By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — U.S. Army veteran Corey Schramm’s three deployments to Iraq left him with post-traumatic stress disorder that consumption of drugs and alcohol couldn’t mitigate.
His transition to civilian life after a decade in the Army was marked by impulsive behavior, violent outbursts and confrontations with law enforcement. He was on and off probation. He hit bottom in 2020 during a scary five-hour episode at home involving a weapon. He has no memory of the incident that prompted a felony charge.
“I didn’t know whether I would be welcomed back at home,” Schramm said during testimony Wednesday in front of the U.S. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee exploring ways to help veterans avoid incarceration.
Schramm said a recovery specialist told him about the Johnson County Veterans Treatment Court.
“When I showed up at veterans treatment court, I thought I was just going to play the system and go through the motions. Boy, was I wrong,” he said. “The program keeps you accountable. Veterans treatment court is not a shortcut. The programs are rigorous. They demand honesty, discipline and a willingness to change, but they work.”
The voluntary, 12- to 24-month program in Johnson County was established in 2016. It’s open to veterans who fell into the criminal justice system for engaging in behavior linked to military service. The alternative to incarceration include treatment, supervision and mentorship for people grappling with PTSD, substance abuse or other barriers to reintegration. Interaction with a district court judge and community-based resources don’t have the adversarial feel of a typical criminal courtroom.
Schramm graduated after two years in the program, which he attributed to changing his life and those of his wife and children. He earned a degree in addiction counseling and began working as an adult care manager with Johnson County Mental Health Center.
“Behind every statistic is a veteran like myself, who struggled and who, with the right combination of support, can find their way back,” he said.
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate’s veterans committee, said more should be done to support men and women having difficulty transitioning out of the military who ended up in the criminal justice system. He pointed to reports indicating 31% of veterans were arrested at least once in their lives compared with 18% of the general population. Another report said veterans with PTSD or traumatic brain injuries were at 50% greater risk of entering the law enforcement system, he said.
“We need to make certain the veterans who carry scars, with wounds — visible and invisible — are not forgotten,” the senator said. “When left untreated, these can lead or contribute to veterans’ involvement with the criminal justice system.”
Moran said evidence showed justice-involved veterans benefitted from interaction with experts who understood their military experiences. He said he was committed to pressing for federal funding of veterans courts as chairman of the Senate veterans committee and as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The panel addressing the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee included former Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He retired in 2019 from the Supreme Court to devote more time to veterans affairs, including a quest to expand availability of these courts.
“A combat veteran told me he would have been better off being killed in Afghanistan instead of coming home and being arrested for committing a violent crime,” Nuss said. “He described his shame to me (as), ‘I went from hero to villain.’”
Clyde “Butch” Tate, a retired U.S. Army major general, spent 31 years in the Army before retiring in 2014. The graduate of the University of Kansas law school now serves as chief counsel to All Rise, an organization providing training and assistance at local, state and national levels to improve substance abuse and mental health services for military personnel, veterans and their families.
He said the majority of veterans returned to civilian life without serious complications, but others found sights, sounds, trauma and memories of military service too great to overcome.
“My experience is you won’t find a veteran in Veterans Treatment Court with just one problem,” he said. “You will find layers of problems, all of which led to that unfortunate intersection with law enforcement.”
