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Nevada Veterans Treatment Courts Approach 10-Year Anniversary

There are more than 200,000 military veterans living in Nevada, according to the latest numbers — of those, nearly 1,100 are incarcerated.

Ten years ago, former governor Jim Gibbons signed legislation creating Nevada’s veterans court system to keep those with mental health issues out of jail and put them into treatment instead. The program was implemented in 2009 and the first veteran treatment court opened in 2011.

There are now five such courts in the state, including four in Clark County. How do they work, and have they changed since their inception? We asked volunteer advocate Byron Brooks and attorney Craig Drummond, both veterans themselves who’ve worked in all the local veteran treatment courts.

Resources:

Clark County District Court

Henderson Municipal Court

Las Vegas Justice Court

Byron Brooks, volunteer advocate; Craig Drummond, attorney 

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Desert Companion welcomed Heidi Kyser as staff writer in January 2014. In 2018, she was promoted to senior writer and producer, working for both DC and KNPR's State of Nevada. She produced KNPR’s first podcast, the Edward R. Murrow Regional Award-winning Native Nevada, in 2020. The following year, she returned her focus full-time to Desert Companion, becoming Deputy Editor, which meant she was next in line to take over when longtime editor Andrew Kiraly left in July 2022. In 2024, Interim CEO Favian Perez promoted Heidi to managing editor, charged with integrating the Desert Companion and State of Nevada newsroom operations.