Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Friday, August 26th, 2022

One-Third of Vets End Up Arrested at Least Once. Researchers Want to Find Out Why.

Author:     Konstantin Toropin
Source:     Military.com
Publication Date:     24 August 2022
 Link: One-Third of Vets End Up Arrested at Least Once. Researchers Want to Find Out Why.
Stephan:   There is something wrong with the American military, and this hard data report makes this clear. Part of the problem, I think is that of the 334 million people in America only 18 million Americans, or about 7 percent of the adult population have ever served in the military, and at the moment only about 1.4 million are actually serving. It is such a small percentage that few in the U.S. even think about the military, and the status of vets bears no relation to the way vets were viewed in past years.
Philadelphia police car with flashing lights
Credit: Matt Rourke / AP

A criminal justice think tank has announced that it will try to study why veterans are ending up behind bars at far greater rates than those who never served. It will have help from two former defense secretaries.

The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ), in its announcement Tuesday, explained that “roughly one third of veterans report having been arrested and booked into jail at least once in their lives, compared to fewer than one fifth of non-veterans.”

In order to examine the causes of that elevated arrest rate, the think tank has put together a 15-member commission that includes “former defense secretary and White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, a former Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, the chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, [and] two formerly incarcerated veterans.” It will be run by former U.S. Defense Secretary and U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, the announcement added.

According to a study from the Department of Justice, released in 2016, there were about 107,400 veterans in state or federal prisons that […]

Read the Full Article