Huffington Magazine Issue 17 | Page 61

HUFFINGTON 10.07.12 FEATURE_TITLE “THEY GET ‘EM HOOKED ON DRUGS — THEN PUT THEM OUT ON THE STREET.” launched in 2010, and on Friday mornings, when Dugan strides into room 406 of the Philadelphia Criminal Courts building and gavels the court into sess ion, things run pretty much routinely. The defendants who shuffle in front of Dugan’s high bench, most of them charged with non-violent crimes such as drunk driving or drug possession, are often a hangdog lot. They seem embarrassed to be there and especially so when Dugan mentions his paratrooper background and exhorts them to shape up. He peers down at them with the mixture of irritation, exasperation and fondness that sergeants often reserve for their wayward soldiers. “I want you to remember the pride you felt when you put on the uniform for the first time,” he tells them. “That’s the person I want to see in my courtroom. Stand up straight! Treat people with respect!” Here’s the deal, he says. You’re here because you’ve committed a criminal offense. If you volunteer for veterans court, we can connect you with the veterans services you need — medical, dental, PTSD counseling, drug abuse therapy, housing, job assistance, education. You do six months or a year of probation, show up for your appointments on time, come in here once a month, and you graduate with your record expunged. But this is voluntary. You can go have your case tried in criminal court. If you decide to work with me here, he tells them, you gotta stay with it. You miss appointments, you don’t check in here, you go back to jail. Most vets take the deal. They go off to the VA for a complete assessment, and on that basis Dugan imposes a sentence of treatment and probation, and, depending on the defendant’s history and severity of the crime, sometimes jail time as well. Most, but not all, complete the treatment. In one recent court session, one veteran failed to show up;