"Behind Bars, Vets With PTSD Face a New War Zone, With Little Support" by Quil Lawrence for NPR

At the county court in Waukesha, Wis., in September, Iraq veteran David Carlson sat before a judge hoping he hadn't run out of second chances.

The judge read out his record: drugs, drunken driving, stealing booze while on parole, battery while in prison. Then the judge listed an almost equal number of previous opportunities he'd had at treatment or early release.

Carlson faced as much as six more years on lockdown — or the judge could give him time served and release him to a veterans treatment program instead.

The judge's tone was not encouraging.

"This criminal justice system frankly has bent over backwards in an effort to maintain you in the community," said Judge Donald Hassin Jr. "And frankly, sir, the response to all that has not been good."

Carlson has spent most of the past five years locked up. Before that he did two tours in Iraq. His family says the second tour, in particular, scarred him, sending back a man they hardly knew. They attribute his criminal behavior to war trauma — and the Department of Veterans Affairs agrees: Carlson has debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder. Being locked up isn't helping, he says.

Read and listen to the article on NPR.org, originally aired November 5, 2015 on All Things Considered: https://www.npr.org/2015/11/05/454292031/behind-bars-vets-with-ptsd-face-a-new-war-zone-with-little-support