Specialty courts, such as DUI court and drug court, offer creative options for treating people found guilty of nonviolent crimes. The programs keep the offenders out of prison, but they also require completion of a rigorous treatment program.

Across the country, specialty courts are working — meaning they are reducing recidivism rates and giving people skills for productive lives while keeping them out of the prison system.

Specialty courts create a win-win situation. They’re aligned with the ongoing effort to rethink sentencing for nonviolent crimes in ways that benefit taxpayers as well as program participants and their families by avoiding prison.

In Butler County, Veterans Treatment Court is in the first year of operation. And, so far, the results look encouraging.

Created last fall, the Butler County program, under the direction of county Judge Tim McCune, is starting with a first-year class of just six people. By starting small, county officials can work out any bugs they encounter in the system. Key elements of the program include participants having weekly meetings with the judge, and utilization of the existing support services of VA Butler Healthcare and the county’s probation officers as well as social work, addiction, and mental health professionals.

A story in Wednesday’s Butler Eagle featured the progress being made by Jim Meacham, one of the first Butler County residents to participate in the Veterans Treatment Court program. In the story, Meacham declared “This program has changed my life.”

Meacham, who was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1980, developed alcohol-related problems that peaked in 2012. The veterans court program requires 120 hours of community service, and for his project Meacham has chosen to refurbish abandoned or donated bicycles. He then gives them to people at a transitional living facility who often don’t have cars.

Nationally, veterans courts are succeeding for reasons that many believe are related to veterans being used to working within systems and following rules, as they did in the military.

And while veterans court does allow people to avoid jail, it is no walk in the park. The rules are strict, and violation of a rule, such as failing a drug screening or not following court orders can result in ejection from the program and time in jail.

The participants themselves must be dedicated to recovery, realizing that they are being given a second chance and have a strong support system to help them succeed.

While much is expected of the participants, the people providing support are also putting a lot of effort into the program. That includes the judge — in this case McCune, who meets weekly with participants. Peer volunteers are also part of the support team. For Meacham, that person is John Cyprian, who works as the county director of veterans services, and also serves as Meacham’s peer mentor in the Veterans Treatment Court Program.

Across the country, many in the criminal justice field are rethinking traditional sentencing as well as the mandatory sentences that came out of the “Three Strikes” era. Decades of experience are showing that throwing people in prison rarely helps them overcome the underlying problems that brought them into the criminal justice system. In some cases, time spent in prison leaves people more dysfunctional than before they entered the system. And at a time of tight state and local budgets, keeping people out of prison has the added benefit of saving money.

Specialty courts, like Butler County’s veterans court, deserve public support — for the participants as well as for those providing the extra help, meaning court officials, VA officials, mental health professionals and local volunteer mentors.