LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Veterans Court is seeking veteran mentors for its participants.
Launched in 2015, Lake County Veterans Court seeks to offer specialized support for veterans who find themselves in the criminal justice system.
The program is overseen by a committee of representatives from the District Attorney’s Office, Lake County Superior Court, the county’s indigent defense contract, San Francisco VA Medical Center and the Lake County Probation Department, among others.
Defense attorney Angela Carter, who is part of the oversight of the program, said participants have strict requirements – she compared it to “probation on steroids” – and the results over the years have included some phenomenal success stories.
She said veterans court is mostly a post-sentencing program for veterans with a proven nexus between their offense and their service-related injuries and who have been sentenced by the court to do the veterans court program in lieu of or in addition to their regular sentence.
“Our vets have found needed rehab, got needed medical care, obtained service animals, reunited with their families, found jobs, enrolled in school and vocational programs and even bought their first homes,” she said.
As valuable as the program is, it has faced challenges during the pandemic, Carter said.
She said the pandemic has forced many of the court’s needed services, including veterans court, to be done in a virtual format.
Moving forward, Carter said they are looking for vets who live in or near Lake County to serve as mentors to veterans court participants.
There will be an online training and after that the time commitment is “minimal but meaningful,” she said.
For more information or to volunteer, call Carter at 707-245-4727.
Lake County Veterans Court seeks volunteer mentors
- Lake County News reports
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