In a documentary produced by award-winning New York director Dan Lohaus, Joanna Montalvo, a veteran, walks into the Western Massachusetts Veterans Treatment Court in Holyoke and faces Judge Laurie MacLeod.
Montalvo is trying hard to combat her addiction and admits that if she doesn’t stay on track she’ll end up dead or in jail.
“In Holyoke,” Montalvo tells MacLeod, “it’s a little difficult to stay out of trouble.”
Another veteran is also struggling. He says he tried to fight his depression and his addiction on his own but gave up. Now he’s in MacLeod’s court appealing for help.
MacLeod reassures him that the court will give him the resources of an entire team devoted to seeing him through this period in his life, including Department of Veterans Affairs treatment and mental health services. He will even be assigned a veteran mentor who will work with him.
“The whole intent here is to make sure you don’t get into criminal trouble again and that you don’t violate your probation,” says MacLeod, who has been the presiding judge for the court since its inception last fall. The veteran says he is grateful for the help.
At the end of the video, Montalvo is back in court surrounded by members of her team. On this day, she is receiving a plaque and recognition for “her dedication, her grit, her will to get it done” by Archer B. Battista, a lawyer and retired Air Force colonel who coordinates the court’s veteran mentoring program.
She has no doubt come a long way and tears up, dabbing her eyes with tissue. Her mentor is at her right shoulder. Montalvo beams with pride.
And it’s similar to another ceremony I witnessed 15 minutes up the road from Holyoke at the World War II Club on Conz Street recently.
On this day last month, I’m at a graduation ceremony for 18 people, all veterans or family members of veterans, who are receiving certificates of completion for finishing a 30-hour intensive mediation training course. Armed with the skills to intervene, they will go forth to help fellow veterans settle disputes and resolve conflict.
I first wrote about the mediation program some years ago in its infancy and encouraged its expansion. The course, developed by Quabbin Mediation, an organization based out of Orange in Franklin County, is clearly on the ascent. This year, Sharon Tracy, the organization’s executive director, hopes to train more than 200 veterans.
The program was created in 2007 when it became apparent that unique issues exist between returning veterans and their family members and communities. These issues can present a challenge to law enforcement and other responders not familiar with the culture or experiences of military personnel.
The program has its roots with Leo Parent, the retired veterans’ services officer in Franklin County, and Steve Connor, the veterans’ services officer in Northampton, who saw the need.
Each mediator is trained to frame issues and set goals. The parties they work with then clarify the meaning behind what they want and, together, engage in a problem-solving process to gain resolution.
The class changes the dynamic in how to engage veterans, says Joe Henning, a recent graduate and a veteran himself. “Sometimes you have to let go, step back, and remove the emotions from a situation,” says Henning, the veterans’ services officer for Westhampton. “We veterans are sometimes not the easiest people to deal with and having this class shows us there’s another way to work through a problem.”
Both the treatment court in Holyoke and the mediation class owe their success to leaders here in the Valley. Both are models for what’s working and what’s needed on the battlefront for veterans who return home needing help with readjustment.
The treatment court, the fifth in the state and first in our region, is helping veteran offenders avoid jail and turn their lives around. It’s one of four types of specialty courts in Massachusetts, along with drug, homeless, and mental health courts, and was brought to western Massachusetts largely through the advocacy of Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan.
“The idea is to leave no veteran behind,” says Sullivan. “To give each veteran hope that there is a better day. This is something we have an obligation to do and something that works.”
Skeptics, however, may see mediation and the treatment court as part of a “nanny state” agenda that coddles criminals and shouldn’t be giving veterans a “get out of jail free card.”
But those of us who have seen the court in action or have worked with the mediation program will tell you that the requirements demanded by both are much more stringent than what a typical criminal defendant experiences. They hold people accountable for their actions and address underlying issues that cause veterans to get into trouble.
Anyone who’s been around troubled veterans knows that many are struggling from a range of issues as a result of their service — traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress, substance abuse, military sexual trauma and mental health problems.
Traditional, punitive measures don’t address these problems. Instead, mediation and the treatment courts work to ensure veterans are clinically assessed and connected with the evidence-based treatment and services they’ve earned through the VA.
If our aim is a more civil society and criminal justice reform, we need to look no further than these two exceptional programs here in the Valley.
John Paradis, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, lives in Florence and writes a monthly column that appears on the second Friday. He is a veterans’ outreach coordinator for VA New England Healthcare System.