Chesapeake prison opens wing for military veterans

Chesapeake prison opens wing for military veterans
By MIKE HIXENBAUGH
The Virginian-Pilot
Published: December 27, 2012

CHESAPEAKE, Va. - The white tile floors, cinder-block walls and rows of steel bunks remind Raymond Riddick of the barracks he stayed in during boot camp in the mid-1980s.

"Only, the beds weren't bolted to the floor," the former sailor said while giving a tour of his dormitory at Indian Creek Correctional Center in southern Chesapeake.

Riddick, who's locked up following a string of car thefts, is one of about 60 former service members serving out criminal sentences in a new veterans dorm at the medium-security prison.

State corrections officials christened the wing during a ceremony last month, saying they hoped the program would change lives and prevent war vets from returning to prison.

Virginia is the latest in a series of states with large military populations, including Florida and Georgia, that have established veterans-only prison facilities to house and assist the growing numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who find themselves in trouble with the law.
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No one knows how many veterans are behind bars

Veterans Behind Bars
Swords to Plowshares
author: Megan Klein Zottarelli
date: August 15, 2012

NBC Bay Area – More Iraq War veterans are landing in jail but most counties don’t track soldier inmates.

Even the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America told the Investigative Unit that it doesn’t have current data on veteran populations in prisons and jails because many local and state agencies don’t keep track of that information.

Suicides among soldiers and military veterans have reached epidemic proportions, with 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of 2012, according to the Pentagon.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit has uncovered another growing problem among soldiers returning from war — the number of those returning soldiers ending up behind bars. Experts say about one-third of returning military veterans battle mental illness and addiction. Many of them receive little help from the military, leaving them to fight their demons alone.

“I wanted to eat a bullet every single day,” said Marine infantryman and war veteran Anthony Hernandez of San Jose.

Every day since returning home from the Iraq War two years ago Hernandez fought the urge to kill himself. He says it was a battle more challenging than the two tours he spent dodging bullets in some of the hottest battlegrounds of Iraq.

“I had a really tough time,” Hernandez told Investigative Reporter Stephen Stock. “I didn’t feel normal. I was always hyper-vigilant, I was always on guard. I felt threatened by my own community. I couldn’t sleep.”

The Marine said he returned with a host of problems including post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, anxiety, depression, and alcohol addiction. Hernandez said his marriage fell apart and ended in divorce. All because, he said, he couldn’t cope with civilian life.

“It was extremely difficult,” he said. “I isolated a lot. I ruined pretty much every relationship that I had. I didn’t feel comfortable with anybody except my fellow Marines. I had extremely tough time.”

Hernandez said his demons led him to stab his new girlfriend’s father multiple times during an argument and that a combat flashback caused him to snap. He ended up serving 21 months in a local jail on attempted murder charges.

Hernandez is one of a growing number of veterans now finding themselves behind bars. Lawyers, judges and veterans advocates say mental health disorders common among veterans can lead them into the criminal justice system.

“I think people would be surprised to know how many veterans there are in their local jails,” said Duncan MacVicar, a Vietnam War veteran himself and a current veterans rights advocate who works with former service members in the criminal justice system.
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A special dormitory for vets opened up last week

Veterans dorm at Muscogee County Jail first in country
Updated: Apr 24, 2012
By Laura Ann Sills

Sheriff John Darr announced Monday that military veterans now have a new home at the Muscogee County Jail. A special dormitory for vets opened up last week.

Moses Haynes has been in the veterans' dormitory at the Muscogee County Jail for a week now. He says he can already tell a change in the way he feels and hopes the public will see that Vets have different needs.

"Hopefully people will understand that we do things not cause we just go and do it, because of mental ill problems."

Haynes served in the Army for 5 years. He was in a helicopter crash during his service and says he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. Alcoholism and a probation violation landed him in the Muscogee County Jail.
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New program helps veterans in prison

New program helps veterans in prison
Feb. 8, 2012
By Erica Bryant
MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — More than 1 million veterans are in jails and prisons in the U.S. More than 2,000 of them are in North Carolina prisons, arrested for crimes ranging from theft, to drugs, to murder.

Many incarcerated veterans suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, traumatic brain injury or other mental health issues. The problems are side effects of their service that they might not recognize until it’s too late.

But there is a new effort in Mecklenburg County to help them.

Wesley Woodling will never forget the night he killed an innocent man, someone he mistakenly thought was trying to rob him.

“I was using tactics when I did it. I did it from a tree line where nobody could see me,” he said. “Like I was trained to do.”

He was trained in the National Guard and served in Iraq and Kuwait.

He was diagnosed with PTSD and bi-polar disorder and discharged in 2008. He said he was suicidal and hearing voices after he returned to his Charlotte home.
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Veterans Incarcerated Program.

In keeping with the reports on what happens to some of our veterans, this article is brings it all to life. Some of them turned to drugs and alcohol. While some of them are in fact addicted to the components of these substances, most of them used them to cope. When you think about a veteran in jail the next time, maybe after reading this you will think of them differently.

Program Helps Incarcerated War Veterans

Vets in the Veterans Incarcerated Program at Sierra Conservation Center hope the camaraderie they've found behind bars will help keep them out once they are released
by Alisha Wyman, The Union Democrat


Jerome Lesesne, 41, fought for the Marine Corps during Operation Desert Storm.

Alex Flores, 48, was in the Army National Guard for 21 years.

Howard Wright, 52, is an Army veteran who served in the states during the Vietnam War.

James Poole, 61, was in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.



When Poole opens his high school yearbook, it's a reminder that many of the faces smiling back at him went to Vietnam but never came back with him.



In years following his return, there was a stigma attached to Vietnam veterans, he said. They were called "baby killers" and scorned for their service rather than revered.

The loss of his first wife to an auto accident and the subsequent failure of his second marriage only fueled feelings of loss and rejection.

It's that feeling that headed him down the path to the crime.

Tears still come to his eyes when he talks about the war, but he's working with others to start over.

"It's emotional ties to the past, but it's helping us look toward the future," Poole said.


"A lot of us got our apprenticeship in drugs and alcohol there in the service," said Mendiola, an outside volunteer.

Wright began using cocaine starting in the military. The habit only grew after he left the service, until he was arrested for selling the drug.

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