Editor's note: This story mentions suicide. If you or someone is having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, call or text the Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8.
If you walk into Courtroom A on certain Thursdays around lunchtime, one of the first things you’ll see is a duck in a stroller.
This is Veterans Enhanced Therapeutic Court, a therapeutic court that’s part of Spokane’s Municipal Court.
There’s a similar court at the county level, but that one doesn’t have Rob Saari and his emotional support duck “Fro,” short for afro. (Because, yes, the duck has an afro.)
"She's a crested white and she's eight years old," Saari said. "She basically was raised and imprinted on my service dog, who was a Golden Retriever. And when he passed, she just kind of picked up the reins...She's pretty much the official mascot of Veterans Court.”
This Vet Court was started in 2012 by Judge Mary Logan, who still presides over it. It’s an opt in program that lasts at least a year. The focus is on getting veterans to talk honestly, enter recovery and find the specific support they need.
"A lot of these gentlemen and ladies did not have problems before they went off and served," said Bob King, a public defender and a veteran himself. "That trauma gets dealt with sometimes in unhealthy ways like alcohol or drugs or you know domestic violence or just disorderly conduct. They end up being justice involved."
Every meeting, Logan checks in with participants about what treatment they’re getting, what classes they’re going to, and if they’ve found a job. Sometimes she’ll assign more frequent drug tests. Other times she’ll assign journaling.
"At the end of this program, our clients are usually going to be in recovery," King said. "They're going to have their mental health needs assessed. They're going from a place where their life was in disorder to being back in order."
Everyone in the courtroom is rooting for the participants–especially dedicated mentors like Bob Mirasole.
"What we do is we work with those guys on what our program is and then draw on their life skills to mentor the individuals," Mirasole said.
Each veteran has a mentor who served in the same military branch as them. Mentors are available 24/7, and they often show up to Vet Court as both emotional and physical support.
"We have a mentor standing next to him so he 'has his back' type thing," Mirasole said. "They'll be shaking—these are combat troops—these guys are shaking because they're in front of the judge.
Logan says that of the hundreds of people who have come to Veterans Court so far, 92% have graduated.
But the number she cares about more is the roughly 70% of veterans who reported that were it not for Vet Court, they would have taken their own lives.
"I didn't know this is an option until I came out here," Saari said. "Let's just say Michigan's court system is not nearly as therapeutic. Everyone's a nail and they're the hammer. So, it's ‘You're guilty, let's punish you’ versus 'Why did you end up in this situation?'"
King says traditional punishment like incarceration doesn’t usually achieve transformation.
"If you're punishing more than six days, they're just learning a new skill—now they're learning how to be an inmate," he said.
Veterans Court doesn’t cost any extra taxpayer money, and it doesn’t require any grant funding. Any assigned treatment is covered by the VA. The only price is the effort put in by the people who participate.
"This is the hard way to go," King said. "The easy way to go is to just stay in regular court, do your couple days in jail and call it a day. These people all want to do the work to get their life back."
The court is okay if taking your life back looks, in part, like toting around an emotional support duck.
"She knows when I'm going to be having issues before I even know," Saari said. "If she gets real loud, real ornery, I know I need to remove myself from a situation. [Ducks are] very intuitive. They're very, very smart and they're extremely loyal. She doesn't care if it's a 150 pound dog, she will protect me from it."
For more on the history of Veterans Court, King recommends the podcast “When Thank You Isn’t Enough.”
Any veterans struggling with thoughts of suicide can press 1 after dialing 9-8-8 for veteran-specific help.
