ABSTRACT
The VTC team consists of the essential, traditional court actors plus key players from criminal justice and social services. Each representative supports a fundamental aspect of the VTC program (e.g., supervision, prosecution, treatment), and the team members aim to work together in a collaborative effort to reach the same goal: to improve lives of justice-involved veterans. The nucleus of this team is the judge, although decisions often reflect collective decision-making during frequent team meetings, and the prosecutor often plays an outsized role in decision-making. Each team member brings a distinct perspective to the table as individual cases are discussed and incentives and sanctions determined in support of therapeutic and legal goals. VTCs, like other PSCs, differ in the composition of their teams, and such differences often arise from community-specific needs, state and local laws, varying degrees of adherence to the Ten Key Components, and local politics and custom.
