113 HR 2669 IH: Community-Based Gang Intervention Act U.S. House of Representatives 2013-07-11 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I 113th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2669 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 11, 2013 Mr. Cárdenas (for himself, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Ms. Bass, Mr. Vargas, Mr. McNerney, Mr. Rush, Ms. Hahn, Ms. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Mr. Garcia, Mr. Gutiérrez, Mr. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Castro of Texas, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Hinojosa, Mr. Nolan, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. Serrano, and Mr. Cohen) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce A BILL To provide definitions of terms and services related to community-based gang intervention to ensure that funding for such intervention is utilized in a cost-effective manner and that community-based agencies are held accountable for providing holistic, integrated intervention services, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Community-Based Gang Intervention Act.

2.

Findings; sense of Congress

(a)

Findings

The Congress finds as follows: (1)For the first time in the history of the United States, more than one in every 100 adults is incarcerated. (2)The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, with more than 2,200,000 people behind bars and another 5,000,000 people on probation or parole. (3)The United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. (4)In 2007, the Federal Government spent $19,617,000,000 on police protection, corrections, and judicial and legal services, representing a 286 percent increase since 1982. This included a 475 percent increase for corrections and a 287 percent increase for police protection. (5)The growing prison system is also impacting State budgets, with total State spending on incarceration topping $53,000,000,000 in 2012, up from $10,000,000,000 in 1987. (6)With increased prison costs, vital social programs and services such as education, job creation, housing, and healthcare are being cut or eliminated to maintain the prison industry. (7)Between 1987 and 2007, the amount States spent on corrections increased 127 percent, while the increase in higher education spending was only 21 percent. (8)Over the past 10 years, the State of California’s general fund expenditures for higher education have fallen 9 percent, while general fund expenditures for corrections and rehabilitation have increased 26 percent. (9)The State of California has the second largest prison population in the nation with 165,062 prisoners under the jurisdiction of State or Federal correctional authorities in 2010. (10)According to one study, there are now 6 times as many gangs and at least twice the number of gang members in Los Angeles since the start of the 30 year war on gangs. (11)The City and County of Los Angeles have been dubbed the gang capital of the Nation with an estimated 463 gangs and 38,974 gang members in the City, and more than 1,300 gangs and 150,000 gang members in the County. (12)According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, allowing 1 youth to leave school for a life of crime and drug abuse costs society between $1,700,000 and $2,300,000. (13)In the State of California, the average annual cost per inmate is $47,421 for an adult inmate, and $218,000 for a youth inmate. (14)The most recent data on overall State spending on juvenile justice programs reveals that in 1998, States spent nearly $4,200,000,000 on juvenile justice related programs, which was a 65 percent increase from fiscal year 1994. Of those expenditures, 67 percent went towards residential placements, while only 8.4 percent went towards delinquency prevention. (15)Gang and youth violence substantially decreases when governments address the root causes of gang violence and adequately fund community-based programs and practices. (16)Studies continue to prove that community-based gang intervention provides long-lasting, cost-effective results and opportunities for the youth and families most susceptible to gang violence. (b)

Sense of Congress

It is the sense of Congress that, in developing a comprehensive violence reduction strategy, the United States should acknowledge and address larger, entrenched social conditions and issues such as poverty, homelessness, inadequate educational systems, and limited economic opportunities that give rise to gangs and gang violence.

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