I 111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 3526 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 31, 2009 Ms. Watson introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor 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.

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Short title

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

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Findings; Sense of Congress

(a)

Findings

The Congress finds as follows: (1)For the first time in American history, more than one in every 100 adults is now incarcerated in prison or jail. (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 growing prison system is impacting every State, with total State spending on incarceration toppling $44,000,000,000 in 2007, up from $10,000,000,000 in 1987. (4)Prisons are the fourth-largest State budget item, behind, health, education, and transportation. (5)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. (6)From 1982 to 2005, direct expenditures for the judicial system increased by 474 percent, including an increase of 619 percent for corrections, and an increase of 396 percent for police. These increases resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending. (7)Increased spending on the major criminal justice functions (including police, corrections, and judicial functions) has forced local governments to spend more of their general fund expenditures on corrections and incarceration. (8)The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, including China, whose population is more than 4 times as large. As a result the United States expends large sums on corrections and incarceration, while gang prevention and intervention resources and programming continue to be under funded. (9)The most recent data for national spending on juvenile justice is from 1994, and reveals that States spent $2,600,000,000 on juvenile justice expenditures. State funded residential settings, such as detention centers, accounted for 65 percent ($1,690,000,000) of total juvenile justice expenditures, while delinquency prevention accounted for only 8 percent ($208,000,000) of such juvenile justice expenditures. (10)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 $1,700,000 to $2,300,000, annually. (11)The State of California leads the world in incarceration rates, with more than 175,000 people in State prisons and county jails. (12)The State of California spends nearly $10,000,000,000 a year on incarceration costs, exceeding the $7,100,000,000 the State spends to fund the University of California and California State University education systems. (13)Law enforcement agencies report that, compared to 20 years ago, there are now 6 times as many gangs and at least twice the number of gang members in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. (14)The City of Los Angeles has the largest number of alleged gangs and gang members in the world, with an estimated 700 gangs and 40,000 gang members. (15)The County of Los Angeles allegedly has more than 1,076 gangs and more than 80,000 gang members. (16)California taxpayers now spend roughly $46,000 a year to incarcerate one adult and $252,000 a year to incarcerate one youth in State facilities. (17)Gang and youth violence substantially decreases when governments address the root causes of gang violence and adequately fund community-based programs and practices. (18)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 the Congress that, in developing a comprehensive violence reduction strategy, the United States must 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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