America would never send a soldier to fight without basic training. Yet we have sent thousands of vets home unprepared to handle the devastating mental damages of war. Speaking while incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, former combat veteran Ron G. Self shares his personal struggle and outlines a plan to help our veterans.

Find our more about Ron's program Boot Camp Out and the amazing work of Veterans Healing Veterans from the Inside Out (http://www.veteranshealingveterans.com/about.html), a trauma recovery program for veterans who are at risk for suicide or incarceration.

Learn more about San Quentin's exemplary Prison University Project (https://prisonuniversityproject.org/), which was just awarded the National Humanities Medal, and is expanding to prisons throughout California.

Interested in restorative justice? Check out Insight Prison Project's Victim Offender Education Group (http://www.insightprisonproject.org/victim-offender-education-group-voeg.html).

Ron G. Self, a former combat veteran of the United States Marine Corps who served from 1987 to 1996, is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. While in prison, Self's personal struggles prompted him to found the self-help group Veterans Healing Veterans From The Inside Out to try to stop the alarmingly high suicide rate among veterans.

At San Quentin, Self works as the Prisoner Liaison for the Veterans Information Projec to ensure that San Quentin’s incarcerated veterans population has access to all eligible services. A strong advocate for restorative justice, = Self also facilitates two Victim Offender Education Groups (VOEG) as well as a VOEG Next Step group.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx