[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 24 (Monday, June 17, 1996)]
[Pages 1016-1021]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion on Juvenile Crime in Las Vegas, 
Nevada

June 9, 1996

    The President. Thank you very much.

[At this point, moderator Kirby Burgess, director, Youth and Family 
Services Center, welcomed the President and introduced roundtable 
participants. Gov. Bob Miller then reviewed steps taken in Nevada to 
deal with juvenile crime. Next, Clark County Undersheriff Richard 
Wingett described the juvenile violent crime problem in Las Vegas. Mr. 
Burgess introduced Shane Quick, Anthony Covarrubias, and Stanley 
Johnson, teenagers who are enrolled in alternative sentencing programs. 
Mr. Quick told how he was helped by a residential drug treatment 
program, concluding by saying he was nervous.]

    The President. You're doing great. You're doing great.
    Mr. Burgess. He's an honest young man, Mr. President.

[Next, Mr. Covarrubias described his success in being rehabilitated 
through the Freedom Program, an intensive supervision program.]

    The President. How does it work, this Freedom Program?

[Mr. Covarrubias said he is under house arrest and must check in with 
the program twice a day. He earns privileges for good behavior.]

    The President. Why do you think it's helped you?
    Mr. Covarrubias. Because now I'm going to counseling. I'm getting 
along with my parents. It's keeping me out of trouble, keeping me off 
the streets.
    The President. Is that your mother out there?
    Mr. Covarrubias. Yes.
    The President. Give her a hand, and your family there. [Applause]

[[Page 1017]]

    Mr. Burgess. Tony, what I'd like for you guys to do is speak up 
because the press is here and all the audience is here and these 
microphones are a little----
    The President. What's the difference in the program Tony's in and 
the one Shane's in? Shane, what's your program called?

[Mr. Quick said now that he has completed the residential treatment, 
called West Care, he is required to report to a probation officer once a 
week.]

    The President. Mr. Wingett, do you know how many--do either of you 
know, maybe Kirby knows it--how many young people does your probation 
officer work with? Do you know? Do you know how many people?
    Mr. Burgess. Yes, sir, I do, Mr. President.
    The President. How many?

[Mr. Burgess said the average caseload for community supervision is 60 
to 80 children.]

    The President. So you check in once a week. And you check in twice a 
day. You have to do random drug tests?
    Mr. Quick. No. I did. I did do random drug tests.
    The President. For how long?
    Mr. Quick. Three months.
    The President. Okay.

[Mr. Burgess noted that Mr. Covarrubias has to return to his 
neighborhood, where there is continuing gang activity, and asked how he 
will behave differently now that he is in a supervision program. Mr. 
Covarrubias said he will not hang around with his friends as much as he 
used to, and he will walk away from them if they ask him to commit 
crimes.]

    Mr. Burgess. Mr. President, Stanley Johnson, who is to your left, is 
13 years old--[laughter]--he is involved----
    The President. You did pretty good today.

[Mr. Burgess described New Directions, the program in which Mr. Johnson 
is enrolled. It has 24-hour supervision. Mr. Johnson told how his 
probation officer, Mr. Garcia, helps with school assignments. Mr. 
Burgess then asked Mr. Johnson to describe how his mother is involved in 
the program.]

    Mr. Johnson. What?
    The President. About your mother.

[Participant Joy Gladwin said her son is in the same program as Mr. 
Johnson. Parents meet in support groups. Ms. Gladwin said New Directions 
results in better grades from the students and presents children to the 
community in a positive way.]

    The President. Do you work with Stan?
    Ms. Gladwin. No, I'm just a friend.
    The President. And how did you find this program? How did you get 
involved with it?

[Ms. Gladwin told why her son was enrolled in the program.]

    The President. Stan, do you like doing this program every day? Do 
you think these folks are helping you?
    Mr. Johnson. Yes.
    The President. Do you think it's going to help you stay in school?
    Mr. Johnson. Yes.
    The President. Do you have a feeling--do you think they really care 
about you?
    Mr. Johnson. Mm-hmm. [Laughter]
    Ms. Gladwin. Mr. Garcia does care very, very much for all of these 
kids.
    The President. Is Mr. Garcia here?
    Ms. Gladwin. Yeah, he is.
    The President. Where is he? Stand up there, Mr. Garcia. [Applause]
    Ms. Gladwin. He's really been a large benefit to these kids. He 
knows when to push them and when not to, and it helps tremendously.

[Mr. Burgess noted that many of the children are from single-parent 
homes and asked Ms. Gladwin how the program helps her take charge of her 
home. She replied that she is comforted knowing someone else is helping 
her raise her family and knowing her son is not involved in gangs.]

    The President. How much of the problems that young people have--I 
mean that they're so much greater today than they have been in previous 
generations. How much of it do you think is due to the fact that 
children are alone so much more than they used to be?
    Ms. Gladwin. A lot. Unfortunately, there's a lot more single 
parents. And it's very difficult for us.

[[Page 1018]]

    Gov. Miller. We have the highest percentage of single mothers in the 
United States here in Nevada, Mr. President.
    The President. You know, a phenomenal percentage of single parents 
are spending more than 20 percent of their income on child care when 
their children are very young. And then when they don't need literal, 
physical child care anymore it becomes almost impossible for them to do 
anything. That's one of the reasons that these programs are so 
important.
    Ms. Gladwin. Yes, they are. The question I have to ask is why isn't 
there more programs like the New Directions?
    The President. Well, maybe I can talk a little about that.
    First, let me say what the good news is. The bad news is that the 
country has figured out how to reduce the crime rate, but the crime rate 
among children under 18 is still going up. For 3 years in the country as 
a whole, the crime rate has gone down now. And that's good, but juvenile 
crime still continues to rise.
    Now, there are, however, some things that seem to be working. Every 
one of them seems to be related to giving young people an organized, 
positive way to spend their time. And I could give you just a lot of 
examples. We've worked hard, for example, to help communities that 
wanted to set up a curfew set up curfews. But the ones--the curfew 
programs that really work are ones where the kids also have something to 
do.
    I was in New Orleans last week and they've got a curfew center there 
so that if a young person violates the curfew, they don't put them in 
jail, fine them, or just drop them back off at home and let them go out 
and get in trouble again. They take them to the curfew center, and they 
try to come up with a plan to help the kids with their lives.
    Long Beach, California, has a school uniform policy because they had 
such a gang problem there. And the kids designed their own uniform 
school by school. But it's reduced violence and other kinds of problems 
there.
    There are different ways that are dealing with this. A lot of 
schools are trying to stay open later, and a lot of places are trying to 
develop programs like you've got here, where you try to get parents as 
well as the young people involved in community restitution and 
rehabilitation efforts.
    But the main thing I want to say, to get back to answering your 
question is, our country has got to make a commitment to understand that 
when--normally when we see a serious crime, that's the end of years of 
difficulties that a lot of people have; and that we simply cannot jail 
our way out of America's crime problem. We are going to have to invest 
some more money in prevention. And I say that as somebody who started 
out in law enforcement as attorney general over 20 years ago--almost 20 
years ago. And when I was Governor I built a lot of prison cells, and I 
passed a lot of laws toughening penalties. And, you know, we had a very 
tough approach. But these young people--somebody has got to do something 
to give them a chance to live an organized, positive life.
    And when we wrote the crime bill--it's very interesting, we passed 
the crime bill in 1994. I'm proud of the fact that it's putting 100,000 
more police officers on the street. But I said then and I say again, I'm 
sure you would corroborate this, a lot of these police officers--and a 
lot of the good they're doing is they're stopping crime from happening 
in the first place, not just catching criminals more quickly. And we 
have--all I can tell you is we need to build more support nationally and 
in every State legislature in the country and every local government in 
the country for these kind of programs, because the social and economic 
realities in which a lot of these young folks are growing up in put them 
under a lot of pressure that people our age didn't face when we were 
their age. It's just a plain truth. And we have to find an organized, 
disciplined, caring environment that we--we need to help their parents 
and support them. There's so many--so many single parents out there 
doing the best they can.
    And I was sitting there--I was looking at Shane and Tony and Stan 
and thinking, you know, one way or the other these three kids are our 
future. They're our future, and we've got to take responsibility at 
least to give them the best chance they can to make a good future for 
themselves and for the rest of us. And I want to thank you, Kirby, for 
spending your life on this.

[[Page 1019]]

    Mr. Burgess. Thank you, Mr. President.
    The President. Thank you for doing it.
    Another point. I just want to make one more point and then I'd like 
to go back and let anybody else talk who wants to talk. For it is 
amazing to me how much some of these community programs can do on a 
modest budget. We're not talking about spending a fortune here. A lot of 
these community-based programs are so much less expensive than a lot of 
the more expensive things that happen later on.
    If the program Shane was in works, and he never develops a serious 
drug habit, then it's a lot less expensive than treating somebody for a 
serious drug problem later on. That's just one example, you know. 
Whatever it costs for Tony to have somebody to check in twice a day 
with, gives him a chance to graduate from high school, maybe go on to 
college, get a good job, have a good, successful life--whatever it costs 
will be a pittance of what we would all pay if his life took a different 
turn.
    And the same thing is true for every young person. So I want to say 
that I was so impressed when I read about these programs, and I have 
been almost obsessed with this juvenile crime problem, not only because 
it makes our people feel less safe but because of what's happening to 
all these kids we're losing. And I just also want to say one other 
thing, to urge you to support the Governor and you've got your county 
commissioner and the mayor here, the two Senators are here--just now 
coming into our schools there is another baby boom generation. A lot of 
people don't know this and haven't focused on this yet.
    I'm the oldest of the children born right after World War II, and 
we're the biggest--the people of my age and down, about 15 or 16 years 
younger than me, are the biggest group of Americans ever born into this 
country. There is now a group just now starting into grade school that, 
when they get in their school years, will be slightly bigger than we are 
as a generation. And if we don't turn this juvenile crime problem around 
by the time they're 13 to 16, you cannot imagine what we're going to be 
grappling with. These young people are actually in a group of Americans 
that aren't particularly numerous. Their parents were of a generation 
where people had relatively fewer children, and there weren't so many 
people in their child-bearing years.
    I don't want to use this--this will sound wrong, but these kids 
have, in a way, by going through this, have given us a chance to figure 
out for future generations how to rescue young people and support 
mothers like Joy. And we better take advantage of them and we better do 
it now, because if we wait another 5 or 6 years, the dimensions of the 
problem will be roughly 2 to 3 times greater than they are now. And it 
will be unmanageable.
    So I still--my own view is the right thing for the National 
Government to do is to provide the resources and the legal and other 
support necessary to let communities pick those programs that are most 
likely to work best for them, because not every program works the same 
in every place. And the truth is that every one of these programs, 
you've got to have some caring adult and some system that works, 
somebody who can stand up like this gentleman down here and get a round 
of applause because the kids relate to him or her, as the case may be.
    So I don't think that we should be prescribing what works. What we 
have tried to do in our administration is go around and find things that 
are working, and if people are having some trouble spreading it, like 
the uniform policy, the curfews, or whatever, we try to help them do 
that. And otherwise, we try to provide what money we could pass in the 
Congress to let the communities decide what works best. And that's what 
I think we should do.
    Senator Harry Reid. Mr. President.
    The President. Senator Reid.

[Senator Reid said the President's leadership protected the Federal 
programs being made use of in Nevada, such as the drug-free schools and 
school-to-work efforts.]

    The President. Well, to be explicit, when we fought the crime bill 
in 1994, there were people who basically said, all Washington should do 
is pass penalties and build prisons; that we shouldn't put the police 
out there. We shouldn't ban assault weapons. We shouldn't have a waiting 
period for handguns.

[[Page 1020]]

And that it was a waste of money to give funds to communities for these 
prevention programs. You remember the debate very well.
    And the most important thing I want to focus on today, I mean, I 
think the evidence is clear now on what we did on the others--that we 
were right. But the most important thing is we didn't win the whole 
fight on the prevention programs, as you know, although both of you 
tried to help me. But when you see programs like this, you just have to 
say that every one of these--every young person in the country--every 
person like Stanley Johnson in the country ought to be in one of these 
programs who needs it. And until that happens, it shouldn't be a--that 
ought to be a test.
    But maybe we'll turn it around now, thanks to all of you.

[Mr. Burgess asked roundtable participants for their suggestions on how 
prevention services for teenagers can be improved. Mr. Quick suggested 
social events for teens where speakers would talk about the dangers of 
drugs and gangs.]

    Mr. Burgess. Any final comments, Mr. President?
    The President. Well, let's see if anybody--Tony?
    Mr. Covarrubias. No, I don't.
    The President. Stanley? [Laughter]
    You're doing great. Let me ask you something. I want to ask you guys 
something--just one thing. If we weren't here in this big crowd of 
people, if we were just sitting alone in a room so you didn't have to 
worry about being on television and wearing a tie and suit--don't be 
nervous; you look good in it--[laughter]--and you were trying to tell me 
what one thing or two things you think I could do or that we could do 
that would make it possible for more young people to make it, either to 
stay out of trouble or to get out of trouble if they get in, what do you 
think we could do to change the way things are in America that would 
make you feel better about it, that would make you feel better about 
your future? Is there any one thing you could tell me that you think 
that we ought to be working on, that would make the biggest difference 
to the largest number of young people your age?

[Mr. Quick said the individual teenager must be willing to change.]

    The President. So that's why you made the other suggestion you did, 
that at least if you got all the kids together, they would know what was 
there for them if they were inclined to ask for help.
    What about you, Tony?
    Mr. Covarrubias. I can't really think of nothing.
    The President. You think the program has been a good thing for you?
    Mr. Covarrubias. Yeah.
    The President. Are there a lot of young people your age that need 
programs like this and aren't in them that you know of?
    Mr. Covarrubias. Not that I can think of right now, but yeah.
    The President. You think there are or there aren't? You think you're 
reaching most of the people?
    What about you?
    You have done well. Let's give the young men a hand. Let's give them 
a hand. They have done well. [Applause]

[Mr. Burgess thanked the President for his participation and invited him 
to visit again.]

    The President. Thank you. I would like to, before I go, I would like 
to just very briefly thank Dr. Harter and the staff here at UNLV for 
letting us all come on a difficult day. And I want to thank Senator Reid 
and Senator Bryan for their support for these programs in Washington. 
And I want to thank all the folks here on the panel and the Governor and 
Mr. Wingett and especially you, Kirby.
    But ladies and gentlemen, let me say again to you, I thank you for 
coming out today. If you look at these--when we leave here now, you look 
at these three boys sitting up here with me. And remember what I told 
you. If I had told you 3\1/2\ years ago when I was inaugurated President 
that we would have 3 years of declining crime but that the crime rate 
among juveniles would go up, you would have a hard time believing that. 
We cannot let that be true 5 or 10 years from now. It will consume this 
country. It will

[[Page 1021]]

change the whole way we live. So if you really like what you have seen 
today, and you liked seeing these young folks up here sitting with the 
President instead of being in trouble, and being nervous and doing the 
best they can to do something good--if you like that, then you need to 
support these programs, and you need to make sure every child in this 
State that needs it is in one. And you need to support these people that 
are doing it, because they are proof that we can turn this around, but 
we haven't gotten to everybody or the numbers wouldn't be what they are. 
And we have to do it.
    This is a very urgent problem for our country, and we can only 
change it in two ways. One is, like Shane said, when people decide they 
are going to make a difference in their own lives. And secondly, when 
adults like you take responsibility in every community. We will keep 
trying to do our part, but remember, we need you. And if you liked this 
today, when you go out of here, make sure you're going to do something 
to turn this situation around.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 11:05 a.m. in the student union ballroom at 
the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. In his remarks, he referred to 
Yvonne Atkinson-Gates, chairwoman, Clark County Commission; Mayor Jan 
Laverty Jones of Las Vegas, NV; and Carol Harter, president, University 
of Nevada at Las Vegas.