United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Homeless Veterans

Veteran Justice Outreach Initiative

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The purpose of the Veteran Justice Outreach Initiative (VJO) initiative is to avoid the unnecessary criminalization of mental illness and extended incarceration among Veterans by ensuring that eligible justice-involved Veterans have timely access to VHA mental health and substance abuse services when clinically indicated, and other VA services and benefits as appropriate.

VA is requiring justice-focused activity at the medical center level. VA Medical Centers have been strongly encouraged to develop working relationships with the court system and local law enforcement and must now provide outreach to justice-involved Veterans in the communities they serve.

Each VA medical center has been asked to designate a facility-based Veterans' Justice Outreach Specialist, responsible for direct outreach, assessment, and case management for justice-involved Veterans in local courts and jails, and liaison with local justice system partners.

VJO Contacts 
External Link Veterans Court Programs 

Contact Information
Sean Clark, National Coordinator, Veterans Justice Outreach, 202-461-1931, sean.clark2@va.gov 
Jim McGuire, National Director, Veterans Justice Programs, 310.478.3711 ext. 41450, james.mcguire@va.gov 

Handbooks and Guides

The following handbooks, guides and articles offer more resources on the following topics relevant to the VJO initiative.

Court and Justice-Related Resources
External Link VHA Services for Justice-Involved Veterans Document
PDF Document Justice Initiative Article
PDF Document Therapeutic Court For Veterans Article

Mental Health Resources
External Link VA Mental Health Services Handbook

Re-entry Resources
Incarcerated Veterans Re-Entry Guides 

Veterans Affairs Offices and Service Organizations
External Link State Veteran Service Officers
External Link Veteran Service Organizations