To fight crime, start early

We took a wrong turn a little over 25 years ago, but we are about to get on the right road.

America decided back then that being tough was the best way to fight crime. Now people in a position to know say being smart is better.

Monday I wrote about the folly of our heavy reliance on prisons to combat crime and solve social problems.

For decades, social-science research has pointed to better ways. But not enough ears were listening.

That is changing because the people speaking out now are not the usual suspects.

Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske is chairman of the board of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national organization whose name says it all.

The organization's members are sheriffs, police chiefs, prosecutors, U.S. attorneys and crime victims. They advocate for early childhood education and home-visit programs that help families do what's necessary for children to succeed.

No one in the group is soft on crime, but they are all smart about its causes and cures.

This group supports only programs that can show results in hard numbers.

They cite numerous studies of programs that work. In Michigan, 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families were randomly assigned to a preschool program. Low-income kids who didn't get preschool were "five times more likely to have become chronic lawbreakers by age 27."

An economist showed the program returned $19,000 for each $1,000 spent.

We get fewer criminals and welfare dependents and more taxpayers.

Kerlikowske has been involved since a few people got together in a basement near the White House in the mid-1990s to talk about fighting crime.

The group's founder, D.C. attorney Sanford Newman, got interested in crime prevention when he awoke to find an intruder in his bedroom.

Newman wasn't thinking it's good this guy will go to prison if he hurts us. No, what he wanted was for him not to be there at all.

We can't go back in time and change someone's trajectory, but we can affect the futures of millions of children.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids (www.fightcrime.org) has grown from a handful of people in D.C. to a national lobbying force with 3,000 members.

In Washington state, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a major donor. The list of members covers nearly every law-enforcement agency.

Their voices will help legislators make better choices.

"They [lawmakers] don't want to be seen as soft on crime," Kerlikowske said, but having police backing removes that worry.

Washington is doing better than most states at adopting programs that work, but only a small portion of the children who need the programs are enrolled. Money is the issue. Last session, Kerlikowske and other law-enforcement officials went to Olympia to ask for more funding. They'll keep asking.

"I'm not worried that we are going to work ourselves out of a job," he said.

There will always be crime, but there could be a lot less of it if we take the smart road toward prevention.

Jerry Large's column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com.