Should veterans get a ‘second look’ at long prison sentences after military service?
California allows veterans to petition courts to consider their military service under "second look" resentencing. Advocates say other states should, too.
Patty Nieberg
Published Apr 16, 2026 3:21 PM EDT
Veterans’ advocates are pressing to allow judges and courts to consider a veteran’s military service when giving a “second look” to excessively long prison sentences. So-called second look reductions of long prison sentences are now allowed in federal courts and 25 states, but veterans groups say Congress needs to ensure that those reviews take military service into account.
“We’re facing the consequences of Iraq and Afghanistan, and even though we’re a few years away from those, still a lot of veterans are affected by that experience,” said Chuck Hagel, who served as Secretary of Defense from 2013 to 2015. Hagel now works with the Council on Criminal Justice Veterans Justice Commission, which is pushing to include military service in second look programs, Hagel said, and to understand, “why are there so many veterans incarcerated that get themselves in trouble and land in jail?”
In 2016, the Department of Justice reported that 107,400 veterans were serving time in state or federal prison. An analysis of a national survey found that nearly one-third of veteran respondents (31.1%) had been arrested and booked, a significantly higher rate than civilian respondents (18.0%).
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/veteran-policy-second-look/
