While the defendants in this court have been arrested on charges that could mean potential prison time and damaging criminal records, they have another important trait in common: All have served their country in the military.
That combination has landed them here, in veterans treatment court, the first of its kind in the country.
Russell is the head of a courtroom team of veterans' advocates and volunteers determined to make this brush with the criminal justice system these veterans' last.
"They look to the right or to the left, they're sitting there with another vet, and it's a more calming, therapeutic environment," Russell said. "Rather than them being of the belief that 'people don't really understand me,' or 'they don't know what it's like' - well, it's a room full of folks who do."
If the veterans adhere to a demanding one- to two-year regimen of weekly to monthly court appearances, drug testing, and counseling for any combination of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance abuse, or anger management, they could see their charges dismissed, or at least stay out of jail.
After counting 300 veterans in the local courts last year, the judge tailor-made the treatment court to address not only veterans' crimes, but their unique mental health issues.
Charles Lewis, who stood before Russell at a recent session, may be the kind of defendant the judge had in mind. The 25-year-old acknowledged walking out in frustration from his last counseling session.
"We all know that you're a good person who at times has done some inappropriate things," Russell told him. "It's time to get past the nonsense, don't you think?"
Lewis nodded in agreement. A jet mechanic four years into what he thought would be a 20-year Navy career, he severely injured his leg on the flight deck of the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2004 and was discharged.
Forced to rethink his future before his 22d birthday, he returned to Buffalo, where he found work as a laborer and in the concrete business before starting his own concrete company.
