“A bill to improve the provision of services from the Department of Veterans Affairs to incarcerated veterans, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes a pilot program under which the Secretary of Veterans Affairs furnishes mental health care to incarcerated veterans—defined as veterans incarcerated in a federal, state, local, or other penal institution or correctional facility—with priority to those with a service-connected disability relating to post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, or military sexual trauma. The program operates at not fewer than five facilities representing large and small sizes and urban and rural settings that have established separate housing units for veterans; requires coordination with relevant state or federal incarceration agencies; provides telemental health services where infrastructure allows or, if infeasible, mental health services via Department mobile units, Vet Centers, or other means as determined by the Secretary, with no copayments charged; uses only Department direct care providers (not non-Department providers) through a dedicated hub separate from other Department medical facilities or Veterans Integrated Service Networks, limited to treatment and assessment of medical conditions (not disability claims evaluation); and proceeds notwithstanding restrictions on VA care for incarcerated veterans under 38 U.S.C. 1710(h). (Thus, the program expands mental health access beyond current limits applicable to veterans incarcerated for more than six months or in non-federal facilities.)
This section requires the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to establish, wherever feasible, dedicated wards or housing units for incarcerated veterans in federal correctional institutions to provide an environment conducive to the discipline, structure, and order familiar to veterans, thereby facilitating mental health treatment, peer support, and rehabilitation. It further directs the head of each such institution to collaborate with local Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities to train correctional staff, allocate resources for, and tailor rehabilitation programming to veterans' needs. In institutions lacking capacity for such housing, the Director must at minimum create structured veteran-focused programs with VA oversight and support.
This section requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to automatically resume payment of compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation to individuals whose payments were interrupted due to incarceration for a felony conviction, upon the individual's release from incarceration. The requirement takes effect 180 days after enactment.
This section directs the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)—the Department of Justice agency responsible for collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data on crime and justice system operations—to (1) collect and analyze comprehensive information on the incarceration of veterans (as defined in 38 U.S.C. 101); and (2) submit to Congress, within 180 days of enactment and annually thereafter, a report describing data collected under this section on veterans incarcerated in state and federal prisons.