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Inside an experimental, veterans-only jail housing unit

This is HUMV.

In a barracks-style room in Billerica, Massachusetts, 25 veterans wake up each day and divide into squads for physical training and cleaning routines. But they're not on an army base or in a VFW hall — they're in a county jail.

This is HUMV, the inmate-named Housing Unit for Military Veterans, at the Middlesex County Jail. It is one of a small but growing number of jail units dedicated solely to veterans, and it's being used as a model for other jails.

The unit is designed to replicate aspects of the military that will help them feel supported, with walls covered with murals of Iwo Jima, flags, and insignia from a variety of military divisions. It’s also built around daily, targeted rehabilitative opportunities, where inmates have access to rigorous programming that ranges from parenting classes to PTSD counseling.

VICE News went inside HUMV to see what military life is like behind bars before visiting with a professor and Vietnam vet who thinks these prison programs are getting one crucial thing wrong.

This segment originally aired on February 22, 2018, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.