According to a 2021 report from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 61% of prisoners released in 2008 were re-incarcerated within 10 years. Compare that to justice-involved Veterans, whose recidivism rates range from 1% to 10% in the various Veterans Treatment Courts across the country, according to Justice for Veterans, a division of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. Prosecutors can refer arrested Veterans into treatment and avoid unnecessary incarceration. 

Pre-trial Detention 

Yet the NJ Criminal Justice Reform Act (CJRA) has led to the incarceration in pre-trial detention of scores of justice-involved Veterans who do not have a criminal record, have little risk of re-arrest nor are they a flight risk, most often. Yet County Prosecutors are pressured to use complaint-warrants almost guaranteeing three days in jail, and regularly up to a week, before release.