This County Jail Opened Up Wing To Help Military Vets

“B Wing” is now home to eight former service members who asked to be part of the inaugural McLennan County Jail Veteran Inmate C.O.V.E.R. Program.

“Creating opportunities for veterans through education and reintegration,” said Sgt. Marco Hinojos, Veteran Wing Coordinator. "We’re absolutely trying to fulfill every single one of those letters in that acronym, and I feel that we're going to do that now with the programs that we're bringing in here."

Through programs at the VA, MHMR, and Veteran’s One Stop, among others, services like counseling, job training, substance abuse treatment, claim assistance and more will be brought directly to the select group of inmates while they’re incarcerated.

"Try to get the veteran as much help as we can, and that they have available to them, because some of them, unfortunately, are not eligible for federal benefits, therefore they don't get any mental health or any healthcare, any monetary benefits." said Steve Hernandez, Veterans Service Officer for McLennan County. "We don't really know what they've experienced, we don't really know what traumatic effects they have, we don't know why they've gotten in trouble, but we do know that we have the opportunity to steer them and help them with the rehab portion and not necessarily the punishment portion."

Military vets make up about eight percent of prison and jail populations In the U.S., according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.