Is it considered special treatment for a prison create a special wing to separate military veterans from general population or is it just another way to help a veteran cope/rehab by being surrounded by their fellow veterans – PB/TK
Prisons Experiment with Cell Blocks for Military Veterans –
When Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple decided to create a cell block for military veterans in his upstate New York facility, he encountered resistance from his own staff.
The jail superintendent was skeptical, and the correction officers weren’t keen on the idea of inmates getting special treatment and extra services.
But more than two years later, the “veteran pod” is an unqualified success in the sheriff’s eyes. Of the 195 veterans who have been released into the public, only 10 have returned — while almost half the general population winds up behind bars again, he said.
There’s never been a fight on the wing. And when an inmate from another wing attacked a correction officer inside the pod last September, video cameras showed the veterans running out of their cells — not to pile on, but to stop the assault.
“I don’t think that would have happened on any other tier,” Apple said.
Kyle Weber, 27, who served in the Air Force from 2008 to 2009 and arrived at the pod in October after violating his probation during a dispute with a relative, uses an unexpected phrase to describe the experience: “I feel safe here.”
Weber, who has a diagnosed mental illness, said the self-discipline and brotherhood on the unit surprised him until he thought about the inmates’ shared military background.
Continue to nbcnews.com article: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/prisons-experiment-cell-blocks-military-veterans-n721306
