The 4 Pillars | publicsafety

Prevention

Several factors must come together for a crime to occur:

an individual or group must have the desire or motivation to participate in a banned or prohibited behavior;
at least some of the participants must have the skills and tools needed to commit the crime; and,
an opportunity must be acted upon.

Primary prevention address individual and family level factors correlated with later criminal participation. Individual level factors such as attachment to school and involvement in pro-social activities decrease the probability of criminal involvement.

Family level factors such as consistent parenting skills similarly reduce individual level risk. Risk factors are additive in nature. The greater the number of risk factors present the greater the risk of criminal involvement. In addition there are initiatives which seek to alter rates of crime at the community or aggregate level.

The Mayor started this process by focusing on 4 different areas and recruiting individuals that had expertise in these various fields of endeavor and service. They have also broken up into various groups throughout the year into sub-committee groups, based on these same distinctive areas and have decided that these areas will be the focus on their report, strategies and recommendations.

These are all just some examples to share the definition and build understanding.

The 4 Pillars for Ensuring Public Safety

Intervention

According to the National Criminal Justice Resource Services, many recent community interventions— particularly those that target risk factors and introduce protective factors to prevent antisocial behavior, have been heavily influenced by public health approaches. While many of the do not specifically target violent offenders, they nonetheless suggest that comprehensive prevention strategies that involve more than one entity (e.g., police and neighborhoods), take place in a variety of settings (e.g., home and school), and are maintained for several years have the potential to positively affect that population.

This is especially true for communitywide programs targeting risk and protective factors for alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. Examples of the following eight types of community interventions are described below:

Citizen mobilization
Situational prevention
Comprehensive community interventions
Mentoring
Afterschool recreation programs
Policing strategies
Policy change interventions
Media interventions.

Results to consider from various nationwide intervention initiatives:

Early interventions aim to tackle risk factors from pregnancy through to early childhood and have been found to be effective.
Educational interventions to prevent the onset of offending in at-risk youth can prevent the onset of delinquency.
Coercive interventions, such as detention and imprisonment, have been found to produce nil or even negative effects in reducing recidivism.
Developmental/rehabilitative interventions can significantly reduce the rate of recidivism amongst young offenders.
Situational interventions that aim to reduce the opportunity to commit crime, for example by improving street lighting, have also been found to be effective.

Enforcement

Enforcement of definition: the act of compelling observance of or compliance with a law, rule, or obligation.

We will share a very effective initiative that is taking currently place in High Point, NC for an example to consider, as we create our own plan.

The High Point Violent Crimes Task Force was created to improve the quality of life for the residents of High Point by reducing violent crime, using a comprehensive, collaborative data-driven strategic approach involving federal, state, and local resources to identify violent, repeat, and/or group offenders, and employ prevention and intervention techniques to stop the violence.

The High Point Violent Crimes Task Force is a partnership between law enforcement (federal, state, local, probation and parole officers, the district attorney, and United States attorney), and the High Point Community Against Violence Group-HPCAV (community members, clergy, service agencies, non-profit, private, govern-mental and educational agencies/groups).

Currently, two detectives represent the High Point Police Department's Violent Crimes Task Force. The ultimate goal is to develop a comprehensive, holistic community-wide strategy to reduce violent crime. Cooperating agencies, both public and private, and community resources work together to reduce duplication of services and participate in developing and implementing the community-based/faith-based strategy.

The strategy implemented in High Point has been effective because it incorporates a wide range of goals within and outside the conventional notions of law enforcement. The essential theme of the strategy transforms the relationship between community and police, and recognizes the long-term need to identify and intervene with those individuals who are most at-risk of becoming perpetrators and/or victims of future crimes of violence.

The High Point violent crime reduction strategy includes six parts:

1. Identification -- Identifying those persons committing violent crime and the patterns of violent criminal behavior.

2. Investigation/Prosecution - Properly investigating cases to produce criminal charges and working toward a successful prosecution in court (conviction on the charge).

3. Notification/Offer - Telling violent offenders that any future crimes they commit will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to include maximum prison time. Then, offenders are offered a variety of community resources to help them change their lifestyles and to stop committing violent crimes.

4. Resource Delivery - Providing the community resources to the individual.

5. Follow Through - Checking the progress of the individual and ensuring that there is no further criminal behavior.

6. Evaluation - Evaluating each case individually for the success or failure to assist the individual.

This is not a strategy to forgive offenders for serious criminal activity committed in the past. It is a promise to vigorously prosecute repeat, violent and/or group offenders who continue to engage in violent activity. It is an offer by the community (HPCAV) to assist those who want to change their lifestyles by delivering resources.

The High Point Community Against Violence message is twofold: that violent behavior will not be tolerated in the community, and that the citizens support the High Point Police Department in keeping High Point safe for everyone. The High Point Community Against Violence extends an offer to individuals who want to change their lives, but need assistance to do so. This help includes finding employment, housing, educational opportunities, and often, just encouragement when circumstances are difficult. Other community members are active in victim assistance and advocacy. Their work focuses on helping victims, their families, and neighborhoods recover after a violent crime has taken place. Repeat visits to families and neighborhoods, as well as candlelight vigils are examples.

The High Point initiative has both short and long term goals. The short-term goal is to reduce violent crime through strategic prosecution, and to deter others by notifications. The long-term goal is to bring all "players" to the table and address, through strategic planning, the underlying issues that contribute to violent behavior.

The High Point initiative is a comprehensive community-wide strategy. It has helped redefine the relationship between law enforcement and the community.

Previous law enforcement initiatives demonstrate that effective strategies can be led by law enforcement but not by the police working in isolation. The involvement of the community is the key ingredient; without which the most inspired police approach could not succeed.

Reentry

According to the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance, “Re‐entry refers to the transition of offenders from prisons or jails back into the community. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, more than 650,000 people are released from state and federal prisons annually. An even greater number is released

from local jails.”

What Is The Target Population of Re‐entry Policy and Services?

In a broad context, the Re‐entry population is defined as all persons who have been convicted of a criminal offense and are returning to society, whether or not they have served executed time on a federal, state, or local level. The type of criminal offense and the type of sentence do not define the Re‐entry population. All those convicted of any crime face additional barriers to successful, productive, crime‐free citizenship.

With regard to those offenders who are incarcerated, if their stay is 30 days or longer, the American Correctional Association (ACA) standards require that re‐entry preparation assistance be offered to them.

Important Definitions:

Discharge refers to individuals exiting parole supervision. Successful discharges include persons who have completed the term of conditional supervision.

Parole is a period of conditional community supervision following a prison term. If the conditions of supervision are violated, the parolee can be returned to prison to serve any of the remaining portion of the sentence.

Violent Crimes, as defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports, include murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Prison releases

Expiration of sentence includes inmates whose maximum court sentence minus credits has been served and are released without any term of community supervision.
First releases are inmates released from prison for the first time on their current offense.
Re-releases are inmates leaving prison after having served time either for a violation of parole or other conditional release or for a new offense committed while under parole supervision.
Recidivism is measured by criminal acts that resulted in the rearrest, reconviction, or return to prison with or without a new sentence during a three-year period following the prisoner's release.
Reentry is a broad term used to refer to issues related to the transition of offenders from prison to community supervision. Reentry normally refers to persons released from State or Federal prisons or discharged from State parole, Federal parole, or Federal Supervised Release.
State parole includes the conditional release of offenders under the jurisdiction of a State agency or authority.
Truth-in-sentencing refers to release policies that require offenders to serve a certain percentage of their sentence before becoming eligible for release from prison.

Risk Factors for Health and Behavior Problems

Community

Availability of drugs.
Availability of firearms.
Community laws and norms favorable toward drug use, firearms, and crime.
Media portrayals of violence.
Transitions and mobility.
Low neighborhood attachment and community disorganization.
Extreme economic deprivation.

Family

Family history of problem behavior.
Family management problems.
Family conflict.
Favorable parental attitudes and involvement in the problem behavior.

School

Early and persistent antisocial behavior.
Academic failure beginning in late elementary school.
Lack of commitment to school.

Individual/Peer

Alienation and rebelliousness.
Friends who engage in the problem behavior.
Favorable attitudes toward the problem behavior.
Early initiation of the problem behavior.
Constitutional factors.

Source: Catalano, R., and J.D. Hawkins. 1995. Communities That Care: Risk-Focused Prevention Using the Social Development Strategy. Seattle, WA: Developmental Research and Programs, Inc., p. 10. Reprinted with the permission of the authors and of Developmental Research and Programs, Inc.