One ongoing theme that runs through Smart on Crime is this: meaningful education at all levels of life can affect crime statistics. This applies:
- -- to both children and adults
- -- to those who have committed crimes and are incarcerated
- -- to those who have been released from prison
- -- to those desperate people who may consider criminal activity to help them survive
Smart on Crime wants parents and educators and the law to keep children in school. More than likely, truancy in neighborhoods where crime is rampant allows children to model what they see. It may be an act as simple as watching someone shoplift or more serious like stealing a car that inspires a truant child to first steal a candy bar.
So often, truant children learn that crime does pay. Those kids who come from poverty stricken families where drugs have become a way of life, often become runners for druggies to earn money. They easily end up hooked on drugs compounding their problems. Why attend school if a miserable home life can be remedied by “taking” what you want and lifting your spirits with drugs?
As an educator, myself, I can understand Smart on Crime's wish to keep kids in school where they learn skills needed for a promising life based on their talents. But fufilling that desire is not easy. In Pittsburgh’s Public Schools, social workers, counselors, and psychologists are so overwhelmed with school duties, they deal with truancy, particularly at the high school level, when time permits.
In many cases, the only deterrent to truancy is fining parents. Smart on Crime would opt for more effective school and community programs and enough trained personnel to intervene. In 2007, the budget for military might ($548.8 billion) far exceeded money legislated for education ($89.9 billion).
Now, as District Attorney of San Francisco, author Kamala Harris has spent the last twenty years of her life fighting crime. She has dealt with some of the most heinous crimes including murder and rape. She would advocate that, yes, there are humans who commit crimes so hideous that they belong in prison for a very long time if not for life.
But Smart on Crime focuses on inmates jailed for less serious offences: stealing, drug possession/abuse, larceny, spouse abuse, DUI, molestation, prostitution, and a host of similar crimes. So often, with nothing else to occupy their time, these offenders spend their days in prison planning their next heist or unlawful act to get back from society what they feel they’ve been denied. In San Francisco, Ms. Harris has instituted a Back on Track program to turn non-violent offenders into law abiding citizens.
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