TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A Veterans Treatment Court program is working toward an expansion that would assist veterans facing federal offenses, after years of serving veterans with state-level misdemeanor and felony cases.<\/p>\n
Tampa\u2019s Veterans Treatment Court started in 2013 and is among over 600 Veterans Treatment Courts across the United States that handle state-level cases. DJ Reyes, founder of the Tampa VTC Veteran Mentor Program, said the court is focused on treatment and rehabilitation for veterans involved in the justice system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis court is not one of punishment,\u201d Reyes said. \u201cIt really is identifying and treating, and rehabilitating certain conditions that many of our veterans have suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyes said the success of Tampa\u2019s Veterans Treatment Court helped lead to a pilot program for federal offenses that began in 2023. He said the program is now in the final stages of approval for the U.S. Middle District of Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only will veterans who get in trouble with the law at the state level find remedies in a state VTC,\u201d Reyes said. \u201cNow those veterans with select federal offenses may also be eligible to find themselves in a federal-level veterans treatment court with a mentor program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyes said he hopes the federal treatment court will begin in 2027.<\/p>\n
For Army veteran David Silva, the program changed the course of his life after a difficult transition from military service. Silva served for more than a decade and said he struggled after returning home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI dealt with it in different ways of drinking… instead of asking for counseling,\u201d Silva said.<\/p>\n
Silva said he had trouble keeping a job for more than a few months. He later became involved in a fight with Hillsborough County deputies after hearing a loud police radio outside his home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was facing five years per deputy that I put my hands on,\u201d Silva said.<\/p>\n
Silva said the case led him to Veterans Treatment Court, where he entered treatment and learned about benefits available to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI signed a contract saying that I need to go through treatment, and that\u2019s when my life changed,\u201d Silva said. \u201cNow I have the hospital with benefits that I didn\u2019t even know that I had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silva said he supports expanding Veterans Treatment Court programs and encouraged other veterans who are struggling to consider the support available through the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to be able to have a relationship,\u201d Silva said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to be able to hold a job. You\u2019re going to be able to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyes said efforts are also underway to bring Veterans Treatment Courts to the Seminole Nation of Florida.<\/p>\n
There are 34 Veterans Treatment Courts in Florida, and more than 750 veterans participated in the program statewide during the 2024-25 fiscal year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A Veterans Treatment Court program is working toward an expansion that would assist veterans facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[25157,59903,276,2200,4628,2583,115,135,137,136,2032,3393,835],"class_list":["post-363851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-honoring-our-veterans","tag-app-military","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-instagram-bn9","tag-matt-lackritz","tag-military","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-trending-topics","tag-veterans","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}