The Fairfax County Veterans Treatment Docket will hold a graduation ceremony Thursday, March 8, marking the successful completion of 24 months of comprehensive treatment and supervision by a military veteran.
The ceremony will be held during the 2 p.m. docket in Courtroom 1E, Fairfax County Courthouse, 4110 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax. The public is invited. The guest speaker will be attorney Alexis Stackhouse, a U.S. Air Force Reserve lieutenant colonel in the Judge Advocate General Corps. Stackhouse was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds sustained during a deployment to Iraq.
“We ask much of our men and women in uniform and they ask little in return. We are ultimately responsible for ensuring that whatever effects they suffer in the mission of defending our nation will be treated,” said Fairfax County General District Court Judge Michael J. Lindner. “It is our goal that they emerge with pride, ready to engage their families and community with the dignity and honor they learned during their service in the United States military.”
Since February 2015, selected veterans have been offered the opportunity to participate in an intensive court-supervised treatment program. The Fairfax County Veterans Treatment Docket is designed to address the mental health and substance abuse issues often resulting from the combat stresses of military service.
Across the United States, more than 230 court-supervised veterans treatment programs have been created in courtrooms since 2008. The goal of these programs is to restore the veteran to the community and the family, capable of facing the future in a productive way without reoffending and without resorting to alcohol or drugs.
The docket is held twice monthly. Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Penney S. Azcarate presides over the Circuit Court Veterans Treatment Docket and Lindner presides over the General District Court Veterans Treatment Docket.
CONTACT: Don Northcutt, Docket Coordinator, Fairfax Veterans Treatment Docket, 703-246-2592, Donald.Northcutt@FairfaxCounty.gov, General District Court, 4110 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax, VA 22030