WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Twenty years after local officials in Miami opened the nation's first drug court - a specialized "treatment court" aimed at rehabilitating low-level drug offenders instead of locking them up - state lawmakers in Illinois and Nevada are applying the same idea to a different population: war veterans who have had run-ins with the law.

The two states this year became the first to authorize the statewide creation of special "veterans' courts," which, like existing drug or mental-health courts, use a softer criminal justice approach to rehabilitate - not incarcerate - a select category of offenders charged with nonviolent crimes.

Connecticut, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma and Texas considered similar legislative proposals this year, and individual veterans' courts already exist in Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y.; Anchorage, Alaska; Orange County, Calif.; and Tulsa, Okla.

U.S. Sens. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have pushed similar legislation at the federal level, but their bill stalled in Congress last year.

While drug and mental-health courts are geared toward those with substance-abuse problems or mental illnesses, veterans' courts are designed for current and former military service members who have broken the law - potentially, the courts' proponents say, because they face combat-related stress, financial instability or other difficulties adjusting to life after wartime deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere.

A study by the nonprofit RAND Corporation last year found that about one-fifth of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans - or about 300,000 of the more than 1.6 million U.S. troops to see action in the two wars - reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or "major depression." Many of those veterans did not seek treatment for their problems, the study found.

Relatively minor scrapes

State lawmakers in Illinois and Nevada say troubled veterans who have relatively minor scrapes with the law deserve help, not punishment. They point to the high prevalence of PTSD and other conditions among veterans as possible reasons for their offenses. Backers of the courts also say that treating more low-level offenders will help improve public safety by decreasing the chances they will commit other crimes in the future and will free up valuable jail and prison space for more serious offenders.

Some critics, however, say veterans' courts create a separate system of justice for current and former troops without any evidence that such a system is necessary. Singling out veterans in the criminal justice system, these critics say, is discriminatory because it suggests that veterans are more likely than other citizens to commit crimes.

The veterans' courts envisioned in Illinois and Nevada are modeled on the nation's first veterans' court, started last year in Buffalo, where offenders must complete rigorous and individually tailored treatment programs. Those who are successful can have the criminal charges against them dropped or reduced.

The programs differ from those in drug or mental-health courts because they include mentoring sessions with other veterans and meetings with federal Veterans Administration employees who can steer them toward financial and other benefits they may not know about, according to Judge Robert T. Russell Jr., who created Buffalo's court early last year.

Republican Illinois state Rep. Michael Tryon, who co-sponsored his state's bill to authorize veterans' courts statewide, said he heard about Russell's court and pushed the legislation on the advice of veterans' service organizations in his district. Tryon said veterans charged with crimes would benefit from "liaisons" with similar wartime experiences and practical advice to give.

"It's a shame that somebody who's made that kind of commitment to the country ... sometimes (isn't) in a position to get all the help that's available," Tryon said, noting that he expects Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn to sign the bill, which saw "zero opposition" in the General Assembly.

But in Nevada - where Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons signed the state's measure into law in May - the American Civil Liberties Union opposed the bill, saying it wrongly emphasized some criminal offenders' "status" in society.

Unlike drug courts, which are for those who have committed drug crimes, or mental-health courts, which are for those with diagnosed conditions, veterans' courts are based on who offenders are, said Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the ACLU of Nevada. Veterans' courts are tantamount to creating special courts for "crimes committed by police officers, teachers or politicians," he said.

"In America, we have one justice system for all, and to deviate from that, even for a benign purpose, really does go against our fundamental principles," Lichtenstein said.