Sunday, January 18, 2009
All we saw was the back of his head. All that was released about the Waco boy was his age — 15 — and the fact that he’s charged with, among other things, killing Gregory Lewis.
The same for a Waco boy now serving 15 years in the Texas Youth Commission for stabbing to death a fellow adolescent last summer. The offender was 12. The victim, Keith Dancer, was 14.
Texas shields the identities of criminal offenders 16 and younger. We know them nonetheless.
We know the ingredients that can lead them to where they end up. Emasculated families. Poverty. Rancid role models. And the glorification of violence.
Their crimes don’t occur out of the blue, like a meteor strike. They are cultivated, like bacteria in the blood stream. And like confronting that pathogen, we can stop catastrophe from developing.
At least that’s the experience of Adrian Moore, a crusader for at-risk youth in Austin. In fact, he’s seen students on the cusp of violence and crime make a U-turn and become fellow crusaders for peaceful conflict resolution.
It’s all because someone got them to talk about their anger.
They do so under a program sponsored by the nonprofit Council on At-Risk Youth — CARY. The Austin-area group seeks out children most likely to turn to violence and focuses on what’s in their heads.
How to find them? That’s not hard at all.
“The most powerful predictor is whether [a student] has a serious school incident report,” Moore said.
Middle-schoolers who get in-school or other suspension for such an incident become automatic candidates.
Using a program called Positive Adolescent Choices Training, CARY has a presence in five Austin middle schools and its alternative campus.
Within this context, students are led to focus on their thought processes and “anger buttons.”
This sounds like the “touchy-feely” stuff derided by those who think “all we need is more discipline” or a “return to prayer” in schools. They need to get real.
What CARY is talking about is discipline within the scope of self-discovery.
Indeed, in 2007 the Texas House was so impressed by CARY’s success that it passed a bill to authorize $7 million over the biennium for comparable school programs. It died in the Senate. Now bills are prefiled in both houses to achieve the same.
We know that the state’s alternative schools are de facto feeders to a criminal justice system.
The children are there. We know them. We can help them.
Having spent 35 years dealing with juvenile offenders, Moore advocates investing a modest 1 percent of what the state spends on juvenile corrections on early intervention like CARY. In his county, Travis County, the cumulative costs of probation, detention, prosecution and public defense is $600 million a year.
It costs $100,000 a year to incarcerate a juvenile in the Texas Youth Commission.
Moore cites a study calculating that, over a period of 10 years, the cumulative cost of a child who drops out and gets involved in crime is $2 million — lost wages, prosecution, incarceration, probation.
Add it up and it puts a premium on reports of a 50 percent reduction in serious disciplinary reports and juvenile court referrals because of CARY. That’s a savings in more than dollars and cents.
Instead of incarceration, Texas lawmakers should give intervention a try this session.
John Young’s column appears Thursday and Sunday. E-mail: jyoung@wacotrib.com.
Comments
By Ben Dover Waco
Jan 18, 2009 1:47 PM | Link to this
For John Young, it always comes down to redistributing more money, doesn't it? "Indeed, in 2007 the Texas House was so impressed by CARYıs success that it passed a bill to authorize $7 million over the biennium for comparable school programs."
Spending more from those who are already working hard (and spending a lot of money already) to raise their own decent future citizens to create yet another bureucracy. (I guess CPS and TYC, with all their recent documented failings (and lack of successes) is proof that, for all the money spent, not much much good comes from these boondoggles, but, let's not look at history).
The fact is that turning off ubiquitous violent TV is free. Going to the already-publically funded library is free (The money public money has already been spent). Taking your kids to Summer Night Concerts on the Brazos is free. Sitting while your kid does homework is free (unless you count the lost income potential of the parents). Playing after school sports is free. Taking your kid on a nature walk through Cameron Park is free.
But, John's answer is always to throw more taxpayer money at the problem.
Instead of spending even more, let's just cut the largely fruitless programs already in existance, so maybe parents don't have to work three jobs to make ends meet, and maybe they can spend more time with their kids, and maybe even spend a little time with the kids from some broken homes. That's how it should be done.
Or, absent that, outsource the terminal miscreants to Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, AZ. That's the best chance they've got to get their act together. Personality is largely formed before the age of 5, and, if you were exposed to cocaine while in the uterus, you're doomed anyway. Delete CPS. Cut TYC. Quit throwing extraordinary amounts of money on things that do little or no good (except keeping the citizens of Mexia gainfully employed). Mexia State employees will, to virtually a man, tell you that what they do is BS, and doesn't work.
John, move to China, circa 1948, where the state raised the children. You'd be promoted to a nice high-paying job in the People's Bureau of Indoctrination, Education, Loyalty and Propaganda, and have a big villa in the mountains. You could be in charge of the 12 year old Olympic gymnasts, and the Youth Army.
By ARCHMARK
Jan 18, 2009 11:47 AM | Link to this
So why don't you take in all these poor, little, misunderstood delinquents, John, you typical, bleeding heart liberal...
By anonymous
Jan 18, 2009 9:47 AM | Link to this
John Young is due a GIANT gold star for writing this article. I have a child who got mixed up in the public school disciplinary gulag over very minor stuff a couple of years ago and what I encountered was frightening to me. It completely disrupted my life and even my livliehood as I had to fight to get my child an education in this community.
The most frightening part of all was understanding firsthand how deeply this shuffling of minor matters into our justice system is related to our dropout rate and the long term implications for our society as we deal with an increasingly larger uneducated mass. Our justice system should not be used to address problems that are basically social/family problems and more worthy of a remedial intervention approach.
On top of that, each time a parent gives up on the public school system or worse, the child, there goes the state funding for the school district (which I believe is around $4000 per year) and then our property taxes go up to compensate for that shortfall.
Yes, a preventative approach, such as CARY, is long overdue in this community.
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