Support After Service: Justice Reforms Helping Our Veterans
Dear friends,
November is “National Veterans and Military Families Month,” and as the daughter of a veteran of the United States Air Force who served during the Vietnam War, I am especially grateful to the men and women who sacrifice so much to safeguard our freedom.
My dad, Dr. Michael E. Harris, Captain, United States Air Force (1969-71)
Sadly, America is still falling short of providing our military veterans, especially those struggling with mental health and addiction issues, with the support they need when they return home. Without treatment and counseling, many veterans find themselves entangled in our broken justice system: roughly 8% of the people incarcerated at the state level, and more than 5% serving time at the federal level, are military veterans. We can, and must, do better!
Today the Justice Action Network is honored to mark Veterans Day by hosting a fireside chat with former Georgia Congressman Doug Collins, a chaplain and lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, who also served as the primary co-sponsor of the groundbreaking First Step Act, prison and sentencing reform legislation signed into law in 2018. He’ll be joined by his fellow Georgian Jason Pye of the Due Process Institute, who wrote this moving piece about his father, the late Lamar Pye, a Marine Corps veteran who served two tours in Vietnam.
These two men bravely share their compelling stories, and connect those experiences to criminal justice reforms moving on the Hill right now. We hope you’ll read Jason’s piece in The Hill, watch his conversation with Congressman Collins, and then join the bipartisan movement to pass common-sense criminal justice reforms that can have a real impact on our veteran community.
As always, thanks to all of you fighting for safer communities and a fairer justice system, and on behalf of the Justice Action Network, I wish you all a safe and happy Veterans Day!
Holly Harris
President and Executive Director
Justice Action Network