The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Justice programs and the sequential intercept model: case examples in national dissemination of intervention for justice-involved veterans

Abstract

Veterans are a significant subpopulation in criminal justice populations, comprising between 9% and 10% of arrestee, jail, prison, and community-supervision populations. In order to address the needs of justice-involved veterans, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Justice Programs (VJP) offer services to veterans at multiple points in their involvement in the criminal justice system. Within the context of the VA's national mandate to develop VJP, this article presents best practice case examples using the Sequential Intercept Model as the intervention frame, and discusses each in context of a community psychology framework for innovation dissemination. The case examples demonstrate how central program guidance is adapted locally to meet the national mandate using strategies that fit the local environment, illustrating the innovations in action orientation, boundary spanning, and flexibility of organizations. This review provides examples of creative reinvention that expand on the mandate and work to meet local needs. To optimize services to veterans released from custody or supervised in the community, future study of the implementation of this national mandate should examine all VJP sites to identify the full range of best practices in local program implementation.