GOVERNOR'S SUMMIT ON VIOLENT STREET CRIME . MARYLAND'S PREVENTION STRATEGY IN PARTNERSHIP WITH 'l'HE PBOPLB ~ur.day, ~y 20, 1993 Coppin State College 250C W. North Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 1:10 p.m. STATEMENT OF MARYANN SAUR, S!CR.!TARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUVENILE SERVICES secretary Saur: Goed afternoon to all of you. hope aome of you had the opportunity t.o have lunch, your atomachs will Dot be rumbling. I 80 And if Dot, there will be other opportunities. I cannot tell you how delighted I am to be able to make this particular introduction. T.be woman that you see before you, I think, 18 know to each and every one of you. But I have to tell you I knew her when. (Laughter.] secretary Saur: And ahe was as delightful and competent many years ago as she is today. When a reporter recently asked Janet Reno what she hopes will be her greatest accomplishment a5 Attorney General, ahe did not hesitate with her respoDse. REqual opportunity for all the children of America. (Applause.) secretary Saur: She went on to explain that as a people, we must reach children early to prevent crtme in the first place. So in a atate where the Governor bas made prevention bis prime initiative _. and I may pause here to say that the Governor die! want to ))e here and waited a. long aa he could, but the traffic of this world aamettmes defeats us all. So he had a very urgent appointment back at Annapolis. And he also extends bis deep regret. In a state where the Governor has made prevention his prime initiative, what better speaker could we have for his cr~ summdt? And just as Governor Schaefer believes in all of us working together to 801ve our problems, Ms. Reno i . • strong advocate at the federal level for working wit~ the Department of Bducation and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to deal witb juvenile crime. As Secretary of the Department of Juvenile Services, I am sure you can understand bow hopeful that makes me feel to have a strong voice in Washington emphasizing the need to help our young people change their lives. Before Janet Reno was appointed Attorney General by President Clinton this past March, ahe served has the State Attorney in Miami since 1978. There, she had a reputation for being tough, but fair, and managed to win over many people who had initially been .keptical of her. And ahe won re-election five ttmes. Before that, she 8erved a. an assistant .tate attorney and a8 Staff ~irector of the Plorida Bouae of Representatives Judiciar,y Committee after 8tartiDg her legal career in private practice. In Miamd, MS. Reno had her home number listed in the phone book. While I hope for her 8ake you will Dot find her number witb the D.C. Directory Assistance Operator, MS. Reno haa promised to be the people's lawyer for all Americans. The task before MS. Reno 18 great. ADd I look forward to hearing some of her ideas on how we all can work at preventing and dealing with the ever-growing problem of cr~e. So now, it gives me the greatest pleasure to introduce the people's lawyer and ~ friend, Attorney General of the United States of America Janet Reno. [Applause.] STATEMENT OF HON. JANET RENO. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA Attorney General Reno: is a small world. Thank you 80 very much. It And I do Dot think ve ever figured ve would be meeting like this. secretary Saur: No. Attorney General Reno: We did not. Mor did I think I would be meeting you at Chicks in ADDapolis on a Saturday morning. [Laughter.] Attorney General Reno: And I think that is what has impressed me so much about Washington in my contacts, that this nation is joined together in wonderful ways. 80 many incredibly There are so many people that know each other. There are links, and there are forces that are bringing us together. And when I see this many people gathered together to spend a day to discuss how the people can do something about violence. I am 80 encouraged. I wish that I could stand up here and tell you that I have now understood the Office of the Attorney General, the Deparcment of Justice, all of its campouente, and that I am going to wave a magic wand and .tell you how to do ;i.t, but I cannot do that. What I would like to describe to you 18 the process by which I hope to address the i.sues that bring you here today and ho~ I hope to for.m a partnership with you and with all communities and states across this Dation to address the problem together, not as the federal government Baying, wThis is the way you do things,w Dot as the federal government aaying, wThis i8 the way you are going to take our money or you do not take our money,W but the communities saying, WThese are what our needs are. These are what our resources are. How can we work together to utilize the very ltmited dollars we have at every level of gover.nment and in the private .ector to address the problem? One thing r can stand here ana tell you is that 1 believe with all of my heart and soul that we can have an impact on crime at every level. But we have to do it in a non-partisan, thoughtful, analytical way, using what works, understanding that there are times we cannot control crime as we would want, that we cannot prevent the one horrible crime that oftenttmes triggers a reaction. But let us look and see how we begin. what we are doing at the federal level. am looking at charging policies. And this is Pir8t of all, I people have became concerned because 80 many crimea have been federalized lately. I would like to take a principled approach to what should be prosecuted in federal court an~ what .hould be prosecuted in state court and do that in conjunction with the National Associations of Attorneys General with the National District Attorneys Association, 80 that we are not forcing cases on states, nor atates on us, but that we are fOrming a consensus of bow it should be done. I want to look at the charging guidelines of the Department of Justice to make aure that they are appropriate and fair. Then I want to look at who is going to the federal prison today, to understand an increase in a~8sions, to understand what impact that will have in three or four years, what the cost vill be in terms of prison construction, and in terms of the aollars necessary to operate the prisons. And I want to try to achieve two goals: One, to recognize that there are some offenders who are so dangerous, that are so recidivous that they should be put away and kept away, and that incapacitation is the best way to prevent future crime. I think, working together, we can reach general consensus on what category of offenders meets those criteria. But then I thiDk, with my ult1mate goal being to make Bure that person who cames· into the Bystem does not carmit further crime, that we have to understand that there are people that are coming into this system, both at the state level aDd at the federal level, that are going to be back out on our streets sooner rather than later. It makes DO .ense to take a person to prison ~or three years, leave them there for three years with a drug problem, and then pick them up and drop them back in the community from whence they came and .ay, -Go, and God be with you.· [Applause.] Attorney General Reno: I cannot speak with in an infonned lense about Maryland. So do Dot think that I make comments about Maryland, but it is of conce%!l to me when I see other experiences that I have had of somebody who goes to prison, gets drug treatment in prison, and then is picked up and dumped back out on the streets. That does not make any sense either. What we have to do i8 approach it as we have approached our drug port in approach, saying, ·Okay. ~amd, with a carrot and stick You may have a CJrug problem. If you agree to participate in the program, ve can get you in for drug treaement, get you .tabilized and de-taxed. -Then we can get you into non-secure residential treatment, which il les8 costly than a prison, then into day treatment, then into after-care with follow up and with job training. and placement, and with randcan drug testing as the check and balance on our success. But that is Dot going to work if we return that person to the place where it started, because oft.nt~s that will be an open-air street Bartet out in front of his 5 slum tenement. I ADd he will say, -This is all well and good, but I know what is going to happen to me if you let me go back.· Let us think in terms of ))old and creative alternative housing sites where ex-offenders partieipate 10 in rehabbing buildings that can .erve as dor.mitories where they can take pride in their drug-free community. So much can be done if we look at the continuum. Now, I suspect there are experts here that can tell you 15 better than I can that there is a tendency OD the part of America to say, -Look. If he gets out and starts using drugs again, put him back in. It is all or Dothing. I think most experts have learned lately that it is not all or nothing. .It ~y be back in f~r a week to let him know that we mean business and we are going to follow 20 up when he comes up with the dirty urine, but then bring him back out in a gra4ual .ort of way. Job training has got to ~e part and parcel of it. Other problems, but working together using common .ense, I think we can make a difference. 25 The fmport~t thing, however, in all .enteacing is to mean what we say. And we have got to have truth in sentencing. And unless we start looking at admdssions, looking at the price tag of what it i8 going to cost us to Bend people to prison for the length of t~e the judges are sentencing them and be willing to pay that price tag, we are going to have a system of sanctions that does Dot mean what it says. And the people are not going to ~elieve 1n it, rely on it, or think that it threatens them. I think raising children is the single most difficult thing I know to do. I think it takes hard work, love, and a lot of intelligence. I have learned from some experience that if you threaten punishment and do not carry it out, that is worse that not having threatened it at all. [Applause. ] Attorney General Reno: But punishment by itself 'without a nurturing and loving environment for children to be raised in isn't going to work either. You have to provide the balance. And that i. the way I kind of like to try to approach the criminal justice system and all that we are doing. We can look, too, to first offender programs, to second offender programs. We are tzyiDg to expand •• were trying, a8 I l;eft· _. to expand our drug court in Dade County to include aecoDd and third t~e offenders who could benefit from the program. But as we use this earrot and stick approach, we bave to have .ticks .ufficient to car~ out our .threata. ADd we have to bave carrots sufficient to give them the opportunity. The carrot. cost a lot leBS than the 8tieka. And if used judiciously, the two together, ve can make significant d1fferences. I think the other area that we have to look at as we look at the problems of America is to realize that 26 percent of the people in federal prisons today are aliens here. And many of them are there on minimum mandatory sentences. We have to look at: Is this the proper use of the American taxpaying dollars? Should we provide a sanction that will deter them from com1ng back into the country, and then return them? These are questions that should be asked. On the minimum mandatory sentence, we have to look at that and see if that is an effective .entence. And this 18 where I need the states and local communities' help from around this nation. It is frustrating to me to see a Don-violent offender, a first offender, in prison for ten years on a minimum mandato~ when I turn around and look at acme states in the nation that are letting people out in 20 to 30 percent of the sentence, even if they be dangerous, because there are not adequate prison cells. I would like to aee us take the prison cells that are available to all of us throughout this nation and make sure that eve~one understands that America's first priority is the violence. For the violent recidivous, for the truly dangerous offender, we do not want them out. And we should have enough prison cells, pooling our resources to keep them in. [Applause.] Attorney General Reno: But then let us look. is the punishment side of it. That Then we have to look at what we can do in terms of juvenile justice. And one of the first things I want to do as I am fully staffed in the Office of Justice programs is seeing . what we do in juve~ile .. justice prevention to make aure that the dollars get to the community in the wisest Danner possible to aerve you. I did a 8tudy once when I vas a prosecutor in Dade county during LEAA days. It was not scientifically correct, but I estimated that it took $6, tax-paying dollars, from ~ pocket to go to the IRS in Washington for income tax to process an LEAA grant through Waahington to Atlanta to Tallahassee to Miami and then have it evaluated. And we got maybe $1 to $3 back in Miami. I vant to make aure we get a. many dollars back to communities and states as possible in a coherent way that can truly .implement what you are trying to do and caD eerve as models for other places in the Dation. I vant to make aure that those monies are coordinated together 80 that we develop juvenile juetice programs that are effective and that make 8ense. But I suggest to you that as I look at violence in America, the other thing that we have to focus on, both in the juvenile justice system and in the adult system, is family violence. (Applause .1 Attorney General Reno: One of the first points I made in the confirmation proceedings and the discussion of the Violence Against Women Act, the child that aees that father beat the mother, and nothing happened, i8 going to come to accept violence as • way of life. The child wbo aees 8omebocSy abused i8 going to become the abuser. You eee the cycle from generation to generation. ADd we bave get to, throughout this DatioD, develop effective family violence unite that aay that government will n~t tolerate family violence. You can do it by training judges, by training prosecutors, by training even public defenders who sometimes would prefer to get their client off than to get help that works through the ulttm8te problem, the long range problem. But if "e can work together to develop the programs, we can make a difference. .- ~ecause Bow, the common thread I get I used to regularly have wamen coming to m.y office to complain against our DO-drop policy. And they say, -I do Dot want him to go to jail. Well, let us develo.p alternatives other than jail with the knowledge that jail will be the leverage that forces people into other alternatives. Oftentimes, you will find an alcohol problem behind it. Let us do something about ~t. It may be a problem that family finances have overwhelmed the people. . Let us get financial planning involved. Let us work together to 8ay that family violence is something that we will not tolerate at any level. And let us under8tan~ a180 that with increa8ed life expectancies, violence against the elderly member. of the family, aomettmes unintentional, .ametimes just out of absolute exa8peration and long endurance, is something that will have to be addresaed a8 part of this whole. But I suggest to you that I have learned .omething over the last 15 years as State Attorney in Dade County. When I took office, I tried to focus on our juvenile justice system, because I wanted to do something about the cause of violence. And I looked at 16 and 17 year olds, and tried to develop programs that would help tbem get off to the right start, ~ut at the same time provide a .anction that said, ·We do not tolerate this conduct, but we vant you to have a good start if you can.~ And I reached the conclusion, very quickly, that we will never have enough dollars to focus, on every 16 or 17 year old who is a delinquent if we wait until they are delinquent at that age. They will have two priors for delinquency. have dropped out of school when they were 13. have been truant. They will They will They will not have self-respect. They will not have a sense of dignity. It is going to be too late to change all of the kids, but we have got to keep trying with every resource at our command. And BO our grand jury did a study OD dropout prevention. And it focused on what the schools vere doing in middle schools for dropouts. It i . too late then. kid who has failed in the third grade, who has been laughed at becau8~ he cannot read as vell as his The classmates, by the time he gets to be 12 or 13, you -. ve could change him, but we will never have enough dollars to change if we wait. And so I atarted focusing on early intervention programs in the neighborhood. epidemic hit Miami. But then in 1985, the crack It hit it earlier. I think, than most other communities. And 80 we had a little bit of a bead Btart. ADd % vas grappling vith what to do with crack-addicted aothers and their babies and how to handle dependency issues, because we had responsibility for dependency at the ttme. And I learned an awful lot when the doctors took me to the neonatal unit at the public hospital and 8tarted showing me what it was like to be a crack-addicted baby who laid in the bassinet for six weeks, Dot held or talked to except when changed or fed. And then you campare that child with the child who was born with severe birth defects, aeverely crippled, tubes coming out of everywhere, but both pareDts there almost around the clock or whenever they could be there, loving that child. And that child was beginning to respond. And then I kept talking to the doctors. and the doctors have taught me an awful lot. teachers, poli~e But doctors, officer., correctional officiala, they have all taught one thing: Bach of us has got to get out of our little specialty. The prosecutor bas to look backwards. corrections official has to look backwards. The The juvenile justice person has to start talking' to the child welfare person. The child welfare persoD has got to relate to the 8chools and to the police and to the public health Durae. Everybody has to start talking to tbe pediatrician. ~e pediatrician haa to start talking to the gynecologist. And somebody has to start talking to the people who deal with teen pregnancy. And if we are going to do 80mething about violence in America, we have to realize that teen pregnancy, youth gangs, drugs, violence, this horrible phenomena of youth violence that we are aeeing, is a symptom of a deeper problem in society. And that is that for the last 30 or 40 years, America has too often forgotten its children. [Applause. ] Attorney General Reno~ And we have got to join together in a national -- to develop a national agenda for children. How do we do it? First of all, at the federal level, federal agencies are beginning to talk together. Secretary of the ~par~.nt I am meeting with the of Bducation an~ BUD and the Depar~ent of Health and Human Services and Labor, 80 that we talk together, and that federal start to come together as a cohesive whole rather than fragmented packages. I participated in the marvelous team approach in an area with a large number of children at risk that had a public health nurse, a police officer, and a 80cial worker working together in a small neighborhood as a team. ~ring would people together once a week. We There would be five federal ageneies there. These women would be trying to get off welfare. would get a minimum wage job, benefits. and T.hey they would lose So they would be worse off than if they had not gone to get work in the first place. And 80 we tried to put together packages that would enable them to work towards aelf-sufficiency. I went to law school, and I could Dot figure out how to do it. people. We have to make federal law available to the We spend more money determining whether somebody is eligible, I think, than we do in determining whether to serve them. (Applause.] Attorney General Reno: community coming to us. ~ryland, We have to go hack to the You know what re80urces exist in in Balttmore. You know what, your needs are. You know how that private, Dot-for-profit corporation fills the gap that mdght Dot be filled in another atate. We should be developing programs fram the communities that the federal government reacts to, rather than .aying, -You have to do it our way. Let us do it as a partnership. (Applause. ] Attorney General Reno: But the overriding theme of this partnership should be that there is a continuum of human life that we can impact at every step of the way. And as we for.m this partnership to address all of the multiple issues that include that economy, ve have to say to that businessman, wOkay_ If you are not interested about crime, and if you do not care about children just from common humanity's sake, let us start talking about your work force in five and ten and fifteen years, and let you understand that unless we make an investment in children tOday, you are Dot going to have a work force with the skills that can fill the job. w [Applause .1 Attorney General Reno: And I bet .ome of you have a group of senior citizens that has told you, aLook. raised m¥ child and educated my child. I educated grandchild. And I have even helped educate grandchild. And ~ have done ~ ~ I ~ great duty to children. You have to explain to them, -We have got to keep trying, because pensions are not going to be vorth the paper they a re written on if ve do not have the work force I that can keep the economy running to maintain the pensions. [Applause. ] Attorney General Reno: An~ for the doctora, tell the doctors that the whole health care system is be1Dg drug to ita knees, no matter vhat we do in health care reforom, because we have failed to prevent by investment up front in children's lives. We are all going to have to do a selling job, but here is what we have to aell. This nation has got to do a thoughtful, careful, deliberate, make a deliberate effort to reduce teen pregnancy_ For every teen pregnancy prevented, we are going to save dollars and give chil~ren a far better chance. (Applause. ] Attorney General Reno: We have to make aure that every pregnant woman in America has prenatal care. [Applause. ] Attorney General Reno: Now, you are going to .tand here and you are going to .ay, -~t ia the Attorney General talking about prenatal car·e for? You are going to 8ay, -My goodness, you do not .ound like a law enforcement person. [Laughter .1 Attorney General Reno: what every doctor and eve~ And the bottom line is that child development ~ert has told me is, -If you want to make one inves~ent in a human • beings future, make it in prenatal care. 'or every dollar spent, you will aave $3 down the road. [Applause. ] Attorney General Reno: We have to make aure that every child in America bas appropriate health care and immunizations. Zero to three is the most formative years of a person's life. The child development experts again tell me that that is when the child develops a conscience and develops the concept of reward and punishment. It is not going to do anything to have a federal judge 21 years down the line worrying about award and punishment if they have Dot developed the concept when they were supposed to. [Applause. ] Attorney General Reno: We are gOing to bave to make sure they have immunizations and preventative medical care. Something is wrong with the nation that says to a 70 year-old person, ·You can have an operation that increases your life expectancy by three years,- and says to tbe child of a working poor person who has DO health care benefits at their place of employ.ment and makes too much to be eligible for Medicaid. that they canDot provide preventative medical care for their children that will saves us all dollars in the long run. [Applause. ] Attorney General R.eno: We have to take vhat ve have learned from head start, which is -- these years, again, are so formative. And we have to make Bure that head start is available throughout this nation, but that even prior to head start, we have edu-care, good, constructive edu-care that blends into head start and blends into X through 12 in an orderly way that can make a difference. Again, we come back to the fact that we can make a difference in those early years. It Bure is frustrating now to walk through a public housing development and aee a child wandering around, two or three years old. And I say, -Why isn't that child in child care? And they say, -His mother ia Dot looking for "ork. She is Dot working. And she bas not abused him and neglected him bad enough to make h~ eligible for the child care program. If 'We made that iDVestment up froDt, we could make such a difference. And then as we came to the schools, we should look at what we are doing in our schools. I do not know about Maryland, and I do not •• I would love to know wbat you are doing here, because I think it is 80mething that it is something that is going to spread throughout this Dation. But there are aome wonderful conflict resolution programs in public 8chools throughout this nation at the elementary school level. Again, if you teach a child when be is five and six to get along with the person of another color who apeaks another language, they are going to grow up doing that. And it is going to save us so much. (Applause. ] Attorney General Reno: Then lets look at what we do to the police. A child, 8 years old, is truant lS days in the first 45. I hope you do not do it in Maryland, but at home what we all too often did. was the police would. pick him up, because he was wandering around., take him back to the school. The achool would call home. would. come get him. Sometimes the mother Oftentimes, ahe would Dot. And then at the end of the afternooD, if ahe had Dot came to get him, the school would take htm and .•end htm OD the bus home and do nothi~g. We have to develop truancy prevention programs with teams that go into the home to find out what is causing the problem in the first place and do 80mething about it before that child is entrenched in a path that will lead him to delinquency. We have to look at - - and the police can only benefit, because every truancy prevention program that I have ever aeen produces a remarkable drop in daytime burglaries while you are getting them off the streets. But we, too eften, wait until they are 13 or 14. us start early. Let Let us look at afternoons and in the evenings, that tremendous amount of free time described by the Carnegie Foundation as a time of opportunity but a time of risk. Let us understand that if we develop programs that can occupy our children, not just in terms of sports and recreation, but in terms of art and computer training and other programs, we can do so much. Let us look at jobs. Just to say, -Here, young man, go paint this wall for a summer,- does not do too much. But let us consider taking every ••venth grader and making sure we have a clear assessment of aptitude and interest, that we take summer job experience, with work experience in the BChoels and the schools educational program, and tie it all together on a track, 80 that we sit down with that child in the seventh grade and 8ay, ·You really have an aptitude for this. And if you follow this course every 8tep of the way, you will graduate from high sChool vith a skill that viII enable you to earn a living wage. ~t kid needs a light at the end of the tunnel. Be needs to know that if he works a little bit at MCDoDA1d'8 flipping hamburgers and then does this after learning acme work ethic and moves on, he has got a future. Let us talk about what is important in our schools. So many kids are graduating not knowing how te be parents. What about parenting skills c~urses in our achools? What about practical courses that teach us how to live and cope? The thing that has impressed me, because I speak to at home, I used to apeak to a ~iffarent acheol on the average of once a week - is that yOUDg people desperately, desperately want half a fighting chance. they need in so many instances is a little boost. All We can make such a difference. But then I want to challenge you vith .amething that is ve~ important to me. programs and dollars. It is not juat • matter of It 18 also a matter of putt1Dg children and fandlies first again in our employment settings, in everfthing that ve do. If you had told me in 1960 that I could not go to law school because I was a woman, I would have been very angry and would be very angry DOW. But % think both men and wamen can achieve their professional goals while atill putting their children first. And I think we are going to have to be bold and pe~le innovative in terms of persuading as to how important Daternity and paternity leave are, flex time, all the programs that enable us to .pend more t~e with our children. I remember my afternoons after school in the 8ummer. My mother worked in the home. My father worked downtown. My mother taught us to play baseball, to bake a cake, to appreciate Beethoven's symphonies. She spanked us hard, and ahe loved us with all of her heart. And there is no child care in the world that will ever be a substitute for what that lady was in our lives. I now watch people at hame in ~ office in Miami wake up early in the morning, get breakfast on the table, the children dressed and off to .chool, to work, t~ a case, finish at 6:30, talk to witneaaes until 7:00, get hame, get dinner on the table, the children bathed, the bamework done. Everybody collapaea in bed. temple or run errands. On Saturdays, they go to Sundays, they go to church or