March 10, 2014 - Christian Rojas has a plan.The Iraq War veteran wants to get his paralegal certificate. Then, he figures, he'll go into business for himself, helping people write their wills and file motions in court. He dreams of earning a law degree eventually and practicing law.
First, though, he has to get out of prison.
Rojas, 33, is at Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover in Somerset County, where he is serving seven years for holding up a couple of fast-food restaurants in Severn in 2011.
The good news for Rojas: Jim Haskell is ready to help.
Haskell is a clinical social worker in Baltimore with the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has piloted a program in Maryland that allows the agency to identify more veterans in prison. That program — which matches VA records with prison records, enabling the VA to locate twice as many former service members — is now expanding nationwide.
"Because so many people with mental health conditions and substance abuse conditions are winding up in the judicial system, it's really incumbent upon us to reach out to them and make sure that they're getting the proper services that they need," Haskell said. "Basically, that's what we do, is connect veterans to those services." read more>>>
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