<DOC>
[109 Senate Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:22596.wais]
S. Hrg. 109-77
PREVENTION OF YOUTH AND GANG VIOLENCE
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JUNE 13, 2005
__________
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
__________
Serial No. J-109-26
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
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COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania, Chairman
ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts
JON KYL, Arizona JOSEPH R. BIDEN, Jr., Delaware
MIKE DeWINE, Ohio HERBERT KOHL, Wisconsin
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin
JOHN CORNYN, Texas CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois
TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
David Brog, Staff Director
Michael O'Neill, Chief Counsel
Bruce A. Cohen, Democratic Chief Counsel and Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
----------
STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Page
Biden, Hon. Joseph R., Jr., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Delaware....................................................... 18
Feinstein, Hon. Dianne, a U.S. Senator from the State of
California..................................................... 2
Leahy, Hon. Patrick J., a U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont,
prepared statement............................................. 99
Specter, Hon. Arlen, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Pennsylvania................................................... 1
WITNESSES
Arias, Ileana, Acting Director, National Center for Injury
Prevention, Centers for Disease Control, Department of Health
and Human Services, Washington, D.C............................ 8
Flores, J. Robert, Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquent Prevention, Office of Justice Program, Department of
Justice, Washington, D.C....................................... 11
Hart, Sarah, Director, National Institute of Justice, Department
of Justice, Washington, D.C.................................... 7
Johnson, Sylvester, Commissioner, Philadelphia Police Department,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania..................................... 25
Kane, James, Executive Director, Delaware Criminal Justice
Council, Wilmington, Delaware.................................. 27
McDonald, Regina, Assistant Chief, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....................................... 32
Meehan, Patrick, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....................... 23
Santorum, Hon. Rick, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Pennsylvania................................................... 5
Vallas, Paul, Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania..................................... 30
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD
Arias, Ileana, Acting Director, National Center for Injury
Prevention, Centers for Disease Control, Department of Health
and Human Services, Washington, D.C., prepared statement....... 41
Flores, J. Robert, Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquent Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, Washington,
D.C., prepared statement....................................... 53
Hart, Sarah, Director, National Institute of Justice, Department
of Justice, Washington, D.C., prepared statement............... 64
Johnson, Sylvester, Commissioner, Philadelphia Police Department,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, prepared statement................. 82
Kane, James, Executive Director, Delaware Criminal Justice
Council, Wilmington, Delaware, prepared statement.............. 93
McDonald, Regina, Assistant Chief, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, prepared statement................... 100
Meehan, Patrick, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, prepared statement... 102
Vallas, Paul, Superintendent, Schools District of Philadelphia,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, prepared statement................. 115
PREVENTION OF YOUTH AND GANG VIOLENCE
----------
MONDAY, JUNE 13, 2005
United States Senate,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, D.C.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:00 a.m., in the
Kirby Auditorium, National Constitution Center, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, Hon. Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Committee,
presiding.
Present: Senators Specter, Biden and Feinstein.
Also Present: Senator Santorum.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ARLEN SPECTER, A U.S. SENATOR FROM
THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA
Chairman Specter. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The
United States Senate Judiciary Committee will now proceed with
our hearing on juvenile violence. This is a problem nationally
of epidemic proportion, a very, very serious problem in this
city of Philadelphia and in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Where we reside during the week, in Washington, it is the
subject of daily headlines just as it has been here in this
city.
We have a distinguished array of national witnesses today
to focus on what are some of the programs which work and where
our Federal resources ought to be directed. We're being joined
here today by the distinguished Senator from California,
Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has been a national leader on
this subject and has introduced very important legislation
which is now pending before the Judiciary Committee. My
distinguished colleague Senator Santorum and I welcome Senator
Feinstein and thank her for coming to Philadelphia this
morning. We will be joined a little later by Senator Biden.
This is an issue which I have seen on the personal level
for more than four decades going back to my days as an
assistant district attorney and then district attorney. In the
late 1960s, early 1970s, there was a race between Chicago and
Philadelphia as to which city would have the most gang deaths.
Those statistics, ominous as they were at that time, pale in
significance with the current problems with juvenile violence.
In the first five months of this year there has been an
enormous increase in juvenile violence with some 63 deaths
recorded among those 24 years of age and younger, compared to
41 for the first five months of last year, an increase of, as
you can note, of more than 50 percent. The Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania receives funding--
We are going to have to run the clock, whoever is in charge
of the clock, because the Chairman gets five minutes like
everybody else for an opening statement. I will estimate that I
have used two-and-a-half minutes so we will maintain a parity
of time. That is one of the difficult matters in Senate
hearings, and that is keeping people on time. But I think it is
worth noting that the Majority Leader has scheduled a vote this
afternoon on Thomas Griffith for Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit, so that we all have duties to be back in Washington
and we are targeting a conclusion in advance of 12 o'clock. So
we will be asking everybody, not only Senators but witnesses,
to maintain the time limits.
But as I was in mid-sentence before noticing the absence of
the clock running--the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania receives
some $160 million a year, and Senator Santorum and I on behalf
of the Pennsylvania delegation are working coordinately with
the Governor for an evaluation of what programs work and what
programs do not work. The same evaluation is being made on the
national level, and through the chairmanship of the Judiciary
Committee we are going to be taking a close look on
reauthorization as to which programs are going to be continued,
because I am convinced that if we target our finances that we
have a good chance to deal effectively with this problem. It is
never going to be eliminated but it certainly can be reduced.
There is another significant dimension which is worth
comment and that is that the Centers for Disease Control has
now identified juvenile violence as a mental problem. I
coordinately chair the Appropriations Subcommittee which funds
the Centers for Disease Control and have talked to the director
Dr. Gerberding with the view to perhaps targeting an earmark
for this city or elsewhere in Pennsylvania, or elsewhere in the
United States, to see to what extent the mental health issue
may be a factor to be considered.
My time has expired so I am going to yield to the
distinguished Senator from California, who has had a lot of
experience in this field in her tenure as mayor of San
Francisco, another wonderful city but a tough city on crime.
Senator Feinstein, thank you for joining us. We look forward to
your opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Senator Feinstein. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. If I
may, I would like to enter into the record the statement of
Senator Leahy, the ranking member of the Committee.
Chairman Specter. Yes, without objection, Senator Leahy's
statement will be made a part of the record. He had wanted to
join us here but could not because of a scheduling conflict. He
is the ranking member of the Committee.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you very much. Thank you for
holding this hearing, and I am delighted to be able to make it.
Criminal street gangs have grown over the past two decades
from a local problem into a national crisis. Every day we read
about a new tragedy where a gang member has shot a police
officer as part of an induction ceremony, used a machete to
murder an innocent victim, or tracked down and killed someone
who may have witnessed a crime. There are reports of gangs
actively recruiting elementary schoolers seven and eight years
old into the criminal enterprise. They must be stopped.
I would like to take a moment to outline the magnitude of
the problem. It is estimated that there are 840,000 active gang
members in the United States operating in every State of the
Union. Ninety percent of our large cities with a population of
over 100,000 report gang activity. And that is not the full
extent of the problem.
In 2002, 32 percent of cities with a population of 25,000
to 50,000 reported a gang-related homicide. In California, my
State, the most recent statistics available indicate that
between 1992 and 2002--now listen to this, 7,851 people were
killed in gang-related violence. In the first quarter of 2005,
Los Angeles County alone reported 1,727 gang crimes. In 2003,
nationally there were 115 gangland murders and 817 juvenile
gang killings. Now this is organized crime with a 115 and
juvenile gangs with 817. That gives you the ratio.
Youth gangs kill seven times as many people as so-called
organized crime. In fact many street gangs are now highly
organized, hierarchical corporations with boards of directors,
governors and regional coordinators. The Los Angeles chief of
police, Bill Bratton, has said this, ``There is nothing more
insidious than these gangs. They are worse than the Mafia. Show
me a year in New York where the Mafia indiscriminately killed
300 people. You cannot.''
In recognition of this emerging, the FBI last month formed
a nationwide task force to disrupt the organization of the
notorious MS-13. This single gang operates in 33 States with an
international membership in the hundreds of thousands. On
Christmas Eve 2004, MS-13 members gunned down 28 commuters on a
passenger bus in Honduras. The mastermind of that attack was
arrested in Texas in February, so you see the international
connection. This same gang is responsible for the brutal murder
of a 17-year-old informant in Virginia. She was four months
pregnant and stabbed 16 times in the chest and neck. I need not
remind my colleagues of the wave of machete attacks perpetrated
by MS-13 in the Washington, D.C. area.
Just as the RICO Act--that is the racketeering statutes--
were needed to break up Mafia rings, I believe Federal and
local law enforcement need a strong set of tools to combat
violent gangs today. With my distinguished colleagues, Senators
Hatch, Grassley, Kyl and Cornyn I have introduced S. 155, the
Gang Prevention and Effective Deterrence Act of 2005. Its main
point is to create a new type of crime by defining and
criminalizing criminal street gangs. This recognizes the basic
point of a street gang. It is more powerful, more dangerous
than its individual members. Defeating gangs means recognizing
what is dangerous about them and then making that conduct
illegal. This bill does that.
First, it makes participation in a criminal street gang a
Federal crime for the first time. And it defines a criminal
street gang. The legislation also makes it a crime for a member
of a criminal street gang to commit, conspire, or attempt to
commit two or more predicate gang crimes, or to get another
individual to commit a gang crime. The term gang crime is
defined to include violent and other serious State and Federal
felony crimes such as murder, maiming, manslaughter, kidnaping,
arson, robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, obstruction of
justice, carjacking, distribution and sale of a controlled
substance, certain firearms offenses, and money laundering. And
it criminalizes violent crimes in furtherance or in aid of
criminal street gangs.
These two provisions are at the heart of this legislation.
Armed with this new law, Federal prosecutors working in tandem
with State and local law enforcement will be able to take on
gangs, in much the same way as they did traditional Mafia
families having been systematically destroyed by effective RICO
prosecutions.
I was told I could take a few extra minutes since I came
all this great distance.
Senator Santorum. I yield my time.
Chairman Specter. Senator Feinstein, I was about to give
you as much time as you needed, but with that concession--
Senator Feinstein. I do not want to be overbearing but I
would like to finish.
Chairman Specter. Senator Santorum will have his time too.
We will give you 20 seconds a mile.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you very much.
The Gang Prevention and Effective Deterrence Act is a
comprehensive bill to increase gang prosecution and prevention
efforts. The bill authorizes approximately $750 million over
the next five years to support Federal, State and local law
enforcement efforts against violent gangs, including the
funding of witness protection programs and for intervention and
prevention programs for at-risk youth. In support of this
effort the bill increases funding for Federal prosecutors and
FBI agents to increase coordinated enforcement efforts against
violent gangs.
In addition to enforcement, we have got to encourage
community response to the gang problem. Gang members are
increasingly seeking to silence those who step forward to
incriminate them. Routine witness intimidation has given away
to routine witness execution.
As an example, recent press reports from Boston show that
gang members are distributing what is, in essence, a witness
intimidation media kit, complete with graphics and CDs that
warn potential witnesses that they will be killed. One CD
depicts three bodies on its cover. In another incident a
witness' grand jury testimony was taped to his home. Soon
afterward he was killed. I believe it is vital to support those
who speak out against the violence in their communities and
this bill provides $60 million to create and expand witness
protection programs.
Most of all, we have got to keep our children and
grandchildren out of these gangs. We must identify and fund
successful community programs that stem gang recruitment and
participation. Additionally, my bill would make it a felony to
recruit a juvenile into one of these gangs.
Today we will learn from those on the front lines in the
effort to combat crime and youth violence, how to best approach
this issue, what works, what does not work, and how to combine
effective law enforcement tools with workable prevention
mechanisms. The bill authorizes $250 million to make grants
available for community-based programs to provide for crime
prevention and intervention services for gang members and at-
risk youth in areas designated as high intensity interstate
gang activity areas. We must ensure that this funding is used
wisely.
The bottom line is that this legislation would provide the
tools and the resources to begin the national task of
destroying criminal street gangs. It is designed to emphasize
and encourage Federal, State, and local cooperation. It
combines enforcement with prevention. It is a tough, effective
and fair approach. For nearly 10 years now I have been working
with my friend Senator Hatch on legislation to provide law
enforcement with the tools it needs to prosecute, prevent and
deter illegal gang activity. Last Congress we reached a
bipartisan consensus and this committee reported our bill to
the Senate floor favorably. Unfortunately, there was not enough
time for the whole Senate to consider the bill.
So again, Mr. Chairman, I thank you for calling this
hearing. We urge that there be a markup on this bill. We very
much hope that you will join us as a co-sponsor, and we
presented for the audience a pamphlet which I would like to
urge you to take with you which describes the growth of gangs
all throughout the United States. For example, Bloods and Crips
began in one American city: Los Angeles. It is now in 120
American cities. Gangster Disciples began in Chicago. It is now
in more than 33 cities. And on and on and on.
So I hope this proves helpful and I thank you very much for
the time.
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Senator Feinstein. I
will be joining as a co-sponsor.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you; delighted.
Chairman Specter. And we will be putting the bill on our
executive session to move it along for enactment.
I now turn to my distinguished colleague, Senator Rick
Santorum. Rick and I have been closely watching the situation
on national juvenile violence with special reference to what is
happening in Pennsylvania and here in Philadelphia, and some
time ago decided that it would be very useful if we came one
day here for a hearing and invited colleagues, and I am pleased
to turn to him now for his opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. RICK SANTORUM, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF PENNSYLVANIA
Senator Santorum. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you
very much for holding this hearing. This is an important issue
here in the city of Philadelphia and across the country. It is
great that you could bring some of our best and brightest from
around the country to address this issue.
Senator Feinstein, thank you too for being here today, and
you can add my name as a co-sponsor to your legislation also. I
had watched it last year and find that it, I think will be a
very helpful contribution to the effort that we have before us.
Let me also thank the panelists for being here and again
appreciate all the work that you have done in this area of gang
violence, and violence and criminal justice in general.
As Senator Specter and Senator Feinstein both said, this is
a problem that not just is confronting big cities like San
Francisco and Los Angeles and Philadelphia, but has spread
throughout the United States. There is not hardly any small
town in America anymore of any kind of size that does not have
some sort of gang activity located. If there is any center of
poverty in those communities there is likely to be gang
activity. I think that points in large measure to some of the
problems that we have confronting us. When you have
hopelessness, when you have people who are disconnected, they
seek to get connected, and in many cases, particularly for
young males but increasingly, unfortunately, for young females
also, they get connected to gang activity, to an organization
that they feel some sense of belonging to.
We need to get at those root causes that Senator Specter
talked about, as well as be very tough on those who are the
recruiters and those who are the organizers of these gangs, as
Senator Feinstein has talked about. So we need to both look at
prevention as well as attack the problem that exists today.
The area that I have focused on quite a bit is on the
prevention side, which I think goes to anti-poverty programs
and programs that help strengthen families. The fact is that
you are three times more likely to be in a gang if you were
raised in a home without a father in the home. That to me is a
pretty good indicator that we need to do something to
strengthen the role of fathers in our families.
Senator Bayh and I have worked together on a national
fatherhood initiative program, everything from taking fathers
who are released from prison to try to mentor them and help
them to try to reunify them with their families so they can be
a positive influence on their children, to the President's
healthy marriage initiative to try to, before the child is even
born, trying to stabilize and to assist those families that are
in the making, if you will, so fathers do not separate from the
mother of their child and stay and participate, whether in
marriage or whether just in a way that they are connecting to
their children. To me, it is obvious from the statistics as
well as common sense that that is a severe problem that leads
to not just gang problems but a whole myriad of problems in our
society, and that we have some role, limited as it may be, some
role in the Government to try to be helpful in that regard.
So I look forward to hearing the testimony today. I thank
you again, Senator Specter, for holding this hearing in
Philadelphia and tried to save a little time for you. I have
got a minute and 26 seconds left to yield back to you.
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Senator Santorum.
We now turn to our first witness, Ms. Sarah V. Hart, the
distinguished Director of the National Institute of Justice
where she has served since 2001. Prior to the time she was a
delegate to the United Nations Crime Commission 2002 conference
and a member of the National Academics of Science Roundtable on
Terrorism. For six years from 1995 to 2001, she served as chief
counsel for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and was
a 16-year prosecutor in the Philadelphia District Attorney's
Office. It goes to show you how time has flown because you were
there after I was there, which is some time ago.
She has her bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the
University of Delaware and her law degree from Rutgers School
of Law where she was an associate editor of the law review. So
she brings a background in Pennsylvania crime control and very
extensive experience on the national level.
Thank you for joining us, Ms. Hart, and we look forward to
your testimony.
STATEMENT OF SARAH HART, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
JUSTICE, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Ms. Hart. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
The National Institute of Justice is the research and
development arm of the Department of Justice and our primary
mission is to research criminal justice issues for State and
local governments. Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee,
we are honored to be able to present research findings to you
on this very important question, and it is also an honor to be
here in my hometown of Philadelphia. Thank you.
The National Institute of Justice has a long history of
supporting research relating to local efforts to reduce gun
crime, especially among 18- to 30-year-olds. NIJ sponsored the
Boston Ceasefire Project as well as similar efforts across
other major cities. My written testimony provides detailed
information about short-term and long-term strategies to
address these issues. Given the time constraints of this
hearing, my colleague Bob Flores of the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention will focus on prevention
strategies. I will primarily focus on interventions that reduce
and disrupt violent crime and the questions posed by the
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, you asked from a national perspective what
programs and other interventions have been successful. In the
area of effective policing, comprehensive problem-solving
strategies have proven to be effective. These approaches
require a systematic analysis of the nature of the crime
problem, a focus on geographic locations with high
concentrations of crime, a focus on likely offenders, and
community and criminal justice system coordination.
Because problem-solving approaches involve tailoring a
response to the local problem, these are not a canned program.
However, components of successful programs usually involve the
following: crime mapping, much like you see here on a
Philadelphia map; disruption of illegal gun markets; addressing
illicit gun use; focus on particular gangs or focus on
particular known offenders. Project Safe Neighborhoods
incorporates many of these strategies.
Mr. Chairman, you also asked about the cost of successful
programs and their potential impact. Problem-solving approaches
usually involve numerous public and private entities that
redirect existing resources. For this reason, it is often very
difficult to parse out precise overall costs. But cost-benefit
research suggests that the overall benefits to successful
intervention programs clearly offset their anticipated costs.
Some of the most effective programs can be very intensive and
expensive, but the estimated long-term savings to taxpayers and
crime victims can be substantial.
This research even tends to undervalue societal benefits.
For example, current cost-benefit comparisons tend to
undervalue the cost of crime. For example, they often do not
consider community costs, such as crime-related declines in
property values, loss in tax revenues when citizens will move
out of a jurisdiction to avoid a crime problem, private
security costs that homeowners and businesses incur to harden
targets against potential crime. In addition, there are often
intangible costs such as pain and suffering of crime victims
and lost opportunity costs.
Mr. Chairman, you have also asked about unsuccessful
programs. Research has shown that a number of programs,
including some very popular ones, are not effective. Some of
these programs include the DARE program, traditional boot
camps, gun buyback programs, and group therapy programs that
often bring together delinquent youth where they can reinforce
negative behaviors.
You also asked how the research can address Philadelphia's
increased youth violence problem. The research supports a
comprehensive approach like Project Safe Neighborhoods that
targets high crime locations and likely offenders. Potential
interventions should include homicide and violent incident
reviews, chronic violent offender lists, gun violence case
screenings by prosecutors, violent offender notification
meetings, police probation teams, and prevention programs with
proven effectiveness. In addition, current jurisdictions should
look at their existing programs to see if they should be
reevaluated in light of other successful programs.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, you asked me why some successful
youth violence programs have become ineffective. In addition to
economic incarceration issues, there are also legitimate
questions about program sustainability. Oftentimes successful
programs are victims of their own success. There is a reduced
sense of urgency for the problem and it is harder to compete
for scarce resources.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to
speak here today and we would be happy to provide additional
information to the Committee.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Hart appears as a submission
for the record.]
Chairman Specter. Thank you, Ms. Hart. Your full statement
will be made a part of the record, as will all of the
statements.
We turn now to Dr. Ileana Arias, Acting Director for
Centers for Disease Control's Injury Center since June of last
year. She is responsible for the expansion of State programs
for injury prevention, and new research in areas of child
maltreatment. Prior to her appointment as acting director she
was chief of the Division of Violence Prevention at CDC, and
she had been director of clinical training and professor of
clinical psychology at the University of Georgia in Athens. She
has a bachelor's degree from Barnard, and an M.A. and a Ph.D.,
both in psychology, from the State University of New York.
Thank you for coming to Philadelphia today, Ms. Arias, and
we look forward to your testimony.
STATEMENT OF ILEANA ARIAS, ACTING DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CENTER FOR
INJURY PREVENTION, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL, DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Ms. Arias. Good morning, Chairman Specter, Senator
Feinstein, and Senator Santorum. Thank you very much for the
opportunity to share the exciting work that CDC is doing to
address the issue of youth violence in the United States.
Chairman Specter. Ms. Arias, would you pull the microphone
just a little closer? Or as Senator Thurmond would say, pull
the machine--
Ms. Arias. Is that better?
Chairman Specter. Senator Santorum says, he said, speak
into the machine. We miss Senator Thurmond.
Ms. Arias. I am also very honored to join my colleagues
from the Department of Justice to address the issue today. In
addition to my warm greetings and thank you, I also bring you
greetings from the director of CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding.
Youth violence is a very important public health issue.
Homicide, as a lot of us know, is the second leading cause of
death among youth in America between the ages of 15 and 24. It
is the leading cause of death among African-American youth
between the ages of 15 and 34. And the problem does not stop
with the deaths. Injuries severe enough for emergency
department responses leading to long-term consequences and
treatment are very common. In 2002, over 875,000 injuries
resulted from violence against youth, and one out of 13 of
those required hospitalization.
Injuries are the obvious consequences to youth violence.
However, there are others that are significant and important as
well. We know that youth violence is a precursor to a number of
mental health and chronic health conditions like anxiety
disorders, depression, asthma, headaches, and other kinds of
problems that are usually associated with prolonged exposure to
stress.
As difficult as it is to report these numbers, I do have
some good news. We know that youth violence is preventable. At
the CDC, we gather information on the impact and causes of
youth violence and try to translate that information into what
you can be done in order to prevent it. We know that early
prevention and intervention are extremely critical in order to
be successful in our efforts to prevent youth violence. We also
know that the role of parents is equally critical in that
effort. Experiencing and witnessing violence either in the home
or the community is a significant risk factor. But we also know
that there are significant factors that protect youth against
violence, both against perpetration or victimization. Most
importantly connectedness to family, to community, to schools,
et cetera, has been and could show to significantly protect.
We have used this information to identify and disseminate
programs that have been shown to be effective in reducing youth
violence and preventing the significant consequences associated
with it. The Resolving Conflict Creatively Project at Columbia
University that is being conducted by members of the Academic
Centers of Excellence have shown that not only is the program
effective in increasing pro-social behavior on the part of
youth who participate, it is also effective in reducing violent
behavior. Likewise, Peace Builders, which was developed in
Arizona to deal with very young children, that is K-5 equally
have shown that it is possible to increase pro-social patterns
of behavior among children and decrease violence, including
injuries associated with that violence.
We have recognized via home visitation programs can be very
effective in reducing child abuse. In fact, 40 percent
reduction in child abuse associated with families who have been
recipients of those programs; child abuse, which is a
significant precursor to youth violence. More importantly, we
recognize the importance of communities deciding what it is
that they need to do in order to prevent the problem of youth
violence in their communities appropriate to the conditions
that face them.
In order to address that issue we have published Best
Practices for Youth Violence Prevention, a source book for
community action, that presents a number of different
strategies that can be adopted by a community on the basis of
expert opinion that can be effective in reducing youth
violence. The practices included run the gamut from
individually focused practices to community interventions that
rely on the collaboration community organizations, faith-based
organizations, et cetera.
Youth violence is a complex problem best addressed in a
very comprehensive way. We recommend that efforts to address
youth violence begin early in infancy and continue through
adolescence, involving schools, community and faith-based
organizations, public health, social services, criminal justice
and families.
In conclusion, I would like to say that CDC has been
committed to addressing the issue of youth violence. We remain
committed to that effort, bringing the expertise and the
strengths of the public health perspective to prevent youth
violence. In conclusion, thank you very much for the ability
and the opportunity to share what it is that we have been
working on and again expressing our continued interest in
continuing to address the issue of youth violence across the
Nation. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Arias appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Ms. Arias.
We have been joined by our distinguished colleague, Senator
Joseph Biden, from Delaware. Senator Biden, first elected in
1972 at the age of 29, has served as Chairman of the Judiciary
Committee, now as ranking member of Foreign Relations, had been
Chairman of Foreign Relations, and is really a national
spokesman on matters of international affairs.
Senator Biden, we yield to you for an opening statement.
Senator Biden. I will wait till just before the second
panel. I do not want to interrupt this panel. I thank you very
much though, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Senator Biden. Then
we will proceed with the testimony of Mr. J. Robert Flores who
is the Administrator of the Office of Justice Programs in the
Department of Justice for juveniles. Before that appointment,
in 2002 he was vice president and senior counsel of the
National Law Center for Children and Families, had been senior
trial attorney in the Department of Justice in the Obscenity
Section where he prosecuted the first case involving computer
child pornography to go to trial. He has a bachelor's degree in
business administration from Boston University and his
doctorate in law from the Boston University School of Law.
Thank you for joining us, Mr. Flores, and we look forward
to your testimony.
STATEMENT OF J. ROBERT FLORES, ADMINISTRATOR, OFFICE OF
JUVENILE JUSTICE & DELINQUENT PREVENTION, OFFICE OF JUSTICE
PROGRAMS, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Mr. Flores. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the
Committee. I am really pleased to have an opportunity to be
here today and to testify about the current state of violence
and juvenile crime in our major cities.
I want to emphasize that OJJDP, the office that I head,
advocates and employs a comprehensive approach to addressing
juvenile justice problems with the goal of providing today's
kids with opportunities for a better tomorrow. We recognize
that here in the city of Philadelphia citizens have been faced
with the tragic reality of innocent children being caught in
crossfires. In preparation for today's hearing I have taken a
close look at the juvenile arrest data for Philadelphia County.
As with the national numbers, the overall arrest rates for
juvenile violent crime have gone down since 1993. However,
between 2001 and 2004, the most recent number that we have,
there have been increases in juvenile arrests in some key
areas, including aggravated assault, robbery, weapons law
violations, and murder. In fact the rates nearly doubled during
those years with regard to weapons law violations and murders.
While all of the rates are still far below the 1993 rates,
these recent increases emphasize the importance of our
continued attention to juvenile violence. Other cities like
Philadelphia are also experiencing the pain of burying children
due to similar circumstances, and oftentimes these harsh and
unacceptable crimes leave communities with a sense of
hopelessness. Today I want to provide you with a national
snapshot of current information on efforts our agency has in
place, both here in Philadelphia and throughout the Nation, to
address this issue.
Through violence evaluation we have advanced our knowledge
substantially about what leads to juvenile violence and
delinquency. We also know something about how to prevent and
address it. Violence prevention and intervention efforts hinge
on the identification of risk and protective factors, and the
determination of when they emerge during child development.
Since 1996, OJJDP has sponsored longitudinal studies on the
causes and correlates of delinquency, which are designed to
improve understanding of serious delinquency, violence, and
drug use by examining how individual juveniles develop within
the context of family, school, peers, and communities. I have
to underscore the importance of being able to do that research
and the important information that that research leads to.
Early warning signs of disruptive behaviors must not be
dismissed. Rather than assuming that these behaviors will pass,
teachers, parents, and mental health practitioners need to
recognize that the research clearly shows that disruptive
behavior should be taken seriously. Interventions are more
successful if the child has not already begun moving along
pathways towards more serious delinquent activity.
Through a grant to the National Center for Juvenile Justice
in Pittsburgh, OJJDP compiles a complete set of informational
data pertaining to the juvenile justice field. The substantial
growth in juvenile violent crime arrests that began in the late
1980s peaked in 1994. In 2003, juvenile arrests for violence
were the lowest since 1987, and juvenile arrests for property
crimes were the lowest in three decades. A very small
percentage of juveniles commit these violent and property
crimes. If one assumed that each arrest involved a different
youth, which is unlikely, then about one-third of 1 percent of
all juveniles age 10 to 17 living in the U.S. were arrested for
a violent crime. The proportion of property crime offenses
resolved by the police that involved juveniles in 2003 was
about 20 percent, the lowest level since 1980.
If we take a look at the things that we can apply from the
research that we have done, we realize that clearly one of the
things that has to happen is that we have to provide some
comprehensive efforts to address some of the needs of these
kids. We have invested substantially at the University of
Colorado in Boulder at the Center for the Study and Prevention
of Violence in taking a look at what programs work. We call it
the Blueprints Project. That project is a way of taking a look,
a very hard look at programs to see whether or not not only do
they deliver on what they say they will show and do, but also
whether or not those programs can be replicated across the
country. It is a very rigorous review, and after taking a look
at nearly 600 programs the Blueprints Initiative identified 11
model programs and 21 promising programs.
As demonstrated by these model and promising programs,
prevention is one of the most cost-effective methods for
reducing juvenile delinquency. Through the Title V community
prevention grants and the juvenile family drug courts, we are
also providing services and evaluating the impact of focusing
on the promotion of healthy childhood development.
I want to underscore also that through the coordinating
council and the work that is being done now in the OJJDP gang
reduction pilot programs we are working with our colleagues at
HHS, at HUD, at Labor, with our other components, with sister
agencies like NIJ and BJA so that we are not leaving this just
to the Justice Department's budget, just to the Justice
Department's resources but really taking a look at making sure
that we bring all of the resources that Congress has provided
to bear to address this very significant problem.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Flores appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much. Mr. Flores.
Senator Biden, would you care to make your statement or in
advance of the second panel?
Senator Biden. No, I will wait.
Chairman Specter. Then we will now proceed to our customary
questioning by members of the panel by the Senators, each of
which is within a five-minute time parameter.
Ms. Hart, you testified about group therapy and about an
evaluation of programs related to drug addiction. I attended a
program on group therapy many years ago at Swan Lake where they
had ex-drug addicts with a group of 10 people in counseling,
with sessions which ran all night for a very protracted period
of time. I would be interested in your evaluation as to, if you
are familiar with what happened at Swan Lake, how successful
that has been on the national level. I know it has been copied
at Cadencia House which originated here in the Philadelphia
suburbs and is now of national import.
Ms. Hart. Mr. Chairman, I am not familiar with that
particular program but we would be very happy to go back and
look and provide the Committee with additional information that
we may have on that.
Chairman Specter. With respect to the addictive programs,
that is a subject which we have examined in the Subcommittee on
Health and Human Services over many years. Are there really
reliable statistics to tell us what programs on curing
addiction, alcoholism or drugs are really successful?
Ms. Hart. I believe we have some information on that. There
obviously is wide variation in different types of drug
treatment. Some are more effective than others.
But one of the things that we definitely know is the very
close link between criminal behavior and drugs and the need to
invest in appropriate to drug treatment to reduce crime.
Chairman Specter. Ms. Arias, I am fascinated by the
approach of the Centers for Disease Control in some
conversations with Dr. Gerberding who is the director as to the
impact of mental health on juvenile violence. Could you expand
on what is the thinking of CDC as to the causal connection
there, if any?
Ms. Arias. CDC is committed to addressing issues of mental
health, as you know, both--
Chairman Specter. Speak into the machine, Ms. Arias.
Ms. Arias. CDC is committed to looking at mental health
issues, both in terms of mental health as a precursor to youth
violence and youth violence then producing or leading to mental
health problems. There is a significant association there.
There is, unfortunately, a very high rate of violence among
children who have been diagnosed with having a psychiatric
disorder, and equally likely for children who have been exposed
both as perpetrators and/or victims to be at very high risk for
developing those disorders over time.
The issue for us is trying to identify what are the common
factors in both the development of psychiatric disorders and
development of youth violence in order to address those issues
as early on as possible in order to both. So that by
identifying what are the common risk factors, what are the
common protective factors, what we hope to do is create a
situation where we do not have to then come up with
interventions later on after a child has developed either a
psychiatric disorder and/or a violent behavior pattern.
Chairman Specter. This is a subject we are going to want to
pursue with you and we may do so on our subcommittee hearings
on health and human services.
Mr. Flores, you talk about prevention as the most cost
effective and you refer to the 11 model programs with 21
promising programs after reviewing over some 600 programs. What
are the common elements of the programs which work?
Mr. Flores. Mr. Chairman, a couple of the common elements
are, one, that the process of implementation is very clear.
These programs have taken the time to really document what they
do, to make sure that they have identified those things which
are critical and have to be repeated, and that they have a very
clear method of operation, so that it is not left--
Chairman Specter. What are the factors identified as
critical?
Mr. Flores. Let us take Big Brothers-Big Sisters for
example. That is one of the model programs. One of the things
that we know is that while mentoring is an incredibly important
and very positive program, if it is carried out without the
proper support and if it lasts less than six months the results
are sometimes worse than if the mentoring did not take place at
all. One of those is probably common sense.
Chairman Specter. Are you familiar with the program called
GEAR UP which Congressman Fattah originated which has been
funded by the subcommittee for about $2 billion over the last
six years which focuses on mentoring?
Mr. Flores. I am only familiar with the fact that we are
funding that, Senator. I can get you additional information.
Chairman Specter. You are not funding it. We are funding
it.
Mr. Flores. I understand that.
Chairman Specter. That is an important distinction. My time
is up.
Senator Feinstein.
Do you want to add something, Mr. Flores, in defense of who
is funding what?
Mr. Flores. No, sir.
Chairman Specter. Very wise.
Senator Feinstein.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was very
interested in the testimony.
Let me give you my observation. I think a lot begins very
early in life in school. Youngsters cannot socialize, they
cannot connect to the rest of the class. Generally it is all
right up to about grade four, and then the emotional dropping
out takes place, and by grade seven and eight they are ready
for something that adds to their life. That is where the early
gang recruiters come in.
In two of your papers you discuss two projects. One is the
Pathways to Assistance here in Philadelphia, an OJJDP funded
program, and the other is a program K-5 in Arizona, CDC funded,
Peace Builders, both of which it seems to me try to deal with
the problem of the school youngster who really cannot connect
to anything meaningful in their life. I am wondering if you
could speak more about this as an issue.
On one level you get the Columbine youngsters, which
probably have two parents. Nonetheless, they went through all
of the machinations they went through. Then you have youngsters
who really do not have much parenting, who never learn basic
values at home who come into the school system. It seems to me,
regretfully, that schools are charged with doing more and more
and more for youngsters. But there is this critical dimension
and the only word I know is socialization, and I do not like
the word. But there needs to be more mechanisms in elementary
school to see that that is achieved, whether it is Big Brother
or GEAR UP or Big Sister, but programs which can drive a
positive sense of value and connect youngsters to each other.
Could you comment on that, anyone? Mr. Flores, let us begin
with you and go right down the line.
Mr. Flores. One of the things that we do find is extremely
helpful are afterschool programs, things that allow these kids
to really connect outside the normal school day. They really
provide a tremendous motivation. It is an opportunity for
teachers, volunteers, the people who run those programs to
really connect. It is really the same basis that we believe
that mentoring works so well, and that is it puts an adult into
the life of the child as a resource, somebody to connect to.
We have an opportunity, because we have developed really
good assessment tools at different ages, and now we have
assessment tools that can really be used at very early ages to
identify some of the places where these kids probably will face
some challenges. We will be working with HHS to talk about how
we can use those assessment tools to better effect, to really
gather some of that information early. It is said that teachers
typically know after just a few days who the children are in
their class who really have some educational deficits and some
problems at home. We want to be able to take advantage of that
information.
So I would say that most of these programs here that we
find to be extremely helpful address a multiple of these
challenges that these kids have and really try to either
connect them to the school, to the community or back to their
family.
Senator Feinstein. Start at what age?
Mr. Flores. I think, quite frankly, we should looking at
Head Start ages and on up. Why would we want to wait? So I
think we are having those conversations already between the
Administration for Children and Families in our office as to
what kinds of assessment tools are there, what can we build,
what kind of resources and volunteering can we bring to the
table.
Senator Feinstein. Dr. Arias?
Ms. Arias. Senator Feinstein, that is an excellent
observation and I thank you for raising that. As mentioned in
the testimony, and you alluded to it, Peace Builders has been
shown to be effective, both in changing the children and also
the teacher's perception of the environment that those children
are growing up in. It is a very interesting observation in that
the other program that I mentioned, the resolving conflict
creatively which is a K-8 program, also found significant
effects. However, interestingly, the effects were not as great
for the older children, suggesting that as early as possible
that intervention--that is, before they actually get to that
stage in seventh or eighth grade where they have already
developed those patterns. So that early intervention is
critical.
We rely on school programs because teachers are amenable,
teachers are interested in helping out in dealing with the
issue of youth violence. However, we are also currently
conducting some work looking to see the extent to which we can
further improve the benefits that kids get from those programs
in school by adding a community component and by adding also a
family component. We are looking forward to that data being
available soon to be able to say the extent to which a more
holistic approach is going to be the way to go.
Senator Feinstein. So if this bill does pass and we have
the funds, in my view it would make sense, and I do not know if
you agree, to target the monies toward troubled schools as
young as possible with children and combine it with mentoring
programs very early on. Would you agree with that?
Ms. Arias. I would agree, and again focusing on the family
and the broader community as a whole. I think the community has
to also engage in and put into place procedures that are going
to support what is being done in the school and what is being
done at a family level.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you. Ms. Hart?
Ms. Hart. I would just like to follow on what my colleagues
have said but approach it from a slightly different
perspective. From a societal perspective, if you are looking at
what are the long term benefits of those early investments, we
are looking after deterring people potentially from a life of
crime. If one invests later, for example, let us suppose you
invest when somebody is 45 or 50 years with prevention
programs, you may be only deterring them from 10, 20 years of
crime. But if you are talking about a 15-year-old, you are
talking about a very, very significant criminal career. So from
a cost-benefit analysis is certainly seems to make sense to
invest money, if you can, on people that are likely to have the
longer criminal careers, and also to the extent you can have
appropriate tools for trying to figure out which ones of the
juveniles are the highest risk and most likely to go into that
criminal pathway.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Senator Feinstein.
Senator Santorum.
Senator Santorum. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just would
like to pick up on where Senator Feinstein was headed because I
agree with her that that is a very key area, at least from the
testimony that I listened to. Senator Feinstein did not like
the term socialization. I will borrow Robert Putnam's term,
social capital. I think that is what we are talking about, the
connectedness that we have to each other. That is, obviously
from your testimony, Ms. Arias, is what is missing. They are
not connected.
I think the remediation that Senator Feinstein is talking
about in her legislation and some of the programs that you have
defined here are good connecting kids to other healthy kids.
Not just other groups, but healthy groups of kids, neighbors,
faith communities, as well as maybe--this is where I am heading
in the next direction--to their families. Because the other
aspect that you talked about in your testimony is was that you
have very low rates of delinquency when parents are engaged,
when, obviously, the parents are not abusive, and then when
parents are home when kids are home.
So maybe another area, if you can comment, are there
programs out there that have been effective? This is an area
where Government tends to fear to tread, and that is somewhat
directly getting involved in the family situation. But are
there programs out there that have been effective in helping
parents do a better job of parenting so we do not to do the
remediation down the line outside of the home in the schools?
Ms. Arias. There are some programs currently that, or there
are some programs that we have looked at and supported that
have been shown to be effective in doing that. Then there are
some that actually we are expanding and looking at as well.
So, for example, I mention home visitation programs that
intervene very, very early on among high risk families have
been shown to be effective in reducing child maltreatment for
sure, and then down the line improving the quality of life for
that family. We are also looking at programs currently that are
looking at various levels of intervention, again looking at how
it is that communities can support families in order to have
them engage in those functional patterns of interaction that
are necessary, including also schools in that intervention. So
looking at different levels of dose, if you will, and see where
it is that we can get the most benefit from.
For the record, I can send additional information about
those projects that we are currently looking at and some of the
ones that we have evaluated more critically.
Senator Santorum. I would like that information. Also if
any of you have a component as to what, if any, of these
programs have focused on communities of faith and whether there
has been a faith-based intervention and the success of those
vis-a-vis more traditional programs.
Ms. Hart, I would like to focus on--you mentioned four
things that do not work: the DARE program, boot camps, gun
buybacks, and group therapy, and I suspect that there is
testimony in here as to why they do not work. But you mentioned
Project Safe Neighborhood as a program that does work. Can you
explain why the programs you mentioned failed and why Project
Safe Neighborhood is successful?
Ms. Hart. Project Safe Neighborhoods is really more of an
approach as opposed to a particular program, and the concept
behind Project Safe Neighborhoods is to go in and analyze a
local problem. Much of what Senator Feinstein mentioned about
how out in California they especially have a problem with
Bloods and Crips and gangs, you may be in another jurisdiction
where you do not see that exact problem; it has not arisen yet.
Project Safe Neighborhoods contemplates the idea that crime is
different in different locations and you need to be able to
analyze the crime at that particular location, see how it is
changing over time and be able to respond appropriately to
those particular dynamics that are causing the crime problem.
Senator Santorum. And why these other programs have not
worked, particularly the DARE program? That is a program as you
travel around in schools you see quite a bit of.
Ms. Hart. It is immensely popular. You see DARE license
plates here in Pennsylvania even, and it is enormously popular.
But there have been comprehensive evaluations of that and they
have shown consistently that it does not work, and I would be
very happy to provide them to you.
Senator Santorum. Thank you.
Finally, Mr. Flores, in reading your testimony it is
actually a fairly good news story that you present in here on
the reduction in youth violence. Is that a fair
characterization of your testimony? And why do--summarize
this--because you did not really get into that in your
testimony, that there has been a fairly dramatic decline
overall in youth violence in America.
Mr. Flores. I think that the picture is a positive one
overall, in spite of the fact that we have some very serious
challenges. One of the things I would point out is that when we
collect data, the data points out that there are some hot spots
in different communities and that the crime, as I did testify
orally about the fact that when we look at the numbers, even if
we assume that each of those crimes is committed by a different
kid, you are talking about one-third of 1 percent of kids 10 to
17.
I think that we are in a position as adults and as
communities to really take charge of that. I do not think that
we have lost control by any means. I do think that a lot of the
interventions are working. Congress has really provided a
tremendous amount of support for Boys and Girls Clubs, for
instance. These clubs serve as an anchor across the country in
community after community. They provide tremendous
opportunities, not only for the kids, but as you so correctly
point out, for the parents to engage as well, to have a place
where they can come in and they can see their children assisted
in everything from schoolwork, extracurricular activities and
sports.
So I do think that one of the major challenges though is
the connection. How do we strengthen that connection? I think
our kids are amazingly resilient, and I think that many of them
when offered the opportunity really do seize upon it. I do
think though that we are not always as competitive in some
places as we ought to be for our children's affections in terms
of really providing something that they are going to want to
respond to, and I think we have some room for improvement
there.
But I think that we have got a number of programs, we have
volunteers stepping forward, the President's call has been
really extremely positive in bringing volunteers to the table.
And then the First Lady's effort really has been remarkable in
terms of providing some focus into ways that we can help kids
across the board. We have talked about the nurse practitioner
program. We have got mentoring programs that are being pushed
by faith-based communities, and we got a lot that is going on
now with the fatherhood initiative in terms of really
challenging men to come back, be involved with their families
and take the responsibility that they really appropriately bear
and share with their spouse or the mother of that child.
Senator Santorum. Thank you.
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Senator Santorum.
Senator Biden. Mr. Chairman, maybe I could make a brief
opening statement now, because it relates to what both my
colleagues have just said.
Chairman Specter. Fine.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF DELAWARE
Senator Biden. First of all, thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for refocusing on this issue. This
is something you and I have worked on, and Senator Feinstein
and Senator Santorum have for some time and trying to find
out--one of the most difficult things I find in my years in
Congress and the Senate is that we author a program and we get
invested in it, and even if it does not work we stay with it.
One of the things I have tried to do, and you have done, is
notwithstanding what we thought at the front end, if it is not
working we should discard it and we should move on and invest
our money in the areas that have the best prospect for success.
One of the things that--money will not solve this problem,
but this problem cannot be solved without money. To me, looking
at the numbers, which I have been doing the bulk of my adult
life, is there is a--how can I say it--fighting crime and
dealing with juvenile delinquency is a little bit like cutting
grass. You can never spend less. I have never seen a single,
solitary time where we spent less, the grass has not grown. It
is like cutting your grass on Sunday and if you do not cut it
for a week it looks okay. You do not cut it for two weeks, it
looks a little ragged. Do not cut it for a month, it is a
little jungle. That is how crime is.
So there has got to be a correlation here, and I think the
Chairman is trying to find out, is between programs that work
but investing in those programs that work, and investing more
in those programs that work, not less.
Now one of the things for a long time--and I want to, by
the way, point out, Mr. Chairman, Ms. Hart is a University of
Delaware graduate. That is why she is so brilliant. And I want
to publicly thank her for helping me so much on the DNA issue,
and I want to thank all of you for your work.
But let me say that certain things that your testimony,
which I have seen and what little I have heard because I was
late--I want to make it clear I told the Chairman I would be
necessarily late. I knew I was going to have to be late. But
there are a couple things we know. Senator Feinstein has been a
leader in focusing on preschool and how we focus in the place
where it is most impressive. But one of the things that we know
about that is that those children who are in homes that are
dysfunctional and there is violence, tend to be the children
who are the children who are most at risk.
So the Violence Against Women Act, which is, I admit, a pet
of mine, I think is very, very important and I would like to
talk to you at some point about the funding of that and the
continuation of that, and the relationship if you--if there is
none, I should know, between those efforts and getting at these
kids early so they do not end up carrying the baggage that--you
get at them indirectly. If the mother is no longer being beaten
in front of their child then that takes away one of those
things.
There are only a couple things I have observed that we have
in common with adult prisoners or prisoners there because they
have committed violent acts. They cannot read and they were
subject of or witnesses of abuse. The only two things I have
found in all the studies I have read the last 23 years that
show the only commonality. There are other things that you
could--but that is most significant thing shared by most of the
violent offenders.
We also know that afterschool programs matter. The bulk of
the crime of these kids is committed between the hours of 3:00
and 6:00. You have got what, 5.7 million kids in that range or
ages 12 to 15-years-old that do not have any supervision at
all.
The third I have noticed since the days I was a public
defender is, those committing the most violent crimes are not
age 18 to 21. They are ages 15 to 18. That is a gigantic
change. And what we know about after arrest is unless there is
supervision after arrest it does not matter. I do not know why
we cannot figure this out, why this is so hard. We understand
if you go in for a serious medical problem, you have the
operation and there is no follow up with the doctor, you are
not going to get healthy in almost all instances.
What do we do in our system? Whether it is letting a person
out of jail, or whether it is dealing with drug treatment? You
are talking about drug treatment. You all have been involved
with that. None of these programs work in 30 days. None of
these programs work in 30 days. None, none, none, none, none,
none, none, none. None. Yet we go through this little game. We
have these 30-day programs. We are talking for heroin, you are
talking a year, six months a year to a year for any effective
program unless--I stand corrected. I am in the question period
now. Anybody interrupt me if there is any program you know for
heroin, methamphetamine that in fact has worked in less than
six months you can show to me. Have any of you ever heard of
any?
Number two, we find that after they get out of even those
programs, any program you know that works where there is not a
follow-up, routine follow-up with these folks coming out of
this treatment facilities? I have done this for the bulk of my
adult life. I have not found one single one. Not one.
And when you deal with juvenile delinquency certain things
are precursors we know. We know if you are a truant, look out.
Truancy is the first indication. Am I wrong about that? Is
there any indication that is not the case? And yet what do we
do with truancy? We had programs that worked. We had programs
and we funded them that followed up on all truants immediately.
In certain cities where those programs have been done, they
work. That is the first precursor. That is the first little red
flag that goes up beyond the kid sort of poking another kid in
class.
So my question for the panel is, that is there any way we
are really going to get a handle on this unless we continue to
impact on the violence witnessed in the home, have serious
afterschool programs, and treatment programs that in fact have
a duration that gives you a statistical possibility that
recidivism will be reduced? That is my first question. Anyone.
Mr. Flores. Senator, with respect to truancy, for example,
we have not missed that. In fact for the very first time the
Department of Education as well as the Department of Justice
joined together to have really a national conference addressing
that. That is a significant problem and one of the things that
is great about the opportunity that is presented there is that
the infrastructure to help solve that has only been bought and
purchased. We have the schools, and one of the real challenges
is finding a way to get those kids back into those seats.
With respect to the issue of literacy, there is a
tremendous amount of frustration if you are closed out of any
world, and being illiterate does just that. On top of which, if
you are a young student and you go to school and you are forced
to sit in front of a group of people and you are asked
questions that you could not answer because you could not read,
at a certain point you just drop out. You do not want to be
there.
Lastly, we view truancy as a tremendous sign a something
else going wrong in the home, especially when it is young
children. A five-year-old is not truant in the sense. They are
not in school because their parents or their caregiver is not
getting them to school.
Senator Biden. Why are we cutting the programs? Why are we
cutting the money? I mean, I know it is above your pay grade
and mine, but do you think it makes sense for us to cut out the
money? We have cut Federal funding for--generically, for local
law enforcement, local prevention monies. We have cut it by, I
do not know what, 60 percent, 70 percent? Why are we doing
that?
Let me put it another way, you cannot tell me why, I know.
Does it makes sense to cut these problems that make available
monies for communities to work on truancy problems? That is
what we are doing.
Ms. Arias. The support definitely is needed. I think what
is also important is that we have learned from the work that we
have done in the field generally that it has to be a more
comprehensive approach than we have done to date. So that
rather than developing a program here, a program there, whether
it is school-based, community-based, and implementing those,
that there has to be a multidimensional, multifactorial effort
so that a community is encouraged to look at the totality of
things that do influence the development of that child. Family
being one. School being another. Their peers, et cetera.
The other way that we like to think about it and one of the
reasons why we are continuing to go in this direction is, as
you mentioned, changes that are created in a child in school
have to be supported in a community. We cannot expect, for
example, a third-grader to change and then be responsible for
maintaining that change, given all the developmental changes
that they are undergoing.
The family violence issue is a very significant one, and
the work that we have done in the prevention of domestic
violence in the home, we do not perceive it only as then
dealing with domestic violence but dealing with that next
generation of violent youth and then violent adults. So that we
see as an investment both in terms of what is happening to
those women at the time, but also what those children then grow
up to do to other women or to each other. So the relationship
is not only there in terms of youth violence, but we know that
those children are at high risk for suicide and other forms of
violence, so it is an investment in, again, that early
intervention. But again, that comprehensive approach is
critical so that no kid who is ever touched by a program is
going to fall through the cracks and then go back to where they
were before.
Senator Biden. We have a fairly comprehensive program in
some of these areas--my time is up--and we are having trouble
keeping the funding going for these comprehensive programs.
That old expression, in the long run we will all be dead. There
is a lot of stuff we can do now. The Boston program is an
example. It worked incredibly well. The community decided on a
comprehensive--how to do it and then we stopped funding. So
anyway, I will get back to that. My time is up.
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Senator Biden. Thank
you for coming today to Philadelphia for these hearings. Just
one brief comment on violence in the home. It ought to be noted
that Senator Biden has taken the national lead on violence
against women, which is a major source of that particular
issue, and I have been privileged to be his co-sponsor;
something that I have seen over the years since my first days
as an assistant district attorney many, many years ago.
Thank you for coming, Ms. Hart, Ms. Arias, Mr. Flores. This
is just the beginning. We are going to be calling on you, Ms.
Hart, from the National Institute of Justice to give us a
comprehensive evaluation of what works and what does not work
on the national scene. The fact is that there are sometimes
three major departments which handle programs which have the
same name and same purpose. The Judiciary Committee is going to
be taking a very active role this year on our reauthorization
function to evaluate the programs which work and which do not
work, and we are going to be calling upon you from the National
Institute of Justice to provide that information to us.
Mr. Flores, the same goes for you from the Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. You are right at
the center of the juvenile crime issue, and you have studies on
what works and what does not work, and we are going to want the
specifics. This is going to be done at the staff level, but
this is just the beginning. We cannot even tabulate how much
money the Federal Government is spending, although we have been
looking at it for several months. We have tabulated that it is
$160 million for Pennsylvania. We are going to ask you to do
double duty, Ms. Hart, on Pennsylvania because of your
background here.
Ms. Arias, when you talk to Dr. Gerberding, tell her her $5
billion appropriation for CDC is secure, providing we do
something on mental health as it applies to juvenile crime, and
maybe even a little earmark for something in this city which
has such an acute problem.
So this hearing has been in process now for many months
working out the schedules of the Senators and working out the
schedules of the witnesses, but I repeat, this is just a start
to find out what works and what does not work and use the money
we are now spending effectively, and then to take up the issue
of additional funding where warranted. So thank you very much.
We will take a brief recess while the second panel is
seated.
[Recess.]
Chairman Specter. The hearing will resume. We will begin
with the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania, the Honorable Patrick Meehan.
Mr. Meehan comes to the position with a very distinguished
record in government and in law enforcement, having been the
district attorney of Delaware County and having handled some of
the highest profile cases in the past decade in the United
States, and recently led his office to a very, very important
jury verdict in a case of political corruption in the city of
Philadelphia. He has been active in government, having managed
the successful reelection campaigns for Senator Santorum in
1994 after having done the same thing for me in 1992.
Senator Biden. Are you available?
Chairman Specter. He is susceptible for the draft, Senator
Biden.
But his second most important achievement is as a hockey
referee; a really tough job, and his principal achievement is
the father of two beautiful twin boys and a third beautiful boy
all attributable to his beautiful wife.
Mr. Meehan, the floor is yours.
STATEMENT OF PATRICK MEEHAN, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE EASTERN
DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
Mr. Meehan. Good morning, Senator, and thank you for that
kind introduction. My wife will appreciate that. I want to
thank you for the opportunity to testify about youth violence
on behalf of U.S. Attorneys from around the country and about
our offices' efforts to combat juvenile violence in a nine-
county area which comprises the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania. I understand the Committee is looking at violence
committed by offenders between the ages of 15 and 24, and also
the crimes committed against those young people. We have, as
all the panelists, submitted significant written testimony so I
will try to focus on the salient points of that.
In defining the problem, we are keenly aware of the problem
of juvenile violence and we understand the urgency of stopping
the violence committed by youth and the violence committed
against them. According to statistics compiled by the
Pennsylvania Department of Education, across Pennsylvania, and
I suspect this is the same across the country, we are
continuing to see a larger number of violence incidents
reported by school officials. For just the 2002-2003 school
year, the number of incidents involving a weapon at a school
has grown from 859 to 932 in our city of Philadelphia, and
statewide we continue to see about 41 incidents a year
involving firearms in the schools.
What should not be lost in these statistics is the harsh
impact that firearm violence has on families and communities.
Violence tears at the very fabric of Philadelphia's
neighborhoods, and as the neighborhoods go, so goes the city.
The death of 10-year-old Faheem Thomas-Childs on the Pierce
Elementary School playground in North Philadelphia brought that
reality home to many in our region. On February 14, 2002 at
approximately 9:00 a.m., two rival gangs started shooting at
each other, firing more than 60 rounds outside a school
playground. One bullet found Faheem Thomas-Childs, and his
tragic death pierced the spirit of an entire city.
Let me tell you what our office is trying to do to try to
prevent youth violence. As the Committee knows, prosecution of
juvenile offenders is done almost exclusively by local
prosecutors. Federal prosecutors are constrained by Federal
jurisdiction limits and are focused on adult offenders. But
that is not to say that Federal prosecution efforts are
divorced from the problem of violence committed by youth. Our
office is engaged in a robust effort to attack firearms
violence, and to the extent that this coincides with youth
crime, we are involved. You have heard many comments about
Project Safe Neighborhoods, the chief vehicle we use to combat
firearms violence in the nine-county Eastern District of
Pennsylvania. Our district includes Philadelphia, but also
includes cities like Chester, Coatesville, Reading, Allentown,
Lancaster, all of which have experienced gun violence.
PSN, or Safe Neighborhoods, recognizes that violent
criminal organizations--I saw criminal organizations as Senator
Feinstein had noticed, are the most disruptive force in many
neighborhoods, and the responses to these criminal
organizations among various law enforcement agencies, both
Federal and State, need to be coordinated. We use Project Safe
Neighborhoods initiative to coordinate diverse law enforcement
resources around a strategic plan that is defined by those who
work in each district. The priorities are to dismantle violent
organizations first. Second, to stop illegal gun traffickers.
And third, to enforce the law against prohibited persons
possessing firearms.
But there are interlocking components of Project Safe
Neighborhood initiative which our office has coordinated to
combat firearms violence in the district. As Sarah Hart said,
we strive to match shorter term law enforcement efforts with
longer term community intervention and prevention programs to
leverage our impact in the schools and with our youth in the
neighborhoods, pay particular to Project Sentry and the Youth
Violence Reduction Project. Project Sentry is designed to bring
both Federal, State and local law enforcement to prosecute and
supervise juveniles who violate Federal and State firearms
laws, to prosecute the adults who illegally provide firearms to
juveniles, and to promote safety throughout the community.
With your help, we had Federal monies. We gave $700,000 of
those funds from our Project Sentry program and contributed it
to the city's youth violence reduction program. This program is
an intense supervision program designed to prevent the
offenders from slipping back into criminal behavior. Once
juvenile and law enforcement officials identify violent
juvenile offenders, local probation officers provide constant
monitoring of the offenders. Educational and vocational
training are made available to make sure that they do not
commit new offenses and they become productive members of the
community. YVRP is a model program. It targets those 15- to 24-
year-olds most likely to kill or to be killed, with intensive
supervision. One element is Archie Laycock's Don't Fall Down in
the Hood. He worked with 14- to 18-year-olds who are on
probation because they have been in possession of a firearm.
Similar though less intensive programs, Porchlight
Programs, are operating in Delaware, Berks, Lehigh and
Lancaster Counties.
Chairman Specter. Can you summarize and your full statement
will be made a part of the record?
Mr. Meehan. Yes, Senator.
The conclusion is that by working together, focusing
prevention with intensive law enforcement efforts collectively,
as we wrap around the prevention efforts, we can have an impact
on violence both in our neighborhoods and in the homes to make
a difference. But that key is the collaboration and
communication.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Meehan appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much. We are on a very
close time schedule, regrettably, and we want to save as much
time as we can for questions and answers.
Our next witness is the distinguished Commissioner of
Police of the city of Philadelphia, Sylvester Johnson, who has
been in this position since January 4, 2002. From 1998 until
his appointment as Commissioner, he was deputy commissioner for
operations. He has a long list of awards, including the award
of valor, received the director's award from the U.S.
Department of Justice executive office for the Weed and Seed
Program. He attended the senior management institute for police
at Harvard and the FBI National Executive Institute, and he has
been on the police force since 1964, Commissioner Johnson,
which makes you only five years junior to me on service in
Philadelphia law enforcement. Draw a murmur from the crowd.
Thank you for--I hate to talk about dates. It is too
reminiscent of age. But thank you for the good work you are
doing and for joining us here today, and we look forward to
your testimony.
STATEMENT OF SYLVESTER JOHNSON, COMMISSIONER, PHILADELPHIA
POLICE DEPARTMENT, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
Commissioner Johnson. Thank you. It is an honor to be here
and I appreciate being here with the people that are on the
panel. My comments are not going to be very, very long and I
will try to keep it as brief as I possibly can. I thank the
Committee for traveling to Philadelphia for this important
hearing and I hope the testimony you hear today will provide
the Committee valuable insight into how youth and gang violence
can be reduced in cities across the country.
Violent crime is an assault on our communities. Violent
crime committed by juveniles is especially disturbing. Watching
our children gunned down in the streets, bringing knives and
guns to school, stealing, robbing, drug dealing can lead to a
sense of hopelessness for the future of our community. There
are many factors that lead to juvenile crime and violence. It
is fueled by poverty, drug dealing, broken families, and a
popular culture that glamorizes narcotics and gunplay.
We must, therefore, effectively and efficiently use our
limited resources to continue successful initiatives, and
develop new programs to reverse this trend. The city as a whole
is deeply invested in this problem. Not only law enforcement
and the courts but community organizations, faith-based groups,
health care providers, everyone with an interest in keeping our
children and our streets safe.
Youth homicides in Philadelphia for 2005 have seen a tragic
increase due in part to gun violence. From January 1, 2005 to
May 31, 2005 there was a total of 63 homicides for youth 24
years old and under. For that same period in 2004 there were a
total of 41 homicides by youth 24 years old and under. From
January 1, 2005 to June 7, 2005 the city of Philadelphia has
had a total of 340 shooting victims of youth 24 years old and
younger.
The Philadelphia police department considers youth violence
a serious threat to the future and quality of life for our
young people. Philosophically, we believe that arrests alone
will not solve the problem of youth violence. As I have said
repeatedly, we cannot arrest our way out of this problem. Only
a holistic approach will decrease the incidents of youth
violence in the city and around the country. The police
department has in the past and will continue to partner with
other city agencies, religious and community groups and
organizations, State and local law enforcement agencies,
business and private organizations dedicated to working with
our youth. The goal of this partnership and collaboration is to
identify at-risk youth, intervene in the most effective way
with a goal of decreasing youth violence.
As a police department we handle youth violence in the same
way that we handle adult violence, intervene immediately and
work diligently to protect against retaliation and ongoing
disputes. We believe strongly that the key to success in
preventing future violence is our ability to analyze incidents,
gather intelligence and make the necessary connection. A strong
police presence on our streets in our communities has proven
successful as a deterrent to crime, as a strong role model to
our youth. In the past year we have developed two new
strategies that we expect will make a significant difference.
The Youth Violence Reduction Project is a multiagency
effort aimed at reducing youth homicides by focusing on youth
seven to 24 who are most at risk to kill or be killed. The
Youth Violence Reduction Project operates in three police
districts, 24th police district begun in June 1999, 25th began
in two phases, southern section in January 2000, and full
district by October 2000. The 12th district began August 2002.
Since 1999, the Youth Violence Reduction Program has 1,440
youth partners. The majority of them, 90 percent are male and
89 percent are Afro-Americans or Hispanic. The median age is
17. Of these youth partners, 13 have died, 10 by homicides, two
by suicide and one by auto accident, and seven have been
arrested for murder.
The Youth Violence Reduction Program currently costs
approximately $3,594,000 a year including $929,000 in city
funds and in-kind services. We estimate the cost expansion to
an additional police district amounts to about $1,546,000 to
pay for more intensive police, probation and parole
supervisors, and street workers to deliver positive support,
additional prosecutorial and court expense, data monitoring,
job training and other costs. With economy of scale, we believe
that Youth Violence Reduction Program could be expanded to
three high risk districts for a total additional cost of less
than $4,574,000 annually.
We are grateful for the Federal, State, local and private
support that has allowed us to establish and sustain this
initiative at its current level. We hope that the success
demonstrated from these initiatives will justify additional
funds.
In conclusion, youth violence in American cities remains an
extremely persistent problem. There has been considerable
research in recent years of how to tackle it. A 2001 Surgeon
General report on youth violence noted that the key to
preventing a great deal of violence is understanding where and
when it occurs, demonstrating what causes it, and
scientifically demonstrating which of many strategies for
prevention and intervening are truly effective.
If given a choice, most law enforcement officials would
choose successful prevention or early intervention programs
over arrest and prosecution. To that end, the Philadelphia
police department works to foster programs that emphasize
prevention, DARE, GREAT, Explorers Youth, Heads Up, Police
Athletic League. We are closely monitoring the results of all
our initiatives, continually emphasizing accountability for
performance and adjusting our approach as the need demands as
we are keeping our eyes on the ultimate goal of saving lives.
Thank you very much for your time today. Thank you very
much for your invitation to be here.
[The prepared statement of Commissioner Johnson appears as
a submission for the record.]
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Commissioner
Johnson. Thank you for your testimony.
Senator Santorum, do you have any closing comments? I know
you have a plane to Pittsburgh.
Senator Santorum. I have to head to Pittsburgh. I
appreciate your having this hearing and I thank my colleagues
for coming. I am going to take the testimony with me and I will
read it on the plane. Thank you all very much. Appreciate it.
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much for joining us, Rick.
Appreciate it.
Our next witness is Mr. James Kane, executive director of
the State of Delaware's Criminal Justice Council where he has
served since 1996. He has a very distinguished record in
government work in Delaware including the Governor's Advisory
Commission on Youth, the Governor's Council on Alcohol, Drug
Abuse and Mental Health, and the Governor's Safe Streets
Committee. He served as president of the National Criminal
Justice Association from 2001 through 2003 and has had a number
of important publications. We thank Senator Biden for his
recommendation of Executive Director Kane and we look forward
your testimony, Mr. Kane.
STATEMENT OF JAMES KANE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DELAWARE CRIMINAL
JUSTICE COUNCIL, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
Mr. Kane. Thank you very much for allowing me to testify.
My parents are originally from Philadelphia. It is nice to come
home. My mom went to Kensington and my dad went to West
Catholic in LaSalle.
At the Criminal Justice Council we tend to look at the
criminal justice system as a continuum of events involving
clients as they flow through the system. The council began
looking at the characteristics of convicted criminals
approximately 20 years ago. We have reviewed social and
economic demographics of violent criminals. We have looked at
the same criminals as juvenile delinquents, and we have looked
at these same delinquents as abused children prior to their
involvement in the criminal justice system.
Over the years, we have become very adroit at arresting,
prosecuting and convicting serious violent offenders. One of
the few things that we know for certain is that a two-time
violent felon has an excellent chance, in our State about an 80
percent change of being convicted of another violent felony. We
have concentrated most of our efforts in the law enforcement
area on serious predators who we know are difficult, if not
impossible, to rehabilitate. We have concentrated on these
individuals with the assistance of the United States Department
of Justice through crime bill money. We have usually been able
to reduce crime in whatever geographic area that we maximize
our law enforcement effort. We have been less successful in the
area of rehabilitation.
In the last several years, the Criminal Justice Council
planners in Delaware have conducted some landmark research on
the demographics of serious violent adult and juvenile
offenders, and social and economic conditions that produce
these offenders. Obvious to the most casual observer, but it
still is vital to continue to indicate that single female head
of households, poverty, high school dropouts, extensive drug
and alcohol abuse, terrible housing, and a general condition of
socioeconomic hopelessness tend to produce our worst violent
criminals. In selected grids within the city of Wilmington, and
Delaware as a whole, we can probably predict which
neighborhoods will produce what amount of inmates for our
correctional facilities.
Until we can develop some type of formula that provides
hope for our young people in a comprehensive fashion we will
continue to produce criminals that employ large numbers of law
enforcement officers, defense attorney, prosecutors and court
personnel and correctional personnel. Earlier there was some
discussion about the cost of inmates. In Delaware it is about
$30,000 an inmate and we have got about 6,500 in prison and
20,000 on probation. We are already suffering in Delaware from
a huge expansion of our correctional facilities. We cannot hire
enough guards to staff the prisons because we cannot pay them
enough and it is not the greatest kind of work. The cost for
these inmates is becoming astronomical.
Programs that we tend to know that do not work are one-shot
events, or events that do not impact the child's life in a long
term fashion. Over the years we have paid for countless
speakers who have, in spite of their environment, made it in
the world. They would come in, conduct a one-day seminar,
charge us $5,000 and go away, and the young people go back to
the same neighborhood where they came from. We have invested
large amounts of money for law enforcement education in schools
on the evils of drugs and crime. And we have funded well-
intentioned programs that work on one aspect of the child's
life. Examples could be child abuse, tutoring, cultural
development.
The success that we have had in working with youth has been
in the area of providing comprehensive services to that youth.
Where we have funded it involved tutoring, cultural
development, value development, recreational activities, and
basically supply a family environment outside of the home. We
have had some success in increasing the educational levels of
these youth. These programs have included Boys and Girls Clubs,
Police Athletic Leagues, and other community centers that
provide this comprehensive environment.
Still these programs are scattered in nature. We have
provided these programs in at-risk neighborhoods to at-risk
children but we still do not capture the very, very high-risk
individual who may become violent. Our studies indicate that 80
percent of the shooters-shootees in the city of Wilmington are
African-American males between the ages of 14 and 24. If you
look at the criminal justice system and criminals as a pyramid,
at the top of the pyramid are two-time violent felons. The pool
of individuals at the bottom of the pyramid tend to be poor
African-American male children who do not have the means to
make it in society.
Recently we developed a value-based education program that
will provide a comprehensive school for African-American boys
in the city of Wilmington. After extensive bidding we
contracted to a concept called the Nativity School. They
operate about six of these in the country. They have agreed to
take 25 African-American male children from poor neighborhoods
grades four and five. The program operates from 7:00 a.m. to
8:00 p.m. in the evening and children are with school personnel
all day on Saturdays. They leave for a month in the summer to
different colleges and live in a dorm. The program has worked
in other areas of the Northeast and it provides disadvantaged
African-American males with an opportunity for success. They
just sent me their first newsletter in Latin. I could barely
read it, but I was an alter boy so I had a shot at it.
If I knew the answer on how to reduce the current problem I
would probably be a million-dollar consultant. I do know that
the only way to change the behavior of young people before they
become violent in the criminal justice system is to provide
some form of comprehensive environment similar to that of a
high-functioning family.
In the past, the crime bill provided the States with a
balanced funding approach to criminal justice so that we could
create innovations for different components of the criminal
justice system. Examples of our innovation have included
projects funded under the JJDP Act, the Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention Act. This act literally removed
thousands of abused and neglected children from the criminal
justice system. The crime bill created many innovations in the
arena of speedy processing that otherwise would not have been
initiated. Also community policing initiatives have made
countless neighborhoods safer around the country and definitely
in Delaware.
I thank you for your time and I would be happy to answer
any questions that you may have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Kane appears as a submission
for the record.]
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Mr. Kane.
Our next witness is the Chief Executive Officer of the
School District of Philadelphia, Mr. Paul Vallas, who has been
in that position since July of 2002, and his tenure has been
marked by very, very substantial improvements in the school
district. He previously had served as CEO of the Chicago public
schools from 1995 to 2001 and was the budget director for the
city of Chicago, but also the revenue director.
I can personally attest to his financial skills because he
and Ben Schmidt came to the Appropriations Subcommittee on
Education a few years ago and told us about a $20 million
shortfall. To make a very long story very short, the funding
was directed through the State to distressed schools. And
somehow he returned the next year and said he needed $20
million more. And he came back the year after that and you will
be surprised to hear what he said that year. It has practically
become an entitlement, but it has been put to very good use
with the summer school program last year being funded by that
Federal appropriation, and I think being a significant factor
in helping on the crime issue, the juvenile crime issue,
although it seems to be very, very difficult.
I give him further credit in a conversation we had months
ago for making suggestions about what programs had worked in
other jurisdictions, and being an innovator and suggesting
these hearings here today.
Beyond that, he was a candidate for Governor of Illinois a
few years back. I forget on which ticket and I forget what the
result was, but he may want to testify about it.
[Laughter.]
Chairman Specter. The floor is yours, Superintendent
Vallas.
STATEMENT OF PAUL VALLAS, SUPERINTENDENT, PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS,
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
Mr. Vallas. Thank you so much. I am going to do something
unprecedented by me. I tend to be a little too talkative. I am
going to use my five minutes to refer to a binder that I have
provided to the Senators and to staff. What I have attempted to
do, this is my legislative staff experience coming out, is to
provide background material, reference material that I think
will prove to be very helpful to the Committee and to their
staff.
Tab one lays out my testimony which I am going to defer
commenting on.
Tab two lays out some relevant statistics about school
safety, specifically in the city of Philadelphia.
Tab three is a discussion of a Project Peace Initiative
which is an initiative designed to get students involved in
peer mediation and resolving problems through non-conflict
resolutions.
Tab four is background material on the Philadelphia youth
violence prevention partnership which all of the previous
speakers have made reference to. Let me point out that where
the partnership has been implemented it has had tangible,
substantive success. It is certainly a model worth expanding to
other districts in Philadelphia.
Tab five, relevant articles of interest, again in support
of the Philadelphia youth violence prevention initiative.
Tab six and seven is the Philadelphia juvenile justice
curriculum, a curriculum that is being integrated into the
school district at the middle grades, and it is designed to
teach the young children not only conflict resolution but also
values, character, and to teach them about the consequences of
committing serious offenses. It is also supplemented by a
comprehensive anti-violence initiative initiated by the
district attorney's office. I am sorry, the district attorney's
office is the author of the juvenile justice curriculum. The
U.S. Attorney's Office is the author of the anti-violence
initiative that is designed to teach young people the
consequences of the use of firearms.
Tab eight is some background material on the Boston
miracle, the Boston Operation Nightlight, which was a
significant effort at reducing youth violence in Boston, had
great success and is considered to be a national model.
Tab nine is background material on the Chicago community
youth program. Chicago has had a significant reduction in youth
violence in the last couple years due in large part to this
initiative. So background material, summary materials well
worth referencing.
Then finally, Tab 10, which is not available yet, only
because we do not want to violate copyright laws, we are
providing the commission with an excerpt from Malcolm
Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, the chapter on broken
windows that talks about the New York miracle.
So our objective here has been to provide background
material in a very concise, specific way that can be helpful to
the Committee and that can also be helpful, obviously, to the
Committee staff; material I am sure the Committee staff has
been able to access on their own.
Before I finish my statement I would like to offer a few
brief policy principles that I feel are evident or emerge from
all of these models, from the New York experience, to the
Boston experience, to the Chicago experience, and even the
Philadelphia experience through the Philadelphia Youth Violence
Prevention Partnership.
One is, to be successful, violence prevention must be
coordinated. So obviously we support programs and equipment
that will allow for greater coordination among local agencies
in tracking and dealing with chronically and habitually
disruptive students, as well as habitually disruptive youth.
According to the public-private ventures report, one of the key
successes to the YVRP initiative and the key successes to
initiatives that have been undertaken in Boston and Chicago and
elsewhere have been the coordination among many of the
participating groups and agencies. And of course, this
coordination can be further enhanced through technology.
Second is that students at risk to engage in violent acts
benefit from specialized attention. If you look at the Chicago
initiative, they have an extensive early assessment program
designed to look at the health care and educational needs of
students and then to literally develop what I would
characterize as anti-violence IEPs designed to intervene before
a child has gone down the path of violence. But early
intervention, early diagnosis, focusing on the problem as
really a public health problem are ways that we can overcome
these tragic incidents and help us address the problems and
challenges that we face.
Third is the need to provide young people with constructive
alternatives to violence. Summer school and afterschool
programs such as those that have been provided in Philadelphia,
in large part through the good offices of Senator Specter and
Senator Santorum, providing for youth job programs, providing
children with extracurricular activities to get them off the
street, values character education. In the Philadelphia public
schools partnering with faith-based institutions, we have a
youth net program, a program that is designed to use faith-
based institutions to provide afterschool and extracurricular
character education and intervention services. All these things
can make a big difference.
But again, I will refer you, with your permission, to the
reference material we provided in the book, and again in Tab
one it lays out my opening comments where I not only discuss
some of these issues in general but I also identify a number of
what I consider to be best practices that we are adopting in
the school district of Philadelphia. Thank you, sir.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Vallas appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Superintendent
Vallas.
We now turn to the distinguished Assistant Chief of Police
of Pittsburgh, Ms. Regina McDonald, who comes to that position
after a very distinguished academic and professional career. Of
particular interest to the Committee is the portion of her
testimony relating to the narcotic impact squads and putting
uniformed officers into areas which experience a surge in
violent activity.
We thank you for coming across the State, Chief McDonald,
and look forward to your testimony.
STATEMENT OF REGINA MCDONALD, ASSISTANT CHIEF, PITTSBURGH
BUREAU OF POLICE, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
Chief McDonald. Thank you, Senator.
The Pittsburgh Police Bureau's philosophy of policing
incidents of youth violence involves a two-pronged approach.
First we try to be proactive in preventing such incidents from
occurring. And second, we aggressively investigate and
prosecute incidents when they do occur.
Our proactive approach includes a close working
relationship with the Pittsburgh public schools and their
school police, Allegheny County Juvenile Court, the Allegheny
County District Attorney's Office, and the ATF Violent Crime
Impact Team. When we see a spike in incidents or get reliable
information of possible violence in a specific area of the
city, we detail our Narcotics Impact Squads to the area and our
Uniform Ten Car Officers. We've found this to be very effective
in squashing violence as it occurs.
After the Impact Squads and Ten Cars leave the area, Zone
Officers are responsible for the maintenance. Several areas of
the city are being targeted by the ATF Violent Crime Impact
Team with ATF agents and city officers working together to get
guns and violent offenders off the streets. Both adults and
juveniles have been targeted. This has been a very effective
project.
We are also in the process of preparing a detailed
description of gang activity in the city. Although gang
activity has not reached the magnitude we see in other major
cities, we are seeing a re-emergence of gangs in the city. We
are working closely with Federal and State law enforcement
agencies and the Allegheny County Juvenile Probation in
identifying gangs, members, and associates within the city of
Pittsburgh. Once we get a picture of gang activity in the city
we are planning to work closely with U.S. Attorney's Office in
prosecuting those gangs.
With recent reductions in our police force--we have lost
100 officers, we are now at a staffing level of 900--we were
forced to discontinue the Community-Oriented Policing Program.
This program included 86 Community-Oriented Police Officers
working out of each of the five police zones in the city. We
currently have four Community Problem-Solving Officers assigned
to each zone. Zone Commanders use these officers to target
specific problems, including acts of violence around schools
and illegal drug activity. We continue to work closely with
community groups and organizations throughout the city. Zone
Commanders meet monthly with community leaders at their Public
Safety Zone Council Meetings. Crime Prevention/Crime Analyst
Officers also work closely with community-based organizations,
and zone officers attend community meetings held in their
patrol areas.
As I have mentioned, we have been working closely with
Allegheny County Juvenile Probation. Probation Officers
participate in ride-alongs with Zone Officers, and our officers
and Intel Squad Detectives assist Juvenile Probation with their
Warrant Squad when they conduct the round-ups of juveniles who
are wanted on outstanding arrest warrants. This relationship
has been very beneficial to both agencies.
We have found that these proactive approaches have been
very effective and they have enhanced our ability to prevent
and reduce the spread of juvenile violence as well as increase
our ability to arrest and convict violent offenders. We work
closely with the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office in
preparation and prosecution of those cases. Our close working
relationship with Allegheny County Juvenile Probation enables
us to get repeat offenders off the street as soon as possible.
Our major concern today is with the prevalence of firearms
and the increasing number of juveniles carrying and using
firearms. In the year 2000 our officers made 269 VUFA arrests.
That increased to 364 in 2001, 401 in 2002, 472 in 2003, and to
an all-time high of 616 in 2004. For the first five months of
2005, we have made 231 arrests, which is in line with last
year's figures. In the year 2004, we had 47 individuals in the
age group from zero to 16 years of age arrested for VUFA, with
the age group 17 to 24 years of age accounting for 363 arrests.
The figures for these age groups for the first five months of
this year include 12 and 143 arrests, respectively. We need to
do more to keep these violent offenders off the street. Strict
enforcement of all firearms statutes should include juveniles
as well as adults.
In closing, I would like to thank Senator Specter for
inviting us to this committee meeting. I would also like to
mention that with the discussion of previous panel members you
have concentrated on what funding sources have been beneficial
to various agencies, and I would like to say that the Project
Safe Neighborhood grant program is very beneficial to us, as
well as Weed and Seed and the Local Law Enforcement Grant
Program.
[The prepared statement of Chief McDonald appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Chief McDonald for
coming to testify. I appreciate your references to a number of
the programs which there have been Federal funding on. We have
been very solicitous of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and the
tremendous economic problems with the problems in the steel
industry and coal. One of the programs which we coordinated
with Mayor Murphy of specific assistance was when there were
witnesses who were being targeted by gangs we came in with a
special appropriation to be of assistance on witness
protection. It is a major concern to know about your having
terminated some 100 police officers. We know the problems that
Pittsburgh is having financially; well known.
To what extent has that reduction in your force impacted on
the problem of juvenile violence?
Chief McDonald. Amazingly enough, with the reduction from
1,000 to 900 officers we have still seen a decrease in crime.
It is a testament to the abilities and hard-working efforts of
our police officers. So with the loss of those 100 officers we
have not seen anything--no one dropped the ball and in fact our
officers are performing outstandingly well.
Chairman Specter. That is a good response. We are going to
take a very close look at your success rate. Maybe we can cut
some--I would not say that coming to Commissioner Johnson as to
his situation in this city. Mr. Johnson, I note your testimony
from January 1, 2005 to June 7 of this year, a total of 340
shooting victims of youth age 24 and younger, and this is in
the same period of time roughly where the number of homicides
went to 63 in the first five months of the year compared to 41
last year. But the 63 homicides are vastly under the 340
shooting victims, which is obviously very distressing.
Your program on youth violence reduction partnership which
is in effect in some three police districts has had a very
salutary good effect. How much additional funding do you need
to carry that citywide to try to have some impact on this
juvenile crime problem?
Commissioner Johnson. I think what I testified before is
approximately, if we put it into another district it would be
approximately anywhere from $1.5 million per district. To give
you a little more statistics, when we put it in the 24th police
district in 1999, murders in the district among youth from age
seven to 24 declined by 62 percent. That went from 11 in 1998
to just 4.2. In the 25th district from 2000 they declined 52
percent, and in the 26th district they declined by something
like 32 percent.
Chairman Specter. What percentage, Commissioner, is that of
the whole city? Three districts represents what percentage of
the city?
Commissioner Johnson. We have 23 police districts so when
you are talking about--
Chairman Specter. Okay, I can figure that out then if they
are all roughly equal in size. What I would like you to do is
to tell the Committee what kind of funding you would need to
put that program in effect on a citywide basis. That is what I
would like you to do. But I would like you to submit it in
writing because of the limited time we have here today.
Superintendent Vallas, thank you for the big book. We are
going to be studying it and following up with you on some
detail. From our prior conversations you have suggested that
there are some areas where, some jurisdictions which have had
some marked success. We want to pursue that with you further.
Frankly, when we took a look there they were not quite as rosy
as some of the preliminary suggestions had been. And when we
asked for the statistics they were not available. So the
business of finding what has worked is somewhat elusive.
Director Kane, I am going to leave you to Senator Biden
because that will be sufficient.
In conclusion, my time is almost up, I want to ask you, Mr.
Meehan, for your thinking on a coordinated approach on the
Federal programs. You have a lion's share with the Eastern
District and you have had a lot of experience in this field.
One of the items that I did not mention is your serving as
executive director for my Philadelphia office and really
running the State program. What we are going to be looking to
you to do, when we come up with what works and what does not
work, is to ask you to take on an additional burden, if we may,
to coordinate where these Federal programs are going, because
you have got the best handle on the way it looks in a variety
of counties.
Your testimony summarized where crime has gone down. But I
think that a big job of the prosecuting attorney--and I have
had some experience at it--is to be proactive in the prevention
field as well as in the prosecution field because you have
special insights as a prosecutor. So we are going to be calling
on you to do that. You do not have to give an answer now
because I have gone over my time which I do not like to do.
I now yield to Senator Feinstein.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you very much.
First of all it is great to see Paul Vallas. I first met
him, Mr. Chairman, in Chicago when he was running things there
and found him to be an excellent superintendent, and now here
in Philadelphia, and my hope would be we would be able to get
him in California one day, so I will leave that one out there.
I am somewhat surprised by the testimony of this law
enforcement panel. No one has mentioned a specific gang, and my
information from the National Drug Intelligence Center
indicates that there are four specific gangs functioning in
Pennsylvania today. They are Bloods, they are Gangster
Disciples, they are Crips, they are MS-13, and there is the
group Tiny Rascals also. I guess I see gangs very differently,
because they are a massive interstate criminal enterprise
today. What surprises me is that none of the law enforcement
people talked about this.
So my question of them is this, which gangs do you find
operate here, meaning Pennsylvania? What ages are they? What
crimes do they commit? And what would you say is the total gang
membership in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and this State,
if you have it?
Commissioner Johnson. If I can go first--but I would give
it to the U.S. Attorney first. I am sorry.
Mr. Meehan. Not at all.
Commissioner Johnson. We do not really have a gang problem
here in the city of Philadelphia, per se. We do not have the
Bloods, the Crips. I think MS-13 is starting to arrive here.
Most of our problem is drug related and has been drug related
for a long period of time. But as far as organized gangs here
in the city of Philadelphia it does not exist, at least not on
a large scale like Chicago or California or some other place.
Maybe the U.S. Attorney might know a little more. I mean, we
have some people who are identifying themselves as gangs. In
the early 1970s we had a lot of gangs, territorial type things,
but that does no longer exist here in city of Philadelphia.
Mr. Meehan. Senator, if I may, to be responsive to your
question, we have seen some activity from the Almighty Latin
Kings. It is largely in the Latino community and actually
largely outside the city of Philadelphia. What the commissioner
says is my impression as well, and it is due to the nature of
Philadelphia being a city of neighborhoods where we have an
indigenous population. It is difficult for the gang culture to
break into the neighborhood context. But it because they are
working very effectively already; they have got their own
industry. They do not need direction from Chicago or Los
Angeles to be effective at selling drugs or committing crime.
Senator Feinstein. So what you are saying effectively is
that you do not have the type of gang problem that we are
talking about on the West Coast of large organized gang
syndicates, bigger than organized crime ever was.
Mr. Meehan. We do not have it, but I do not want to make
that a misstatement. You are so correct in saying, we still
have the same issues with younger people being recruited into
criminal organizations and those organizations controlling the
tempo of neighborhoods. What we have is a structure of a lot of
loosely-knit independent organizations that do not rely on the
national structure like MS-13 and the Latin Kings.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you.
Chief McDonald. We see the same thing in Pittsburgh. We are
a city of neighborhoods as well, so when we see gangs we see
neighborhood groups, even down to the level of streets,
specific street groups, sprouting up. Then on numerous
occasions there are altercations among those groups.
But recently we saw a group in our Oakland section of the
city which identified themselves as the Oakland Crips, but they
are no relationship to the Crips from California or anywhere
else. But this was a youth gang, two juveniles were arrested
for bank robbery and they were under the leadership of an adult
who was later arrested. Because those are the types of
organizations we are looking at.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you. I just want to say one thing.
This is a very important distinction; violence, drug
trafficking, drug use, other crimes to what has really grown up
in the United States. You should really be very proud and
pleased that you have escaped it, maybe because of your
diligence and your ability to deal with it. I certainly hope
that is the case. But, Mr. Chairman, my recommendation would be
that you hold a meeting like this in Los Angeles. Trust me, you
will hear a very, very different story.
Thank you.
Chairman Specter. Senator Feinstein, that is a suggestion
which I think it is a very important one and we will try to
accomplish that consistent with our schedule. I know in the
nation of California you have special problems. How many do you
have now, 34 million?
Senator Feinstein. Thirty-five-and-a-half million.
Chairman Specter. How many times is that the size of
Delaware?
Senator Feinstein. Delaware is not bigger than city and
county of San Francisco. So we will leave it at that.
Senator Biden. I would point out we are in Constitution
Hall. The Connecticut Compromise which guaranteed there was a
Constitution--the Founders were brilliant enough to provide two
Senators from Delaware, as they have from every other--
[Laughter.]
Chairman Specter. How did Delaware get to be the number one
State though?
Senator Biden. We seceded from Pennsylvania.
Chairman Specter. The start of the Civil War.
[Laughter.]
Chairman Specter. Senator Biden, your time is on for
questioning.
Senator Biden. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I know I could speak for the panel when I say, our drug
problem is immense here. It is gigantic. Reconfigured a
different way, I am not going to take my five minutes to go
into it, but for the record, Pat--Mr. Meehan and Chief, both of
you, and Chief McDonald, I think you should submit for the
record what the nature of the drug problem is in your
communities, as well as I would ask Jim to do the same thing
for the record as it relates to Delaware. Because we have some
of the, unfortunately, the purest heroin and the purest stuff
that comes through here, and it comes into the port, and comes
into the port of New York and works its way down 95, and we
have a gigantic problem that manifests itself the same way but
different levers. I think we should not leave the impression
that we are just doing fine here.
I know that is not what you are saying. You are responding
to specific questions and it is important to do that.
Let me ask me you, Chief McDonald, you indicated that you
had to move away from the community policing. How recently did
you have to do that?
Chief McDonald. About three years ago.
Senator Biden. Chief, you indicated in your written
testimony that a strong police presence on our streets and in
our communities has proven successful as a deterrent to crime,
and a strong role model for youth out of this community
policing. Have you been able to maintain your force, Chief, at
the same--at its end strength, its authorized end strength?
Commissioner Johnson. No, from July 1, 2003 to the present
we are down approximately 620 police officers.
Senator Biden. Has that had an effect on your ability to
provide services in the city?
Commissioner Johnson. No, it does not. I have a philosophy
that law enforcement by itself is never going to change the
quality of life. And I think we place--police officers more on
the streets of Philadelphia and have to understand the fiscal
concerns of the city and I have to deal with that. But the
facts are that it has to be a holistic type approach. I also
feel as though traditional policing is not working, and
traditional policing is only locking people up, and we will
never arrest out of the problem that we are having.
I think that the clergy, the community, the politicians,
everyone has to be involved in this. If they are only going to
depend on law enforcement to change the quality of life, it
will not happen. We can make a whole lot of arrests, but I
think what happens, the community is not concerned about the
arrests. They are concerned about quality of life. It is not
about statistics, it is about quality of life and I think that
is very important.
Senator Biden. Some of you have mentioned various acts that
have worked, the community prevention grants, the juvenile
accountability block grants, the program that you mentioned,
Pat, that was so successful, Project Safe Neighborhoods, et
cetera. If my numbers are correct, each of those programs is
suffering fairly significant cuts. So on the one hand we are
cutting police either because we are stopping the COPS program
or the cities do not have the money so you end up with fewer
police. And I understand your generic point, Chief, that cops
alone are not going to stop crime by any stretch of the
imagination. You have to have this holistic approach.
That then means that you are talking about prevention
programs and programs dealing with recidivism. Yet,
Superintendent Vallas, have you been able to significantly
increase your afterschool programs?
Mr. Vallas. We have, but only because of the support of
Senator Specter and Senator Santorum. Let me point out that the
additional funds we have been able to secure have allowed us to
have probably one of the largest per capita afterschool
extended day programs probably in the country. I will point out
that obviously it has an effect of keeping our young people out
of harm's way. It has the added benefit of helping us meet AYP.
I think we have gone from 22 schools making adequate yearly
progress to 160 in just the last two years. So clearly we have
been--but it has required that type of special intervention and
special assistance for us to have the type of afterschool
extended day activities.
Let me also point out that 180 of our schools, which is
about 80 percent, about 75 percent of our schools not only have
school district afterschool extended day programs but we have
community-based programs. So many of our schools, for example,
the Maris Beacon program goes on into the early evening. So our
buildings are utilized for more than just school-based
afterschool extracurricular activities.
Senator Biden. There is one thing each of you--my time is
up.
Chairman Specter. Go ahead, Joe.
Senator Biden. If there is one thing, just one thing that
each of you could have us do--not generically, specifically--if
you had one specific request what would you have us do? What
would you have the United States, the Federal Government do?
What one thing, if you only got one?
I am not being facetious. Because, look, when we get
through all this--we all know about holistic approaches. We
have been doing this for as long as you all have been doing it.
We care very deeply about it. We know the relationship between
preschool, afterschool. We know the relationship between law
enforcement dealing with gangs, dealing with treatment, et
cetera. But when it gets down to it, we end up with trying to
figure out what works and what does not work, and for each one
of you--it may very well be you decide you need more probation
officers, or you need more funding for afterschool, or you need
more funding--what one thing--it is unfair, but what one thing,
if you had to pick, would you want more help on from the
Federal level?
Mr. Vallas. Obviously, fully funding No Child Left Behind,
but let us focus specifically on the issue at hand. Summer
jobs, jobs programs for young people, and I will tell you why.
One of the things that we have attempted to do is to create an
incentive for children to stay in school and to stay well
behaved. Congressmen Fattah, who is in the audience, initiated
his corps Philly scholar program which basically says, if
students are in good standing, when they graduate they will be
provided a scholarship equal to their first year differential,
what they access through obviously loans and student grants and
what they do not have to go to college their first year.
Same thing, drivers ed is something that if children are in
good standing we will provide them. Summer jobs, summer
internships so we can get the kids into constructive activities
and then use those summer jobs and summer internships as an
incentive to keep kids in school and to keep--and to help
influence student behavior. I think it would be the one thing
beyond, obviously, fully funding No Child Left Behind that
would make a dramatic difference.
Mr. Meehan. Senator, I need to identify, because I am in
law enforcement, my appreciation, and I would ask you to
continue to sustain the Project Safe Neighborhoods kind of
program, and by extension, the violent crime impact teams. We
have an ability to work at the local level in a unique way.
Each district attorney works with my office and local policy to
identify unique problems to their neighborhood. It gives us
flexibility. Those assistant prosecutors are assigned to my
office. We make decisions about which cases to bring locally or
federally. That gives us tremendous leverage, and we use the
resources well.
I will say, we help clear the field. I am speaking for law
enforcement. But once we have done that, I need to be able to
rely on the support mechanisms from youth violence and others
to wrap around, to prevent the future violence once we have
cleaned it out.
Senator Biden. Chief?
Chief McDonald. Like Mr. Meehan, I would ask you to
continue to fund Project Safe Neighborhood. Also to encourage
and continue to encourage local law enforcement's working
relationship with Federal agencies. We think we in the city of
Pittsburgh have an excellent working relationship with ATF, the
FBI, the DEA, as well as State agencies and local, county
agencies as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office. I think by
working together in a coordinated effort we are able to pool
our resources with the limited funding that is available. So I
would ask you to keep encouraging those efforts.
Senator Biden. Jim?
Mr. Kane. We are trying to roll nine into one. Continue to
provide the balanced resources that you have had the wisdom to
do in the past, ranging from prevention all the way through the
system to incarceration and aftercare, and also leadership in
telling us what works and what does not.
Commissioner Johnson. I just came from Sun Valley Saturday
from a major city chief conference and the consensus was with
all the major city chiefs, and there are 56 of us, is that
international terrorism is a problem and we understand that.
But domestic terrorism is just as big of a problem and we need
funding not just for law enforcement, for all agencies that are
going to be proactive to save our children.
Senator Biden. Thank you.
Chairman Specter. Thank you very much, Senator Biden. I
thank Senator Feinstein and Senator Biden for coming from their
home States and from Washington to this hearing, and my
colleague Senator Santorum. I thank our distinguished panel of
witnesses, Ms. Hart, Ms. Arias, Mr. Flores, Mr. Vallas, Mr.
Meehan, Chief McDonald, Mr. Kane, and Commissioner Johnson. I
want to acknowledge formally the presence of Congressman Fattah
whom I had referred to earlier on the GEAR UP program where he
had the idea and my subcommittee had $2 billion. He had a
little of the advantage on that. And also acknowledge the
presence of Ms. Ruth Dubois here who has been a leader in drug
rehabilitation. She brought her husband, Federal Judge Jan
Dubois as well.
In conclusion, let me say that this is just the beginning.
We are going to be pursuing the issues which have been raised
here with going over the programs nationally which work and
discarding the ones which do not. Also, the State of
Pennsylvania and there are outstanding questions here which we
are going to be pursuing with Mr. Meehan and Chief McDonald. We
have asked Commissioner Johnson to help us beyond, and we thank
Superintendent Kane for coming and we are going to be studying
Superintendent Vallas' compendium.
But this is not going to be a hit-and-run hearing. The
Judiciary Committee is going to be following up. We have the
authority on reauthorization and authorization to identify
programs, and some punch also on the appropriations process. So
this is an issue which is beyond challenging. It is daunting.
Beyond any question, it is daunting to make any significant
inroads in it, but we are determined to do that.
So thank you all for coming and that concludes our hearing.
Thank you.
[Applause.]
[Whereupon, at 11:25 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
[Submissions for the record follow.]
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