LINDA WALLACE: I’m here today because I’m excited about introducing to you a special friend of mine. I’ve known him since 1995. I knew then that he was a really involved, good father and wanted to be helping us with fatherhood programming. And the initiative was something that was really dear to his heart. He had me fly to Vermont talking about fatherhood, to the White House talking about fatherhood, and he put us in a book talking about fatherhood. So he never stops. It’s my pleasure to introduce my friend, Senator Evan Bayh.

SENATOR EVAN BAYH: Linda, thank you very much for those kind words. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been that long. I’m so grateful for all that you and everybody involved with the partnerships has meant. I’m thankful for all your leadership at the Security Dads. You guys have done great work. It is so important to give our children positive role models a nurturing environment. I’m very grateful to you and everybody who works with you at Security Dads.

I’d like to think my boys have been blessed by having two parents who try and give them the right values and be good role models for them. Unfortunately, not all of our kids are fortunate enough to have that. So you, the Security Dads, have stepped in to help fill that void, and the kids you reach will be a lot better off for it.

The most important responsibility for government is to provide for the physical well-being and security of the citizens. One of the most important values in our society is to make sure that our kids get the best environment that they can have – the most supportive nurturing environment, so that they can grow to be healthy, well-adjusted law abiding citizens. Yet all too often, our government has fallen down on its responsibility to protect the security of our citizens and to provide that secure, nurturing environment that our children deserve.

We are here today to take some steps in correcting that. Hopefully, we can take some steps in Washington, D.C., to get away from the political fighting and the acrimony, and instead focus on the things that are going to matter in people’s lives to make the progress our communities deserve. I have two good ideas that I think will help.

First, there was a poll that came out last week indicating that 40% of respondents across the state of Indiana held the opinion that over the last twelve months, the crime situation in our neighborhoods has deteriorated. We are all familiar with the unfortunate level of homicides over the past 12 months here in Indianapolis. The FBI reported just recently that there are now more gang members on America’s streets then there are law enforcement officials on America’s streets. There are 800,000 gang members across the United States now, 1,600 here in Indianapolis and Marion County. This is a serious problem because these gang members get involved with drug running, theft, violence. We must do something.

My first proposal is to fully fund what’s called the COPS program. About 13 years ago, the federal government stepped up decided that it must become a full partner with the state and local communities to make sure we have enough law enforcement officials on our streets. Regrettably, over the last five or six years, that program has been cut-back. We used to fund about 519 police officers across Indiana at the height of the program. Last year: zero. As a result, I’m proposing providing about nine and a half million dollars more at the federal level so we can help our cities and our counties to provide the kind of law enforcement presence on our streets that we need. That would amount to about $1.15 billion dollars nationally. Indiana receives about one percent of that, so you can do the math. Suffice it to say, the federal government needs to step up and provide more resources to our cities, our towns, to help fund police officers fighting the crime problem that we already have. The federal government isn’t doing its part; that needs to change.

We’ve got to focus on the growing gang problem, which is going to involve a couple of things. First, more resources are necessary to combat gang activity. Secondly, we need more resources for endeavors like these to try and keep our kids from getting involved with gangs in the first place. It’s a two step process.

Under the Gang Prevention Act, we provide about a billion dollars over five years for such endeavors. About half that funding would go to more prosecutors, more staff to prosecute gang related offenses. For the first time, we make recruiting young people into gangs a federal offense. We can prosecute those who lure young people to participate in gangs by making it a federal crime. Someone who recruits a minor into a gang faces double the penalty. Doubling the penalties for gang related violence and criminal activity makes the statement to those who want to participate in gang activities that if they get their cousin, their brother, the child down the street involved in their wrongdoing, they will go to jail.

We make it a crime. We provide more resources for prosecuting those crimes. We provide about $412 million over the next five years for programs to partner with schools; to partner with community organizations; for faith based organizations to reach out to our young people to give them the values, the role models, and the encouragement they need to stay on the right side of the law, to not getting pulled to the wrong side of the law and into gang activity.

Getting more police officers on the street; making recruiting young people into a gang a federal offense; and providing more resources to try and keep our young people from getting involved in gangs in the first place are the reasons why I am here today.

I’d like to tell you a story. I remember we had a great man on our team, Jim Macon, when I was first elected governor. We had a prison over-crowding problem I inherited, and the solution involved adding more prison beds. Jim Macon was an expert in anticipating the number of prison beds that a state’s going to use from our Department of Correction. He put together a complex formula and he came in to tell me about it one day.

I said, “Jim, if you had to pick just one fact – just one thing- that we need to look at to anticipate ten or twelve years from now how many prison beds we are going to need. It costs us thirty, forty, or fifty thousand dollars a year to house these inmates depending on whether it’s minimum, medium, or maximum security. What would be the single most accurate predictor of the number of prison beds we’re going to need ten years from now?”

Jim got a real sorrowful look on his face and said, “Governor, the single most accurate predictor of the number of prison beds you’re going to need in ten to twelve years is the population of at-risk kids in the second grade today. We look at 8^th graders and the circumstances in which they are being raised. That is the best predictor of the number of prison beds we’re going to need twelve years from now.”

This sad example illustrates the importance of reaching out to young people who have these obstacles in their way through no fault of their own. We must work to make sure they stay in the classroom and don’t end up in prison. That’s why we’re here today.