—Veterans Treatment Court.
Participating veterans must take random and frequent drug screenings, attend mandatory treatment sessions, and undergo life skills training—including career training, financial education, professional development, and community service.3 Veterans Treatment Courts are a nationwide success story. A nationwide study conducted in 2015 found that veterans who participated in the program had significantly improved mental health, enhanced housing conditions, and overall functioning.4
Veterans Treatment Courts started in Buffalo, New York in 2008.2 Today, there exists over 300 such courts across the United States, including here in Shelby County. These courts follow the blueprint of other specialty courts like drug treatment courts and juvenile courts. Veterans in Veterans Treatment Courts are held accountable for everything they do.
I started my externship with MALS in the Spring of 2019 following a few months of volunteer work with MALS in the Fall of 2018. I hoped to provide resolutions for the civil issues veterans were dealing with that were otherwise going un-noticed and un-addressed; some of which were the direct link that lead many of the veterans to the treatment court. One goal that I wanted to achieve
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Memphis Area Legal Services has partnered with The University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and the Shelby County Veterans Court to provide legal services for veterans in Shelby County Veterans Treatment Court. Through MALS, the court can offer a wide range of civil legal services to the veterans at no cost. Students will assist with issues such as child support modification, divorce, voter rights restoration, non-conviction expungements, power of attorneys, wills, and whatever other civil legal needs that may need to be addressed.