Correctional Systems
2
The special population that I selected for this assignment is Military Veterans.
Military Veterans who have served in combat have a lot of stressors that can be aggravated if
someone provokes them while incarcerated. The veteran population categorized as confined is
mainly Caucasian males in their 40s. Also, there are numerous reasons why military veterans are/
were imprisoned, some for assaults, DWIs, drug dealing, manslaughter, etc. The main reason
why veterans get incarcerated is because their stress or PTSD gets triggered. More than 65% of
veterans saw combat and about 55% of those who saw combat struggle with post-traumatic stress
or traumatic brain injury. (Dominick Yezzo, June 2021)
Issues that impact military veterans are PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). My
proposed solution for veterans who start having PTSD after combat is to get it documented and
assistance from the military before they have an incident like Shawn did. Shawn joined the
military after escaping an abusive foster family and went to war, and after 13 months of Shawn
coming home, he started having flashbacks. His wife took him to get help, and nothing was done.
Shawn had a PTSD moment while in a desert in Arizona and saw two teenagers walking and
thought he was back in Vietnam, and he killed both of them. Shawn is now serving two life
sentences because of this. (Marisol Ruiz, ACLU, 2022) The courts understood the issues that
military veterans faced, and they were sent to facilities for treatment instead of being
incarcerated. These facilities are designed to address the veteran's PTSD, mental issues, and
other problems they face.
