The three men appearing before Circuit Judge Edward Kubo Jr. had served in the Army, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, but now they were trying to make amends for felony convictions ranging from burglary and drug abuse to making threats with a knife while intoxicated at home.
"How are you?" Kubo asked the 45-year-old former soldier who broke into a Frito-Lay facility to steal copper wire, according to court records.
"Different person this week," said the man, who wore a camouflage jacket. "It’s the clean life."
That was a good thing, because three weeks before, the man had said he was sick and couldn’t come to veterans treatment court, a new specialized court in Hawaii for military offenders.
Kubo said he had issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
When word reached the man, "he sobered up and then he came in voluntarily and said, ‘You know, I was using (drugs). I was dirty that day,’" Kubo said after the court session was over. "Because he manned up, I gave him a scolding away from the others and then I said, ‘OK, you are back on the program.’"
There were other slips, too, the judge said.
But Kubo noted in court that the onetime soldier, a cocaine and ice user, had more recently tested negative for drugs and that he was going to be admitted to U.S. Vets, a housing and services program.
"What else is going on?" Kubo asked.
"Nothing else, your honor," the man responded. "I cannot put too much more on my shoulders."
Kubo asked for one word to describe how he felt.
"Lucky," the veteran said, crying.
"We care about you," Kubo told the man. "We want you to succeed."
Just over six weeks into the start of a new veterans treatment court, the three defendants are part of a fledgling program that seeks to rebuild military lives.
The 1st Circuit veterans court, which meets on Friday afternoons, joins drug court and mental health court among the specialized court services offered in Hawaii.
Since 2008 and the start of the first veterans court in Buffalo, N.Y., more than 100 of the military treatment courts have sprung up nationwide, partly in answer to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the societal fallout from them.
According to a Veterans Administration report, nearly 257,000 of 1.5 million Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans were seen for potential post-traumatic stress disorder through June 2012 at Veterans Health Administration facilities.
Suicides have reached crisis levels in the military.
Kubo said there are about 125,000 veterans living in Hawaii.
"So there is a significant, sizable amount of veteran population that has come across our (court) desk at one time or another," he said. "Now, you add to that the active-duty component, because when they come back, they’ve still got that adrenaline, and so you see such things as racing on the highways and drinking and bar fights."
Schofield Barracks soldier Greg Gordon, who had deployed to Afghanistan, was shot and killed by Honolulu police in January. Officials say Gordon was drunk and tried to ram his way out of a police blockade in a pickup truck.
"So you see these things percolating up from the military," Kubo said.
There are just three veterans in the program now. That number will grow, and Kubo said the hope is to broaden it to include active-duty ranks.
Beyond a sizable active-duty and veteran population in Hawaii, Kubo said there is another reason to have a veterans treatment court.
"Because we owe them," Kubo said simply.
He added: "At one point in their lives, they wore our nation’s uniform and they swore to guard our safety at any cost, including death.
"So it’s our obligation to reach back to help them and give them the best chances of success that we can," said Kubo, whose father and son are combat veterans.
State Rep. K. Mark Takai (D, Newtown-Pearl City), a Hawaii National Guard member and strong supporter of the veterans court, said the most important aspect of the program is that it brings the courts together with the VA department.
"These vets that have gotten into trouble on the judicial side can seek treatment and rehabilitate themselves through the VA system," Takai said. "And the court can now monitor whether the vet is going to see their psychiatrist or the mental health provider."
In fact, a small army of service providers was in the veterans court recently for the three defendants’ cases.
In addition to a public defender and prosecutor, the list included a VA representative, a veterans court coordinator, a treatment court coordinator, and volunteer military "mentors" who stand with the defendants and assist any way they can.
U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, also was there to witness the court, and said as a fellow service member, she appreciates the veterans court and what it takes to "keep our family of veterans strong and leave no one behind."
The three defendants in the program are on probation, but they’ve had trouble staying out of jail because of probation violations, said Dee Dee Letts, the treatment court coordinator.
One is a 26-year-old former Marine with two tours in Iraq who has a felony drug conviction and used cocaine and marijuana, according to the courts.
A Coast Guardsman, meanwhile, had offenses including terroristic threatening involving the use of a knife while intoxicated at home, violation of probation for alcohol use, and a history of relapses without structured supervision, officials said.
Because the court is just getting started with the first round of veterans, and officials were worried that identification in the newspaper could cause a setback in progress, they asked that the defendants not be named.
"I think what you are seeing is the concept of veterans court giving (them) structure and discipline and over and over and over (with) routine," Kubo said. "They have to be here every Friday. They have to report."
With progress, the veterans court defendants will be able to report to court once every two weeks or three weeks, Kubo said.
In 2009, Mental Health America of Hawaii created a task force called Healing the Trauma of War, Takai said.
"There was a whole bunch of things that we took a look at, one of which was the establishment of a veterans court," he said.
The veterans court received a three-year, $349,943 grant from the Office of Justice Programs, officials said. State House Bill 196 currently seeks about $351,000 for fiscal 2013-14 for additional staff positions and about $157,000 in 2014-15.
Successful intervention by the veterans treatment court "is expected to have a long-term impact upon prison overcrowding, the costs of high rates of incarceration, public safety, probation and parole workloads, and case flow through the judicial system," the bill states.
Within the first veterans treatment court in Buffalo, the recidivism rate is under 20 percent, according to a Delaware state courts review.
The VA Pacific Islands Health Care System said it "remains committed to this life-changing initiative."
Takai said: "We owe it to our veterans. This court will definitely save families, careers and lives."
