[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 102 (Thursday, July 11, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1244-E1245]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR, CRIME PREVENTION EFFORT PAYS

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                          HON. BRUCE F. VENTO

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 10, 1996

  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share with my colleagues an 
important article published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on June 6, 
1996
  The article highlights a new crime prevention study released by the 
Rand Institute and features a prevention program in my district called 
Teens Networking Together [TNT]. The study found that, dollar for 
dollar, programs like TNT that encourage high-risk youth to finish 
school and stay out of trouble prevent five times as many crimes as 
stiff penalties imposed on repeat offenders. This also, according to 
the study, holds true for programs that teach better parenting skills 
to the families of aggressive children.
  Nearly 2 years ago, this House debated the prevention programs 
included in the 1994 crime law. Many of my Republican colleagues at the 
time maligned these prevention provisions and mislabeled them as 
Government waste, insisting that they would do nothing to reduce crime. 
Now, however, these programs, which included the Community Schools 
Initiative, Youth Employment Skills [Y.E.S.] Program, midnight sports 
programs and the Vento/Miller at-risk youth recreation grant, are being 
vindicated by the facts and findings like Rand's. It seem that the old 
adage an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure once again holds 
true.
  According to the Justice Department, crimes committed by young people 
are growing at the fastest rate in this country. It is obvious to me if 
we are truly going to address our country's crime problem we must focus 
on prevention; we must give our young people hope and opportunity; we 
must give them a haven from the street where they can develop positive 
values such as responsibility, teamwork, leadership, and self-esteem.
  I hope my colleagues will take the time to read this article and 
learn more about these youth crime prevention programs across the 
country that not only reduce future crime, but also save American tax 
dollars.

             Dollar for Dollar Crime Prevention Effort Pays

                          (By Lori Montgomery)

       It turns out that often-scorned crime prevention efforts 
     aimed at disadvantaged kids may be far more effective than 
     tough prison terms at keeping you safe.
       In a new study released Wednesday, researchers with the 
     highly respected RAND institute found that, dollar for 
     dollar, programs that encourage high-risk youth to finish 
     school and stay out of trouble prevent five times as many 
     crimes as stiff penalties imposed on repeat offenders with 
     so-called three-strikes-and-out laws.
       And programs that teach better parenting skills to the 
     families of aggressive children prevent almost three times as 
     many serious crimes for every dollar spent.
       The study--a two-year effort by researchers at RAND, a 
     nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute in Santa Monica, 
     Calif.--is the first to compare crime prevention programs to 
     incarceration on the basis of cost and effectiveness at 
     preventing future crimes.

[[Page E1245]]

       ``There has always been a `disconnect' between everybody's 
     agreement that prevention is a good thing and some estimate 
     of that benefit. That's what's new here,'' said Peter 
     Greenwood, RAND's director of criminal justice programs and 
     the study's primary author.
       ``In one sense, it's surprising how effective some of these 
     things are,'' Greenwood said. ``But on the other hand, it 
     shouldn't be surprising at all.
       We all know the two institutions that socialize kids and 
     keep them on the right track are the family and school. And 
     our study shows that incentives for graduation and parent 
     training are the two things that work.''
       A program on St. Paul's West Side called Teens Networking 
     Together provides a good example of how kids can be kept on 
     the right track.
       The West Side youth program is concentrated on building 
     self esteem of high-risk youth, mostly minorities, through 
     mentoring and anti-gang programs.
       ``The program showed me that there were two paths for me: 
     One, the life of a gang member, and the other something that 
     involves giving back to my community,'' said Roberto Galaviz 
     Jr.
       One year away from getting a degree in management from 
     Concordia College, Galaviz is the program director of Teens 
     Networking Together, a program he joined seven years ago to 
     keep himself out of trouble. He still has gang members as 
     friends, he said, but the program has made his life different 
     from theirs.
       Galaviz said critics of youth programs for high-risk kids 
     should visit the Teens Networking Together center to see the 
     progress it has made in the West Side community.
       ``The people who are doing the criticism don't know the 
     hardships and obstacles of being minority and living in the 
     inner city. This program gives people like me a goal and 
     direction in life.''
       The RAND study of crime prevention programs comes at a time 
     when congressional Republicans are proposing yet again to 
     increase penalties for juvenile offenders, and to eliminate 
     the Office of Juvenile Justice in the Justice Department,--
     the primary source of leadership and funding for crime 
     prevention.
       It also comes at a time when juvenile jails are dangerously 
     overcrowded.
       The RAND study does not suggest ``that incarceration is the 
     wrong approach'' to this rising tide of juvenile crime, the 
     authors said in a statement. Nor that the three-strikes laws, 
     which affect primarily adults, are not worth their high cost.
       However, the current obsession with longer and tougher 
     sentences has produced a ``lopsided allocation of 
     resources,'' they said, that gives short shrift to preventing 
     crime among kids who can still be saved.

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