"Nearly one in 10 inmates have served in the military. Matthew Wolfe on how the system fails them—and the new prison dorms that could help them get back on track...
"Last year Boyd was transferred to Haynesville Correctional Center, a medium-security prison deep in the Virginia boondocks. He lives in Building 5, a white structure whose exterior suggests an airplane hangar. Everyone in Boyd’s dorm is a military veteran. In 2012 Virginia began a pilot program to house vets separately from other inmates. The state believes that re-creating some of the trappings of military life in a prison setting might reduce recidivism....
"A certain number of veterans suffering from mental-health issues will, invariably, end up in jail or prison. After Vietnam, the number of inmates with prior military service rose steadily until reaching a peak in 1985, when more than one in five was a veteran....
"In the veterans dorm, though, fights are almost nonexistent. If a conflict between inmates arises, there’s an intervention where everyone sits down and hash it out internally. The mood is calm and the dorm orderly. In the morning, racks are made, shoes squared away. Boyd and another group of vets meet for PTSD group on Thursday. The unit holds veterans from five different wars, and the average age of the dorm is a decade or two older than the inmates in gen pop. Boyd told me the level of trust was such that no one bothered to lock their footlockers...."
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