Key themes are in ORANGE.  

INTRODUCTION

Justice agencies - police, probation, parole, corrections and courts - seldom share information with each other even in the same town or city - let alone between their state and federal counterparts. This lack of shared information is compounded by the reluctance of social services and schools to involve the justice agencies in advance of crime, to give them all a chance to intervene early. Establishing a system of communication between justice agencies, schools, and local community organizations is a proven method for increasing success in preventing youth violence.

The testimony of the youth in "The Limits of Justice" confirms what criminologists have long known but politicians and the media ignore - most young people, especially in deprived areas, are not "predators". More often they are victims, living in constant danger of attack from each other. Courts and police recognize that fear drives youth who would otherwise be law abiding citizens to carry weapons for self-defense. Easy access to guns has turned what used to be fist fighting into lethal tragedies.

The Boston effort to reduce youth homicides demonstrates the value of collaborating among justice agencies and other partners in the community. Because only a small percentage of crimes are actually punished in court, Boston's comprehensive effort to spot youth at risk of serious offending, stands a chance of preventing crime and victims.

THE STREETWORKERS PROGRAM

Employed by the Mayor's Office, the Streetworkers--who are often former gang members--act as liaisons between the youth in Boston's tough neighborhoods and its justice system. By appearing on the behalf of youth in courts, Streetworkers help judges fully understand the situation in which youth crime is committed. In effect, the Streetworkers offer benefits both to judges and to the accused and their families. They are mentors and advocates who represent the interests of the youth, while helping law enforcement and the courts keep the peace in the streets. They give judges the added confidence that youth will receive supervision and comply with school and curfew orders.

Contact:
Tracy Litthcut, Director of Youth Services
Boston Community Center
1010 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
(617) 635-4920

OPERATION NIGHTLIGHT

Probation officers are given the least amount of resources in comparison with police or prisons, yet have one of the hardest tasks - to enforce court imposed conditions on offenders who spend their time in the same conditions that led them into crime. In a rare collaboration, Operation Nightlight teams up probation officers with the Boston police in order to enforce more effectively the terms of probation. This arrangement pools their respective legal powers and knowledge. By hitting the streets with police, probation officers also gain first-hand knowledge about the lives of their probationers, that can help them address the roots of delinquent behavior.

Operation Nightlight utilizes the probation department's powers to enter and search their clients' homes without a warrant. This has raised civil rights concerns which have been tested unsuccessfully in court.

Operation Nightlight has increased the compliance of court-ordered curfews by youth probationers from one-third to two thirds. This increased success rate has given confidence to the courts that their sentences will be enforced.

Contact:
Bernard Fitzgerald, Chief of Probation
Bill Stewart, Assistant Chief of Probation
Dorchester District Court
510 Washington Street
Dorchester, MA 02124
(617) 288-9500

Dr. Ronald Corbett, Deputy Commissioner
Massachusetts Probation Department
Office of Commissioner of Probation
One Ashburton Place, Room 405
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 727-5348
Fax (617) 727-2199

ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS

Alternative schools, like Boston's Log School and Community Academy, play a vital role in redirecting gang members and other troublesome youth back into mainstream schooling. These schools give high-risk students the opportunity to complete their education and develop the skills necessary to seek gainful employment and higher education. With an increased staff-to-pupil ratio, an environment is created in which students receive intensive academic instruction as well as discipline. For many young people who have been expelled from school and/or sentenced by the court, these programs present the first time someone in authority has expected positive achievement from them, rather than delinquency.

However, there are insufficient resources for the alternative schools to take in all of Boston's students who need the services. Given the importance of a good education in the prevention of crime, the inability to address this need may lead to much higher costs in the justice system.

In Boston, the Log School is a community center that offers educational alternatives to young people who do not complete their education within the Boston school system. In addition to offering vocational and GED training, the school provides a number of necessary services under the same roof, such as day care, a food bank, job placement.

Contact:
Joe Carpineto, Executive Director
The Log School
222 Bowdoin street
Dorchester, MA 02122
(617) 288-6683
Fax (617) 474-1230

As a part of the Boston school system, The Community Academy addresses the needs of its high risk students who find it difficult to stay in school. By using smaller classrooms and offering various other services, the school is able to pay special attention to individual needs.

Contact:
Brenda Love, Program Director
Community Academy
2730 Washington Street
Roxbury, MA 02119
(617) 635-7731
Fax (617) 635-7731

OPERATION CEASEFIRE

Operation Ceasefire is a city-wide collaborative effort to inform youth of the dangers and consequences of criminal behavior, and in particular, owning and using a gun. The program brings police officers, probation officers, Streetworkers, and District Attorneys into high school classrooms to speak about the risks of violence, and how to stop bloodshed on the streets. The program also effectively reduces Boston's gun supply by tracking every weapon seized by the police from gang members.

Contact:
Office of Strategic Planning and Resource Development
Boston Police Department
One Schroeder Plaza
Boston, MA 02120
(617) 343-5096

COMMUNITY BASED JUVENILE JUSTICE

Community Based Juvenile Justice is a coalition of schools, police, probation, and parole that meets twice a month to share information about youth at risk. These meetings are a regular forum for school principals to brief police officers about students who bring weapons to school; or for police to refer troubled kids to social services; or for a counselor to keep abreast of a youth's situation in a legal proceeding. This approach enables the community to address a youth's needs from several angles at the same time.

Contact:
Jim Borghesani, External Affairs
Suffolk County District Attorney's Office
55 Court Street, 3rd Street
Boston, MA 02018
(617) 715-8617
(617) 227-5202 Fax

website: http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/da/suffolk

COMMUNITY POLICING & THE TRUANCY PATROL

Community policing has transformed the relationship between the police and the community by forging partnerships with local store owners, schools, and residents to address the problems that lead to crime. One component of community policing is the Truancy Patrol. Although truancy is not against the law, keeping kids in school can be a critical part of crime control. The Truancy Patrol takes young people who are hanging out in the streets back to school or home, and reports them to the school system. Conventional police thinking does not regard such low key actions - that do nothing to boost arrest figures -as "real" policing. Research shows it helps reduce crime and promote law and order.

Contact:
Office of Strategic Planning and Resource Development
Boston Police Department
One Schroeder Plaza
Boston, MA 02120
(617) 343-5096

THE NATIONAL TEN-POINT LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION

Reverend Eugene Rivers and other African-American church leaders have created the National Ten-Point Leadership Foundation to help African-American Christian churches develop the strategic vision, programming structure, and financial resources necessary to saving at-risk inner-city youth--saving them from child abuse and neglect, street violence, drug abuse, school failure, teen-age pregnancy, incarceration, chronic joblessness, spiritual depravity, and hopelessness about the future. The foundation grew out of Reverend Eugene Rivers' own nationally-acknowledged, street-level work with some of America's most severely at-risk inner-city children. The partnership runs programs in cooperation with social service agencies and law enforcement authorities. The programs `adopt' youth at risk from a very early age, and give them the nurturing and mentoring that will enhance their chances of doing well at school, getting a diploma, and a job.

Racial issues are endemic in the justice system in America, where minority youth are vastly over-represented in the courts, and prisons. The Sentencing Project issued figures in 1997 that suggest one in three black males under thirty-five is under the control of the justice system on any given day.

Contact:
Mark Scott, Executive Director
The National Ten-Point Leadership Foundation
411 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02124
(617) 282-6704
(617) 822-1832 Fax