A Radical Remedy for Gang Violence: No Need in Madison. Been There, Done That.

The current issue of the New Yorker (June 22, 2009) features an article by John Seabrook: Don't Shoot. A radical remedy for gang violence.

The article describes the successful  efforts led by David Kennedy, a professor from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice whose work led to sharp declines in violence, including homicides, in Cincinnati; Providence, Rhode Island; and High Point, North Carolina, where it was most successfully used to deter public drug dealing.

From the abstract of the article (full article only available online to New Yorker subscribers):

...the police would identify gang members who were on parole or probation and compel them to attend a meeting. There, the cops would demand that the shootings end, and promise that, if they did not, the punishment would be swift and severe and target the entire gang. The city would also make life coaching and job counseling available to those who wanted out of the thug life. The police were initially skeptical about the program, but in 2007, they began implementing Ceasefire with a team that included social workers and academics. Describes how information about gang activity was gathered and organized by the team.

Kennedy's  program starts with the assumption that law enforcement alone cannot thwart gang activity. It is based in part on theories of community policing developed by many, including University of Wisconsin Professor Herman Goldstein and Madison Police Chief David C. Couper.

The program, Ceasefire, is predicated on the assumption that an attack on gang violence must be swift and effective with a clear message sent to members that there will be consequences, and that a social service component in the program will provide openings into family services, job training, and other basic links to transportion, child care and health services.

The work began when Kennedy first received a grant to develop the program in 1994.

The city of Madison  Neighborhood Resource Teams (NRT) were already in existence in 1992. Actually the first teams were organized in 1990. Think about it - almost twenty years ago.

For those interested in learning more about how the now moribund NRT might be used, here are some links to posts I wrote over the years:

• How to Improve the Prospects for Madison and Milwaukee September 21, 2007
• Solving Milwaukee's Gang Problem June 2, 2006
• Madison's State Street - Wasting Over $3 Million a Year December 15, 2008

When the NRT's were formed, they provided the coordination of law enforcement and social services. The Blue Blanket was formed at the same time as the concentrated law enforcement element needed to provide a safe and healthy community.

Both programs still exist today. Neither is as effective in tackling gang-related drug trafficking and the accompanying violence as they might be if the NRT existed as orignally designed.

Now the Madison NRT's exist in name only.

In 2000 their effectiveness was diluted as the teams were reworked citywide. This of course defeated the entire concept and purpose of the teams - targeting the most violent areas. Subsequent restructuring of the teams did nothing to return them to their original mission and effectiveness.

In the fall of 2000, Mayor Susan J. M. Bauman created an initiative to make the benefits of these cross-functional teams available to all areas of the City... The Mayor and the Guidance Team worked with NRT members and leaders to help the teams begin to operate in larger geographical areas containing approximately 20,000 to 25,000 people. (emphasis added)

The original teams worked in concentrated areas of 800-2000 residents. As the teams languished so did the potential effectiveness of the law enforcement component.

While the rest of the nation watches the wheel reinvented, nothing happens in Madison.

A note about crime data. When inital efforts are made to combat gang crime, there is a drop in reported offenses. Then there may be an increase followed by another drop. The increase is a reflection of effectiveness as trust is built. It does not mean there is actually more crime committed but that more crimes are reported. To examine crime statistics, two comparisons must be made. First, over a period of time - at least a decade; secondly, local rates must be compared to national trends.

Comments

[Glenn Loos-Austin]

I'm a little unclear what position you're taking here. Are you arguing that Ceasefire is doomed in the long run to the same sort of moribund ineffectiveness?

[R.J.]

Since when does a 'national trend' have anything to do with how things seem to get done or affect Wisconsin?

As long as there are a few jobs to hand out to cronies and hustlers Madison will keep coming up with ideas that sound beneficent, but make the problem worse. "Come to Madison...knock someone out, take money...get career counseling!"

Four or five iterations later we'll discover "Broken Windows Theory", but find a way to dumb that down too.

[Chuck]

Alternate proposal: Condemn and level about three square blocks of duplexes in the Theresa/Prairie/Loreen part of Hammersley, turn the area into a park. It will pay for itself in police dollars or fewer dead kids in a year, pick your currency of choice.

The idea that what this area needs is career counseling is total crap. This area needs to be leveled and the thugs need to be locked in a concrete pen until they die. I've lived there seven years, my wife is too scared to have a kid until we can move, and I can't sell my house there for what's left of the mortgage to get out, much less what I paid for it. The city I wanted to move to as child has turned into a free fire zone that's eaten my life savings, made my parents scared to visit and made my wife too scared to go outside.

I was a liberal until thugs with bats chased my mom out of my front yard. I used to believe that Madison worked and was a good place to live. Now I'm just stuck here until I finally admit that the only way out is to abandon my house and walk away.

[Hieronymous]

"...the police would identify gang members who were on parole or probation and compel them to attend a meeting."

It appears, as of this writing, that Prof. Kennedy's plan, fine in theory, isn't working for the New York State Senate either. The solons (regarded by many as a band of sharps and ruffians) were compelled to attend the meeting, and the rest is theater.