ARI SHAPIRO, Host:
For years the U.S. has had special courts for the mentally ill, for drug users, for battered women. There are places where judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and charities can come together to help people get back on their feet. Now there's a growing number of special courts for American war veterans and the unique problems they bring back from Iraq and Afghanistan.
MICHAEL MCCARTHY: The court doesn't necessarily have to be a place where a sentence is meted out just to serve a sentence.
SHAPIRO: Judge Michael McCarthy is working to set up a veterans' court for non-violent offenders in Pittsburgh. McCarthy, himself a Vietnam vet, says the courtroom is sometimes the last chance for veterans to get the help that's available to them.
MCCARTHY: Courts are a way to put the veterans face forward and say, here's the difficulty. You are faced with a crime, and you have an alternative here. And the alternative is you can take the services and turn your life around.
SHAPIRO: What did you experience as a Vietnam veteran that makes you appreciate the need for these kinds of courts?
MCCARTHY: Well, my experience, I was a Navy Seabee veteran on a Seabee team and spent a year in Vietnam. Coming back, I was basically dropped back into the society. Now, but for the grace of God, go I. Duquesne University appealed to me. I went to the university. And that was my bridge, sort of, back into our society. Unfortunately, these young veterans that are coming back are facing somewhat of a different set of problems. There's an unemployment problem. There's a lost, sort of, sense about some of these veterans. There are places where veterans can receive help, and some of them do. But I am concerned about the few that don't.
SHAPIRO: So do you see yourself in some of the non-violent offenders who were coming before these veterans' courts?
MCCARTHY: Yes, in a way. Some veterans have - common to all wars - what they call the thousand-yard stare. If you've ever seen photos, black and white, of World War II, of Vietnam, sometimes a photojournalist can capture it. It's that sense about all of the things that you've learned and have been taught, and then you see what man's capable of doing. And you have to deal with all of that.
Some deal with it in different ways. Alcohol may be a way. Drugs may be a way. Education may be a way. Your community may be a way. And I think the courts have to deal with it. They deal with it as a criminal matter and/or a homeless situation, but they can at least sentence or avail the veteran of these opportunities. And that may be just the push. To save one is worth the effort.
SHAPIRO: Judge Michael McCarthy spoke with us from the studios of member station WDUQ in Pittsburgh. Thanks a lot.
MCCARTHY: Thank you.
SHAPIRO: This is NPR News.