Veterans in Prison

We demand:

1: that the British Government undertake an investigation in order to ascertain:

A – how many veterans are there currently serving time  in the British prison system?
B – how many of these have served in conflict situations?
C – how many show signs of suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

2: that the scale of these problems then be publicly acknowledged and, following the example of the US, a recovery programme be put in motion:

A – that for serving personnel ensure that there is an extensive de-briefing/desensitization programme after active service – and that comprehensive re-training procedures be put in place to help veterans settle back into civilian life.
B – that the MoD Medical Services be instructed to improve their recognition of, and treatment for, serving personnel suffering from PTSD – and that they liaise with the NHS about treatment for veterans in civvy street.
C – that medical procedures be put in pace to ensure that veterans in prison who are experiencing psychological problems can be tested for PTSD – and if found to be suffering from this condition, be treated for it in a way that suits their special needs.
D – that PTSD be officially recognised as a ‘mitigating circumstance’ in future trials of veterans suffering from this condition and that the trials of veterans already in the prison system be examined retrospectively if they are thought to have been suffering from PTSD when committing their offences.

WE SAY:

The early years of h conflict in Northern Ireland coincided with the latter days of the Vietnam War. One legacy of the USA’s involvement in Vietnam was the psychological problems that afflicted many of the GI’s after they returned home.  In 1990, 15 years after the ending of the Vietnam War, a study in the USA found that over 15% of Vietnam Veterans were still suffering from PTSD. Many with this condition were unemployed and liable to abuse alcohol or drugs.  70% had failed marriage an almost half had served terms in prison.

The Vietnam Veterans survival Guide explained that:

A veteran with PTSD generally has one or more combinations of symptoms.  Adding that these varied from veteran to veteran, it listed some of the symptoms:
A psychological numbness, usually directly after a traumatic event, and continuing for weeks, months or even years.
Guilt over surviving when others did not.
Anxiety or nervousness.
Depression or deep sadness.
Nightmares or flashbacks in which the veteran re-experiences traumatic events.
Jumpiness, especially in response to sounds that remind the veteran of events from the war.
Difficulty developing close relationship with people at work, at home or in a social setting.
Difficulty sleeping or concentrating.
Avoidance of certain memories.
Using alcohol or drugs in attempts to calm down or forget.

Since 1969 many thousands of young soldiers from Britain have served tours of duty in Northern Ireland and faced varying degrees of hostility and experienced violent confrontations.  While the scale of the conflict was undoubtedly greater in Vietnam, there is increasing evidence that a significant number of ex-soldiers who served in Northern Ireland, the Falklands, and the Gulf, Bosnia, Kosovo and the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East have experienced psychological and/or other rehabilitation problems on their return to Civvy Street.  A study by CRISIS into homeless people in London found that ‘around one quarter of all single homeless people have served in the forces’.  29% of the ex-service people interviewed said they were suffering from nerves, depression and stress.  41% of them had spent time in prison.  Some earlier veterans of WW11, Malaya, Kenya, Aden, /Cyprus, Suez, Oman and Brunei have also suffered similar problems and some ended up in prison.  In the absence of official statistics detailing the number of ex-soldiers in? British prisons, some of the jailed veterans have tried to find out figures for themselves.  Based on replies to ads placed in prisoners’ paper Inside Time and on head counts taken in prisons, they believe that around 5% of prisoners could be ex-squaddies.  With the prison population in England and Wales totalling well over 63,000 in early 1998, this suggests that several thousand prisoners are ex-soldiers (Scottish prisons probably have a similar proportion).  Of course not all prisons might have the same percentage of ex-soldiers, but certainly, over he  past 3 decades thousands of Northern Ireland veterans have served time in British jails and there are many hundreds still in the prison system, a much higher percentage than average for any other profession.

Like the Vietnam Veterans, for British ex-soldiers the aftermath of conflict has often meant HOMELESSNESS, ALCOHOLISM, DRUGS, DIVORCE, PRISON AND SUICIDE, and this is happening on a much larger scale than is generally known.

Dr Morgan O’Connell was an ex-armed forces consultant psychiatrist.  In an interview in the Belfast Telegraph Dr O’Connell said that a ‘separate prison should be established to deal with the needs of increasing numbers of former servicemen now behind bars’  the article continued;

Dr O’Connell, who was attached to the Royal Navy and was with the forces in the Falklands War, claims there are a disproportionate number of ex-servicemen in the prison system suffering from mental disorders like PTSD.
He recently set up a PTSD management programme at Holy Cross Hospital in Hasllemere, Surrey, and was struck by the number of ex-servicemen attending fresh from prison.
Dr O’Connell says there needs to be a special therapeutic community established to deal with the problems of the ex-servicemen.
‘I’m not trying to say that they should not be in prison but that their misbehaviour reflects a traumatic experience they endured while serving their country and that condition needs  to be examined.’
PTSD is a syndrome arising out of an unusual experience – the experience that created the condition is trapped in the victim’s memory and can be triggered at any tine.
When the event involves extreme violence, failure to treat the condition means that the victim is in effect ‘a walking time bomb’ waiting to go off at any time.
(Belfast Telegraph 16th March 1998)

Veterans and relatives state that their attempts to seek help from the Mod and organisations like Combat Stress is often in vain, especially when the ex-soldier is known to have been in trouble or appears potentially violent.  It is also apparent that the NHS struggles to understand and help ex-soldiers suffering from conditions like PTSD.  The MoD and successive British governments have turned a blind eye to the plight of their Northern Ireland veterans.  As a consequence of not receiving any help or their rehabilitation back into Civvvy street, or treatment for conditions like PTSD, many ex-soldiers have found themselves without a job, homeless and often drinking or excess and/or taking drugs.  A course that frequently leads to trouble, violence and jail.  As a result a considerable number of ex-soldiers who once served in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces in Ireland are subsequently serving time in Her Majesty’s Prisons.  They have been abandoned by their military ad political leaders and their cries for help are ignored.  They seek help to publicise their predicament and put pressure on the authorities to publicly acknowledge that many ex-soldiers o their return from tours of duty in Northern Ireland, have had experiences that parallel those of the Vietnam Veterans.

The Americans realised that they had messed up over what the Vietnam War had done to their GI’s and this psychological damage was officially recognised five years after the war had ended – after a long campaign by Vietnam Veterans and sympathetic psychiatrists.  Like the USA after Vietnam, the key is for the British authorities to officially recognise that many British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland and other conflicts have ended up in Civvy Street facing psychological and/or other rehabilitation problems – and some have ended up in prison.  Publicity should then be given to the issue, to explain it and fain public awareness, understanding and support.  Testing and treatment can then be set in motion for those veterans who are suffering from PTSD.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

About 350 veterans of recent conflicts including Northern Ireland, the Falklands and the Gulf or of peacekeeping in Bosnia and Kosovo are engaged in ‘group action’ to sue the MoD. Veterans In Prison believe that attempts are and have been made to spread mis-information about the veterans’ case and intentions so we produced this Q and A sheet to explain why so many veterans are taking their former employer, the MoD, to court.

Aren’t the men who are suing the MoD just wimps?
These are men who served in Northern Ireland, the Falklands, and the Gulf an other conflicts and who knew the risks and were willing to face them – often time and time again.  Afterwards, they were abandoned by their military and political leaders and their cries for help ignored.  Some of these veterans are ‘highly decorated’ soldiers who are undoubtedly as brave as men from previous conflicts.
Why are the veterans suing the MoD?
The veterans have suffered psychological injuries which resulted from their front line experiences - for which they have received little or no help.  Nearly all the veterans would prefer not to have to sue, but they have done so as a last resort because the MoD refuse to recognise the problems that they have experience in civvy street.  Any of these veterans are suffering from PTSD – a condition that was called ‘shell shock’ on the First World War and ‘Combat Fatigue ‘in the Second World War.
What is PTSD?
PTSD is not a mental illness.  It is a normal reaction to an abnormal event – usually the loss of human life is involved.  After a traumatic incident, untreated psychological trauma will either be assimilated after a few days or it will start to develop into PTSD.  Most civilians will only experience this condition if they are involved in a plane/train/car crash, a fire or a boat sinking etc, but nowadays the normal procedure for civilian disasters is for a team of psychiatrists/psychologists to treat the survivors and the rescue teams.  Soldiers, however, while often deliberately placed in situations where they will be expected to kill or be killed or face conflict situations where life is deliberately taken through shootings and bombings, are left untreated.  The MoD have, and still are, ignoring the condition of their soldiers in the aftermath of traumatic incidents.  In some cases veterans who were clearly suffering PTSD were sent back into conflict situations and afterwards many ex-soldiers have been left to cope with this condition alone.
But surely anyone joining the army can expect to be put in extreme situations where they might have to kill or be killed?
That is true, but let us first of all look at what happens if a soldier receives a physical wound.   Suppose a patrol was on the Falls Road in Belfast and a shot rings out and a soldier was badly wounded.  It could be argued that soldiers mist have known the risk of serving in Northern Ireland and it would be costly of money/resources to save that soldiers life.  But surely no one would argue that just because the soldiers knew they faced risks that men who were shot should be left to bleed to death on  a Belfast street.  In reality, once a soldier is wounded, then they are immediately taken to hospital and can be certain that every effort will be made to save their life – and afterwards continue to receive treatment until they are fully recovered. All soldiers know that in conflict they might lose their lives or end up cripple for life.  Physical injuries in war are expected, calculated with steely precision and weighed against proposed objectives.  For many others the wounds do not show, not in a limp, or a scar, or in a false limb or arm.  Their injuries are locked in their memories, wrapped in the bandages of their emotions – but this represents a sacrifice every bit as dear and costly.  For veterans suffering from PTSD this condition is like a wound – only one that is hidden – from which they are suffering because of the traumatic incidents experienced during their front line tours of duty.  Veterans with PTSD believe that their condition should be detected and recognised, and like soldiers who have been shot, that they should receive treatment at a level that offers hope of recovery.  Unfortunately, up till now, this is not happening.
Don’t the MoD, the government and the NHS recognise PTSD and help serving and ex-soldiers suffering from this condition?
It is true that the MoD say they are aware of PTSD and that they help soldiers who suffer from it.  But the veterans and relatives finds that their attempts to seek help from the MoD and other government organisations is often in vain, especially when the ex-soldier is known to have been in trouble or appears potentially violent.  They also say it is very apparent that the NHS struggles to understand and help ex-soldiers suffering from conditions like PTSD.  That so many veterans and  relatives have had bad experiences and received negative responses  when seeking help suggests that the Mod and successive governments are only paying lip service about providing help and would like to ensure this problem is kept out if public sight – rather than do something about it.
But don’t organisations like the Royal British Legion, the /War Pensions /agency and Combat Stress provide help?
The Royal British Legion have known about this problem for a number of years, however, while there are concerned RBL members who think help should be given, up till now the organisation has done absolutely nothing about it.  The experiences of many veterans with the War Pension Agency is that it is bound up with ‘red tape’, which makes obtaining help, or any sort of pension, a distressing and long drawn out process.  Combat /stress do good work with many ex-servicemen but they will not help any who are ‘in trouble with the police’ or in prison.  When veterans have contacted Combat /Stress from prison they have been told ‘when you get out of prison contact us and we will see if we can help you’, which means to the veteran in prison – ‘until then rot!’
How will a veteran know if they are suffering from PTSD?
The Veterans and their Families Survival Guide to PTSD written by Jimmy Johnson explains that a veteran with PTSD generally has one or more combinations of symptoms, these vary from veteran to veteran but, with the Guide they can learn to recognise the symptoms that affect them, also their families (who often see the changes in a loved one first) can verify these symptoms and strange behaviour patterns.  The Guide also re-iterates the symptoms a described by the Vietnam Veterans. 
How can the veterans be helped?
Like in the USA, after Vietnam, the key is for the British authorities to officially that many British soldiers have suffered the same, and put in proper checks, screening and desensitization programmes in place for all serving soldiers and veterans.