CARY Newsletter Summer 2006

In this issue:

CARY board members get locked up!

Board member Sheriff Greg Hamilton arranged for CARY board members to tour the Travis County Jail on July 19th. The board members visited several different areas of the city jail operations including the intake and admissions, several jail cells, and living areas for men and women inmates. The board was also shown the outdoor recreation area and learned about medical services. Diane Breidenstein, the CARY board secretary observed, “the jail tour was eye opening and provided confirmation of the important prevention work CARY does with at risk youth. Our goal is to keep individuals out of the criminal justice system.”

Criminality Correlates with School Disciplinary Actions

Probation officers, prison wardens, and parole officers have observed for many years that criminality does not begin when an individual commits the felonious offense for which they were convicted, sentenced and incarcerated. Rather criminal behavior has many preceding acts and actions that occur long before entry into the criminal justice system. One of the more common characteristics for people who are convicted and incarcerated is that as youngsters, they were disciplinary problems in the public school.

Dr. Dottie Carmichael, a Research Scientist at the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University, recently completed a research report entitled The Study of Minority Over-Representation in the Texas Juvenile Justice System. The study was sponsored by the Office of the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division utilizing Texas Education Agency PIEMS disciplinary data and Texas Juvenile Probation Commission casework data. The results tell us now that school disciplinary history is one of the best ways to identify youth who will become involved in delinquent and criminal acts.

Dr. Carmichael stated in written communication to CARY that “our study examined over ten different factors that might help identify youth at greatest risk for becoming involved with the juvenile justice system. Of all these factors, a school disciplinary referral emerged as the single strongest predictor. Just one serious school infraction increased the likelihood of a future justice referral by 23 percent. The greater the number of school disciplinary incidents, the higher the probability of subsequent referral. These powerful findings provide clear direction for targeting early intervention programs where they can have the greatest impact”.

Community Development and Fundraising

Two significant fundraisers were accomplished over the summer of 2006. CARY board members and staff participated in each.

Austin Toros players visiting with at-risk youth

The first was initiated by CARY board president Bob King and Mike Berry. Mr. Berry is the team president of our new corporate partner the Austin Toros. The event involved Austin Toros players visiting with students at two CARY schools (Bedichek and Pearce middle schools). Anthony Fuqua and Andre Emmett gave inspirational talks to kids who had been referred by CARY staff and school faculty at these middle schools. Following the talks, the Austin Toros players shot hoops with students in the school gyms. Additionally, several of the CARY board members and the executive director helped to sell Austin Toros tickets for one of the early spring games. Mike Berry became an official CARY board member in July.

Disc Golf Tournament

CARY board member Dee Leekha, with World Champion in disc sports and course designer John Houck, prompted the second significant fundraising and community awareness activity of the summer. During the first weekend in May, John Houck and Dee Leekha arranged for the use of the Zilker Park disc golf course and registered 120 disc golf players for the two day event. This was CARY's first disc golf tournament and it brought in $5000 in donations for operational expenses. At the July board meeting, Mr. Houck was sworn in as a new CARY board member by Diane Breidenstein.

Thank you to everyone who made these events a success and a warm welcome to both Mike Berry and John Houck.

Adrian Moore speaks before Texas Legislature House Committee

Adrian Moore, the CARY Executive Director appeared before the Texas Legislature House Committee on Corrections and Education in late June. Representative Jerry Madden chaired the house committee with the charge of reviewing the functioning and effectiveness of Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs) and Juvenile Justice Alternative Educational Programs (JJAEPs). The legislature established the DAEPs for each school district and JJAEPs within school districts in cities with a population of more than 120,000 people as defined by Chapter 37 of the Texas Education Code. The purpose was to assure that students removed from public schools for disciplinary purposes and for delinquent offenses continued in an academic regular program in lieu of being on the streets and out of school permanently.

Moore's comments and observations reviewed CARY's six years of experience in conducting violence prevention and service learning programs for suspended and referred students in Austin, Georgetown, Lockhart, and Luling. Moore shared with the committee the strong correlation between students being involved in disciplinary incidents and their subsequent delinquent and criminal behavior with entry into the criminal justice system. Adrian also shared information with the committee on some of the evidenced based delinquency, violence and drug abuse prevention programs and suggested to the committee members that the State of Texas play a more significant role in sponsoring delinquency prevention, drug and violence prevention programs at the community level. This approach is far less costly and reduces victimizations more effectively than the criminal justice system.