Why should youth violence prevention be a high priority for community efforts?
Investments in prevention and early intervention of youth violence are highly cost-effective compared to the cost of the criminal justice system.
A recent study estimated the governmental costs. Mark Cohen’s 2005 “The Costs of Crime and Justice7” estimated that each 10-year “repeat criminal” or the “career criminal”, costs society $2 million. Cohen based his cost estimate on the individual high school dropout who begins a 10-year crime cycle of drug related, misdemeanor and felony offenses, repeat arrests, court appearances, and jail, probation, prison and parole terms. He adds to the justice system costs estimates for tax revenue that is not paid while the perpetrator is not employed and the costs for child support which must be borne by the social safety net.
Costs for juvenile and adult criminal incarceration facilities are high. Based on web site published budget information comparing agency budgets to average daily populations for 2008, incarceration costs for one individual for one year are more than $15,000 at a Texas State prison, $25,000 at Travis County Jail and $100,000 at the Texas Youth Commission. In contrast, costs for violence prevention programs are significantly less. CARY’s cost for one youth in our evidence-based 12-month violence prevention program is less than $1,000.
A review of 2008 budget figures published in respective City of Austin, Travis County and State of Texas agency websites demonstrates that the collective expenditures for law enforcement, courts, prosecution, public defense, jails, probation, prisons and parole plus federal grants for juvenile and criminal justice comes to over $600 million for Travis County residents. Imagine the impact if the community were able to invest one percent of this amount or $6 million in youth violence prevention services. Using the CARY program costs of less than $1,000 per youth per year. that $6 million would serve 6,000 at risk students involved in acts of school-based aggression, assault, abuse and intimidation of others.
Even if only 1 percent (60) of these youth were diverted from a “criminal career”, using Mark Cohen’s cost figures we can project a justice system savings of $120 million! (60 youth X $2 million). This amounts to a return on investment of 20 to 1!
Over the long-term, the criminal justice spending for our community could be significantly reduced if we could bring ourselves to invest in a prevention and early intervention effort more proportionate to the true extent of the need. However, given the reality of limited resources, we should at least strive to invest a meaningful amount in diversion efforts.