Prevention Programs
If resources are scarce, doesn't it make more sense to put money where it
is more successful. There are numerous studies which show that
"prevention" is better than waiting and then "locking 'em
up."
The problem with using prisons as our only alternative is that we haven't
made any progress toward stopping future crime. The inequities and problems on
the street are still there and creating new offenders.
The medical profession has recently seen many of the benefits of practicing
"preventative" medicine rather than waiting for the consequences and
trying to help the problem after it has occurred. The criminal justice system
needs to start doing this too.
Also, keep an eye on politicians who claim to be putting more towards
"preventative" programs. Sometimes the money ends up in police
enforcement and prisons instead. In addition, remember that new programs do
nothing for the 3-strikers who have already been sentenced.
The following are some statistics and comments from books and articles on
prevention programs. PLEASE SEND US NEW DATA AND ARTICLES IF YOU HAVE THEM.
Money for preventative programs vanishes.
In September of 1997, tens of millions of dollars proposed for juvenile
crime prevention vanished when the state scrambled for money to repay a $1.3
billion debt to the Public Employees Retirement System.
In Los Angeles County, probation officers supervise more than 20,000
juvenile arrestees and wards of the court. But the county's one state-assisted
model prevention program, a pilot study begun last year, reaches a mere 35 or
36 families concentrated in the Long Beach area and has little immediate hope
of expanding.
Early in 1997, state legislators proposed more than $200 million for county
programs in California--four times as much as 1996--that would offer close
monitoring of troubled youths. But with the retirement fund debt, the $200
million shrank to $36 million, then bottomed out to $12 million in allocations.
Senate
Bill 822 for $100 million and
Senate
Bill 1108 for $50 million were held up in committees because of the budget
crunch. Both bills were for funding juvenile prevention programs.
In the end, said Alan Clarke, who lobbies for county probation chiefs,
"we got scratch" of what is needed to test and expand new techniques.
If prevention resources even remotely approached funds for detention,
authorities say, results would be spectacular. "Give me 1% of the [state
prison] budget and I will give you a community corrections program in probation
that will be the envy of the world," said Los Angeles County probation
chief Walter Kelly.
Kelly said his department's prevention programs "touch only a portion
of the target population."
Overall--using old money and new--California last year spent about $140
million on programs with a component of juvenile crime prevention, most of it
scattered across uncoordinated programs, according to David Steinhart. He is
director of the Commonweal Juvenile Justice program based in Marin County which
advocates prevention and tracks related state legislation. This year the total
dropped to $100 million, he said. LATimes, 11/28/97.
Wilson Vetoes Preventative Programs.
Governor Pete Wilson vetoed three bills that would have helped set up
preventative programs for juvenile youths. The three bills were SB668, SB669
and SB690.
SB668 by Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Cruz) would have established
restitution programs and helped offenders with education and other tools.
SB669 by Vasconcellos would have required state and local juvenile
authorities to offer parenting courses to high school students.
SB980 by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) would have set up a task force to
hold public hearings and recommend new gang-violence prevention methods.LATimes,
11/28/97.
Push grows to help kids after school
At a morning conference on the topic sponsored by the California Wellness
Foundation and the PTA, Attorney General Bill Lockyer said the state spent
about $50 million on after-school programs last year. "But we need to
spend about $200 million to $300 million to do all that we really should to
provide the services that are needed around the state," he said. A poll
funded by a Wellness Foundation grant and released Thursday indicated public
support may be growing for more such programs.
The survey of 1,200 registered California voters, conducted in late March by
Democratic pollster Paul Maslin and GOP pollster Ed Goeas, found that juvenile
crime was the top concern in their own communities, outpacing other issues such
as crime in general and education. That contrasts with polls asking voters to
name the top statewide problem, where education is No. 1. Sac Bee, 5/7/99.
Director of Orange County Probation Department calls
for early intervention programs.
After 32 years as a probation officer in both Los Angeles and Orange
County, Bill Brooks has come to the conclusion that either we can "pay now
or pay later." "Either we invest the resources necessary to
successfully intervene with this young offender population we believe destined
for gang membership, or we pay a horrendous price later, both is fiscal and
human terms," Brooks wrote.
"We believe that this strategy of aggressive early intervention,
coupled with the concentrated resources we are bringing to bear, will, for some
minors, make a difference in what seems to be an inexorable progression from a
first offense at an early age to full-blown gang membership by the time these
same minors are 16 or 17 years old. The 8% study, in fact, indicated that
at age 14, 15% of the minors in the 8% group were already involved in gangs in
some way, and by age 16, 65% of the minors in the same category were well on
their way to becoming gang members. Obviously this presents a window of
opportunity for intervention, and we believe that by giving these young people
a choice, and the support they need, some of them will not go on to join
gangs." LATimes, 4/5/98.
Orange County child welfare system
"antiquated," has "too many children," and "too little
oversight."
The LA Times (OC) had access for a better part of the year to Orange
County's child welfare system and "found an antiquated institution
struggling under the weight of too many children and too little
oversight. A system that all too frequently fails the very children it is
charged to protect."
The problems found in Orange County, according to judges, attorneys, social
workers and children's advocates statewide, are identical to those faced by
kids caught up in the child welfare system throughout California.
At 18, the children are then put on the street and given a duffel bag of
household supplies.
Study after study show that these children later turn up in
disproportionate numbers in prisons, mental hospitals and drug treatment
centers. By one estimate, more than 50% end up homeless. Sixty
percent leave the government's care without a diploma. Lacking a sense
of family, many duplicate the mistakes of their own parents and produce yet
another generation of system kids.
A typical facility known as Orangewood was designed for 236 children, but
regularly squeezes in 40 or 50 more, with mattresses on the floor and cribs
wedged wall to wall. The children range in age from 2-day-old infants to
developmentally disabled 19-year-olds. Invariably 40% are under 6.
The goal is that nobody will stay longer than 30 days, but months later,
many children still remain. In such institutions, many of the kids abuse
each other and slip away becoming "outs." When kids are placed
in homes, social workers admit that they have no choice but to often put them
in homes they are believe are doing a poor job.
In Orange County, matters continue to grow worse as the number of kids
living away from their families by court order has grown from 2,600 to more
than 3,800--more than 45%--since 1993. Nearly one child in five has spent
more than 5 years in the child welfare system. Some have lived anywhere
else.
Arrests for willful cruelty to a child in Orange County leaped 121% between
1990 and 1996--more than double the rate of any major California county and 30
times higher than the statewide rate. Sexual assaults on children rose
too, as did the number of battered kids entering the system.
LATimes, 5/21/98.
California child services sedate children with
potent drugs for caretakers' convenience.
During an investigation of California child service programs,
the LA Times concluded "Children under state protection in California
group and foster homes are being drugged with potent, dangerous psychiatric
medications, at times just to keep them obedient and docile for their
overburdened caretakers."
There isn't a good way of saying how many of the 100,000
foster children are being given mood-altering medications, but a review of
hundreds of confidential court files and prescription records, as well as many
interviews, revealed that a significant number of youngsters are being drugged
in combinations and dosages that experts in psychiatric medication said were
risky--and could cause irreversible harm.
In Los Angeles County, dependency court judges last year
approved requests to medicate about 4,500 kids. That doesn't include
those drugged with parental consent or those drugged with no consent at all,
which experts believe is a significant problem. In addition, a county
grand jury found in 1997 that nearly half the group home children it examined
were drugged without court or parental consent.
Many experts say the apparently widespread practice of
drugging amounts to a form of medical experimentation on some of the state's
most vulnerable kids--those taken from parents who abused them. In many
instances, the doctors who prescribe what their colleagues call "chemical
straitjackets" aren't psychiatrists and have little training in the highly
specialized field of psychiatric medications.
An estimated 800,000 children and adolescents nationwide last
year were prescribed antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft,
according to IMS America, an industry research firm that surveys
physicians. Another half a million children, aged 6 to 12, were
prescribed Tegretol and Depakote, two adult antimanic, antiseisure drugs, the
firm's data shows. And in 1996 some 3.25 million in that age group were
prescribed drugs such as Ritalin to control hyperactivity, IMS America
says. LATimes, 5/17/98.
With a lack of prevention programs, this is how we want to
control the younger generation?
Police and victims push preventative programs.
The group "Fight Crime: Invest in Kids" is a new crime prevention
organization led by police chiefs, prosecutors and crime victims.
Sanford Newman, president, said " . . . more prisons are no substitute
for prevention because prisons can't bring back a murdered child or undo the
agony of crime. The most powerful weapons against crime are the programs that
Congress short changes year after year, the investments in programs that help
children and teens get a good start."
Marc Klaas, whose 12-year-old daughter, Polly, was kidnapped from her
Petaluma home and slain in 1993, was citing studies that indicated intensive
early-childhood programs were the key to vast reductions in later crime by the
targeted children. When lawmakers "ignore our most effective weapons
against crime, the way I see it, they're being soft on crime," Klaas said.
The GOP-led Congress has underfunded prevention efforts in the 1994 crime
law, and the group says the pending juvenile crime bills are heavy on law
enforcement, light on prevention.
A House-passed juvenile crime bill would offer $500 million a year in
grants--none of which could be used for prevention--only to states that allow
for more juveniles to be treated as adults, punish juveniles for every offense
and keep adult-type criminal records on them.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is considering similar legislation. It would
require states to use 35% of the grants for juvenile detention facilities, 15%
for drug testing youths who are arrested, and 10% for criminal record-keeping.
OC-Register, 7/4/97.
Parent training programs twice as effective as the
3-Strikes law
Taking into account many factors, it is estimated to cost between $12,000
and $16,000 per year under the 3-Strikes law to decrease one serious criminal
act; however, it is estimated to cost only $6,500 per year using parent
training programs of targeted high-risk youths to decrease one serious criminal
act. And, these amounts do not take into account the injustice of
over-punishing the non-violent offenders that results from California's
3-Strikes. Rand Corporation,
1996.
Delinquent supervision programs as effective as
the 3-Strikes law.
Taking into account many factors, it is estimated to cost between $12,000
and $16,000 per year under the 3-Strikes law to decrease one serious criminal
act; however, it is estimated to also cost only $14,000 per year using direct
supervision programs of targeted high-risk youths to decrease one serious
criminal act. And, these amounts do not take into account the injustice of
over-punishing the non-violent offenders that results from California's
3-Strikes. Rand Corporation,
1996.
Congressional bills wrong, research shows
prevention programs more effective than prison.
An L.A. Times editorial says that U.S. Congress should promote preventive
programs instead of simply "locking them up earlier and longer."
"The House can affirm the importance of preventive measures by voting
next week for a bill authored by Rep. Frank Riggs (R-Windsor), a former police
officer. His measure, HR 1818, would funnel money to state and local agencies
for a range of prevention programs like mentoring, drug and alcohol treatment
and job training. The bill's preventive focus provides need balance to the
House's punitive bill, HR 3, by Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.)."
"The debate in Congress should not be over which interventions are
hard or soft but which are effective or ineffective."
LA-Times, 7/13/97.
After-school programs in Baltimore are successful in
decreasing crime.
Law enforcement officials in Baltimore are in high praise of after-school
care programs that were put in place in their city.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Thomas Frazier started his job in 1994 with a
dilemma: When the the bell rang at the end of the school day, it was
open season for juvenile predators in many of the city's neighborhoods.
Frazier, however, tossed aside the political "tough on crime" crowd
and said intervening in the lives of school-age children early might be a lot
cheaper than locking them up later.
Today, a network of 29 PAL Centers (Police Athletic League) costs the city
of Baltimore about $5.7 million and federal grants and philanthropic
foundations kick in $2.3 million more. Police officers staff the centers
along with AmeriCorps volunteers. The centers provide sports and activity clubs
and tutoring, mentoring and homework assistance. The program serves about
7,500 children citywide at no charge. Although sports and clubs may draw
many to the centers, all PAL participants--whether they are 7 or 17 years
old--must put in two hours of homework before any games or activities begin.
In the 3 years since the first PAL Center began, that rate at which
juveniles became the victims of a crime in the neighborhood fell by almost 44%,
and arrests of juveniles dropped by 16%, a police analysis of crime statistics
showed. In addition, the academic performance of children participating
in the PAL program improved so markedly that teachers at the area's nearby
public schools were astonished. And preliminary studies suggest that teen
pregnancy rates have also dipped.
"There is no doubt in my mind that it's the right thing to do,"
says Frazier. "You walk into the center and you just feel it. It's
awesome. For kids this young to be this engaged, this late in the day,
is just astounding."
After-school programs beyond Baltimore have shown similar effects: In
the 1980s, Ottawa, Canada, launched a comprehensive after-school program at one
of its public housing projects. Investigators found that over the next 32
months, juvenile crime fell 75% among children living in that single housing
project. Among children at a project without such a program, juvenile
crime rose 67%.
No one knows the true scale of the need for after-school care. For
starters, parents are reluctant to admit to survey -takers that they leave
their children alone. And there is no central clearinghouse for
gathering or maintaining data on any regular basis. But of 24 million
American children ages 5 to 14, the National Institute on Out-of-School Time
estimates that at least 1 in 5 are in unsupervised households after
school. Those children spend an average of 10 hours a week home alone,
and the proportion of those in so-called self-care rises steeply as children
pass the 10-year mark.
The U.S. Education Department reported in 1991--the last time such a
measure was taken--that formal after-school care programs serve only about 1.7
million, less than 7%, of children ages 5 to 13. In California, only 31%
of public schools offered extended-day programs in 1993-94, the last year for
which figures are available.
An after-school bill drafted by Sen. Boxer (D-Calif.) went down to defeat
in April of 1998 in the Senate by a mere two votes. The measure would
have set aside $250 million over the next five years to provide grants for
public schools seeking to start or expand after-school programs. Boxer
expects to press the case for her bill and hopes to mobilize law enforcement
officials to lobby for its passage.
LATimes, 5/18/98.
Tom Hayden calls for more effort on prevention.
In an editorial written in the LA-Times by Tom Hayden during his election
campaign for mayor of LA, he stated, "We need a new consensus to be
equally tough on the causes of violence." His comprehensive approach
involves (1) breaking the cycle of domestic violence, (2) reducing the number
of school dropouts, (3) a living wage, (4) drug treatment, and (5) rebuilding
LA.
Hayden cited that LA needs an inclusionary peace process that reinforces
gang truces and follows up with economic incentives. He notes that psychiatrist
James Gilligan, who directed a study of violence at Harvard Medical School,
believes that violence is a disease that can be treated. Violence, he believes,
arises from an uncontrollable experience of shame.
Hayden continued: "Too many kids are born into zip codes of shame.
They live in a city glutted with guns, drugs and alcohol. They plan more their
funerals than their futures. When shame and dishonor get the better of them,
self-destructive violence results."
"We need to transform these zip codes of shame to communities of hope.
We will pay one way or the other. The cost of holding a kid in the California
Youth Authority is $31,000 a year; the cost of educating a child, $4,500. A
prison cell costs $100,000." OC-LATimes, 2/10/97.
CCPOA advocates use of day reporting centers.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association states:
"Day reporting is one-tenth the cost of incarceration and would improve
public safety by saving prison space for serious and dangerous offenders. Such
a program for nonviolent, non-serious offenders with no prior prison records
would eliminate the need for at least one new prison."
Little Hoover Commission Report, Jan. 1998, p.
36.
Orange County to expand preventative programs.
Taking a step in the right direction, Orange County says it will begin
focusing on social, health care and crime-prevention programs that were
neglected during county government's three-year struggle out of bankruptcy
"The idea is to break the cycle that tends to lead to expensive social
problems that the county will have to deal with" in the future, said
outgoing Board of Supervisors Chairman William G. Steiner. "We are looking
for programs that have a strong return on the investment--that save us the
costs of dealing with the problems later."
The Board of Supervisors increased funding
for preventive programs by $40 million in 1997. While the sum is a tiny
fraction of the county's $3.6-billion budget--and advocates for the poor say it
barely begins to address the gaps in services for the needy--Steiner and others
see it as an important first step toward expanding programs with proven track
records. LATimes, 1/5/98.
Santa Ana receives $1 million grant for pilot mentoring
and recreation program.
Demonstrating some wisdom over emotions, Santa Ana will be part of a
mentoring and recreation program. The Police Department will select 100
eighth-graders who have failed at least two classes to participate in the
yearlong program.
The hope is that Santa Ana will create a model project that will be used to
instruct police departments nationwide in creating an effective community-based
policing strategy. LATimes,
3/18/98.
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Date last modified: 7/1/99.
