Continuing legal education session highlights programs that assist military veterans

Continuing legal education session highlights programs that assist military veterans

November 6, 2026

Circuit Judge Kelly L. Mims of Tupelo saw three combat tours of military deployment. He well remembers those who didn’t make it back home.

And the retired Brigadier General continues to see the anguish of those who survived combat, but battle alcoholism and drug addiction as a result of war injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Speaking to lawyers at a continuing legal education program sponsored by the Veterans and Military Assistance Section of the Mississippi Bar in Jackson on Nov. 5, Judge Mims said, “We have a lot of veterans who have returned home and they are still dealing with issues in the past, injuries, PTSD.” It starts with alcohol abuse. “The addictions are a secondary reaction to the trauma they have already dealt with.”

The state’s 23 felony intervention courts provide treatment and intense supervision to rehabilitate drug-using offenders with the goal of returning them to society as productive citizens rather than sending them to prison.

Sixteen of the felony adult programs serve veterans, with 111 veterans enrolled.

Judge Mims urged the approximately 25 lawyers who participated in the CLE to advocate for creation of a veterans track in all intervention courts. He told attorneys to always ask their clients if they are military veterans.

Judge Mims presides over a veterans track under the umbrella of the First Circuit Intervention Court in Alcorn, Itawamba, Lee, Monroe, Pontotoc, Prentiss and Tishomingo counties. He supervises military veterans who have committed felony crimes associated with alcohol and drug addiction. He meets with the group twice a month.

They are assessed for PTSD and receive treatment, if needed, during the first phase of a two-year program.

Judge Mims, a veteran of 34 years of service with the U.S. Army, Mississippi Army National Guard and U.S.

Army Reserve, said, “The whole point is to try to keep from sending these guys to prison.”

Circuit Judge Michael Taylor of Brookhaven also meets separately with veterans in intervention court in the Fourteenth Circuit Court of Lincoln, Pike and Walthall counties. He said, “We owe it to them obviously to handle them well.” Veterans are held accountable like everyone else in intervention court. “It’s not that veterans get a free pass. There are different resources and we handle them differently.”

Among those resources are Veterans Administration benefits for those who were honorably discharged. Some who wind up in intervention court aren’t signed up to receive medical and other benefits. The court program works with representatives of the VA to make those connections.

Judge Taylor, the son of a U.S. Marine, recalled his father rounding up Marines from jail on weekends when the family lived on military bases. He remembered a neighbor, a Korean War veteran, who never left his house. He recalled two men who had psychotic breaks post-Vietnam. But he had not seen a need to treat veterans differently in intervention court – that is, until an Amite County veteran started calling, and calling, and calling. The man had been through a veterans court in Harris County, Texas, and wanted to see a similar program started in southwest Mississippi.

Judge Taylor recalled asking the late Circuit Judge Bob Helfrich of Hattiesburg how to do a veterans track. Helfrich, who was one of the first in the state to establish a veterans court, had a short answer: “Serve them.”

Judge Taylor said that he asked veterans in his intervention court whether they wanted to meet separately. Their answer was a resounding “yes.” They related how the lack of self-discipline among the civilian participants grated on them. “It was driving the veterans crazy to sit through that level of civilian chaos.” He meets separately with the veterans twice a month. The program lasts three years.

“It’s been a very rewarding thing for me,” Judge Taylor said. “It’s not perfect. Nothing is perfect.” Some don’t make it through the program and wind up in prison.

Judge Mims’ voice was tinged with sadness as he recalled one of those who didn’t make it through treatment programs, and committed suicide. As a military medic in Iraq, the man saw enemy prisoners who were shot to death. He was ostracized and passed over for promotion after testifying.

He was kicked out of the Army after alcohol and drugs took their toll. Judge Mims got him into veterans court. Residential treatment didn’t last; he was kicked out twice for infractions. He shot into a neighbor’s house while drunk. Then he committed suicide.

“Get your guys checked for PTSD while they are there,” Judge Mims urged.

Mississippi Court of Appeals Presiding Judge Virginia Carlton of Jackson, who retired at the rank of Colonel after 24 years of military service, is Chair of the Veterans and Military Section of the Mississippi Bar. She outlined other assistance programs. The Veterans Justice Outreach program is available for veterans who encounter legal problems. The program links veterans who encounter the judicial system with VA services including mental health and substance use disorder treatment.

Veterans Justice Outreach specialists work with courts, parole and probation officers and jails to increase awareness of VA services.

She noted that the VA Medical Center in Jackson has a Trauma Recovery Program that includes PTSD residential rehabilitation treatment, an Addictive Disorders Treatment Program, and a Health Care for Homeless Veterans Program.

VA programs are tied to honorable military discharge. The Veterans Legal Clinic at Mississippi Christian University School of Law in Jackson assists veterans who were less than honorably discharged with discharge appeals, among other issues. Gaining a discharge upgrade is difficult, but is a fight that the clinic will pursue, as a discharge upgrade makes a difference in benefits eligibility, said Joel Jones, Lt. Col., Retired, and Clinical Supervising Attorney. The clinic does not engage in litigation or provide assistance in criminal matters.

Sgt. Joshua Bookout of Laurel, a member of the Mississippi Army National Guard, volunteers at the Veterans Legal Clinic. He is a third-year law student. “It’s an opportunity to learn, and to give back to veterans,” he said after the CLE program.

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