Missouri Considers Veterans' Courts Expansion

"The stress is great," says retired Army chaplain Jimmy Young, referring to the experience of combat veterans.

Young was shot in Vietnam and works with wounded veterans. He says the men and women coming back from war experience things the general public doesn't understand.

"Danger was everywhere around us," says Young. "So you have to be sort of ready for it. You come back and now, suddenly everybody's going about their business and you have the feeling that they're not connected to you."

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says up to 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have post-traumatic stress disorder. 

As judges see veterans come to court, special veterans' courts have been popping up.

There are more than a hundred nationwide. They work much like drug courts. Treatment is given instead of time. 

A couple bills in the Missouri legislature seek to let the state set the special courts up at the circuit court level. Supporters insist, the courts wouldn't give veterans a pass.

"The court would be saying we know you have a problem, now do you want to deal with it," says Young.

"The judge would decide if this is suitable for rehabilitation or some recovery or therapy," says Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Springfield, who sponsored one of the veterans' court bills.

There are already a few of these veterans' treatment courts in the state.

The V.A. looked at the first one of these courts that started in Buffalo, New York in 2008. At the time of a report from a judge, it had no repeat offenders for the veterans that completed the program. 

The National Center for State Courts says that "an important issue that has to be addressed is the eligibility for veteran's courts in terms of whether charges involving felonies or crimes of violence will be allowed. The inclusion of offenders charged with inter-family violence is also of grave concern to policy makers."