A new housing unit, aimed at supporting military veterans in custody, opened Wednesday at the Denver Sheriff Department detention center in Denver.

The community-based housing aims to create a structured environment that fosters rehabilitation, personal growth, and successful reintegration back into society upon release.

“Many of the individuals in this passage have faced trauma, hardship and systemic barriers that contributed to their justice involvement,” said speaker Major José Gurulé. “We believe they deserve targeted support and a path towards healing.”

Housing Unit for Military Veterans (HUMV) will function as a modified therapeutic community, with program leaders and nonprofit partners holding classes in the space.

The unit will provide veterans with specialized programming including job training programs, trade school training, financial literacy, anger management courses and individualized re-entry plans.

The housing unit is joining El Paso County Jail and Jefferson County Detention facility in its creation, the only others in Colorado.

“What we have seen with other agencies that have done this is that they tend to be way more self-regulated, follow the institutional rules in a better manner and really focus on rehabilitation,” said Gurulé.

Housing security level at the detention center depends on what kind of criminal history an individual has. Military veterans self-identify upon booking into the jail and are evaluated to see if they would be a good fit for the unit.

The open-housing style provides individuals with the most amount of out of cell time, most amount of time to use phones and visit with their families.

According to Gurulé, the unit has been a goal for the Denver Sheriff Department for years, and it now has the population for the unit as more veterans enter their custody.

“As a combat veteran myself, I know firsthand the struggles that veterans deal with on the heels of their service,” said Jeff Holliday, chief of staff for the Denver Department of Public Safety. “There are unique challenges that unfortunately sometimes bring them face to face with our justice system that isn’t always prepared to deal with the sorts of unique traumas that veterans have had to deal with as a function of their service.

Forty-five veterans in custody will move into the new unit Wednesday night. The space can house 64 men in total.

“This is one step closer to building a correctional system that sees the full humanity of those in our care,” said Gurulé.