It was very refreshing and informative attending the State Assembly Public Safety Chairman Solorio’s Town Hall meeting today. The title. “Town Hall Confronting Gang & Youth Violence: Community-Based Solutions.” His goal was to take testimony from panelists and members of the public with a specific focus on “Prevention, Intervention and Re-entry Transitioning.”
To find a spirit of bi-partisan support, to seek solutions from invited guest speakers and residents on saving our young residents from a path to self destruction should be a top priority.
While Assembly member Solorio commented having received 60 RSVP’s there were upwards of 100 in attendance at this “standing room only” three hour meeting.
Not to bore you to death but some facts and figures jump off the pages of my notes.
Let’s begin by acknowledging that there are 118 known gangs in Santa Ana of which 90 are active. Solorio reported that there are 5,000 active members.
“We are spending more on prisons than on higher education.”
It cost $45,000 per year for every adult incarcerated. Our prisons are overcrowded. We currently house 173,000 men and women. Mr. Solorio said the prison budget is $11 billion dollars.
Member Spitzer complimented Member Solorio for making crime prevention a top priority. He added that prisons are currently at 200 percent of capacity.
In discussing the life of a gang member Todd said that as to changing their behavior “once you become a member it’s almost impossible to get out.”
Todd added that “this hearing is not just window dressing.” Having known Todd for several years, I know for a fact that he is very concerned about our public safety.
Member DeVore serves on the Budget Committee and paid close attention to all of the presentations.
What I came away with is that everyone was in agreement. We know we have a problem. And second. That community-based, faith-based organizations are the solution.
Let me add a few comments from various speakers.
Elsa Greenfield, Executive Director, Community Service Programs Inc. “Violence has no boundaries.”
Seferino Garcia, Executive Director, Solevar/Agape House of Prayer, brought five young men who each gave their Testimony. The third man, Rodney, was very articulate. He stated that “the streets are a war–not a political topic. It’s a topic of emergency. Many of his friends are “gone and buried.” He added “If you think you can solve this without God you are mistaken. He commented that today’s movies and music are a big influence–that’s why kids are getting into trouble. When passion has no place to go it perverts.”
Leading off the Intervention panel was Colleene Preciado, Chief Probation Officer. She stated that “kids are salvageable–lives can be changed.” As of now they have “54 kids in custody for murder or attempted murder.” She pointed out that many of these children make their first court appearance at 15 or younger. They have “significant school problems–lots of idle time–involved in drugs and alcohol as well as having to cope with their peers. Sadly she pointed out that she sees “unwilling or unable parents that don’t know how to raise children.” It has gotten so bad that they get reports of “street robberies by 10 year old’s terrorizing little ones stealing their iPods.”She added that “government can’t do this alone.” You need Faith Based Initiative support.” She added that “these kids need to find values and relationships.” She closed by saying that “they have to know that someone cares.”
Ron Brown, Director, Teen Challenge, shared the history of that successful program and than had Frank Jiminez, a member of the TC Staff, share some of his experiences after being a gang member 16 years ago. Frank said this is a “movement without labels.” He added “you need to treat each person as an individual. The family unit is very important.”
Prior to the third panel presentations Santa Ana city council woman Claudia Alvarez thanked everyone for attending. She than told us that “SA has had 11 homicides this year of which eight were gang related involving 75 percent of other family members.”She mentioned the DA support of targeted gang members to stop them from congregating. “They can’t hang around with each other.” She closed by saying that “Santa Ana is working on enforcement and prevention.”
Sheriff Carona thanked Assemblymembers for supporting AB 900. While his is the fifth largest sheriff’s department in the nation it has the distinction of having the eighth largest jail system in the USA.
The Sheriff pointed out that “we have between 500 to 700 per day awaiting beds in OC.” We must “focus on breaking the cycle of addiction. Most (prisoners) read at the fourth grade level. People need jobs.” Mike told us that CA has a 75 percent recidivism rate.” He added “we can reduce it with the same program we have in our jails. We can work with Faith Based programs. He closed by mentioning that 25 percent of these prisoners have mental health problems.”
Geoff Henderson, Senior Program Director, Phoenix Houses of OC, showed us one PowerPoint slide that was quite informative. One half listed what offenders think. “Entitlements, deny victims, blame others, deny responsibility and uniqueness.”
Although we left before the last public speaker addressed the members, I did not hear a single direct request for future funding or grant opportunities. In his closing statement Ron Brown said we “need building space. That’s the only direct request from either side of the dais.
To summarize. We all know the problems. The challenge for our elected officials is how to solve them. I was pleased to hear a common thread that faith based programs are vital to the treatment of those wayward young adults.
For those who did not attend perhaps you have some suggestions. Please treat this as a serious post and not add your humor. I hope to send copies of your comments to the Assemblymembers for their consideration. Thank you.
Larry Gilbert, a Teen Challenge supporter and proud of it!
Larry –
Thank you for being our eyes and ears at this meeting.
I assume most of the data you cite is related to Orange County and not exclusively to Santa Ana. Most people have become lulled into believing their community does not have a gang presence and that all the gangs are in Santa Ana. Please take care in citing such data; make the distinction between city-specific and countywide data.
Why shouldn’t we be outsourcing our prison population to Mexico for the big cost savings?
Anonymous 7:05 p.m.
As I referecned statistics from different speakers their numbers range from Santa Ana specifically to our statewide incarceration.
i.e. Gangs in SA speak for itself.Shortage of beds refers to OC. Cost of incarceration and overcroeding speak for themselves.
My pre-meeting research led me to two dat asources. AG Jerry Browns web site has crime statistics. Another source had data for Orange County crimes in 2005.
i.e. Anaheim. 1616 violent crimes of which 10 were homocides, 81 forcible rapes, 554 robbery’s and 971 aggravated assaults.
Santa Ana had 1845 violent cirmes in the same table. 17 homocides, 74 forcible rapes, 644 robberies and 1,110 aggravated assaults.
Totals for the county, in the same categories were: 8,350 total violent crimes.
Categories as follows: 77 homocides, 438 forcible rapes, 2,751 robberies and 5,264 aggravated assaults.
Although I took a copy of the O.C. Probation Department’s 2007 Business Plan and their small folder of data, I find no specfics relating to gangs or gang statistics. The March 20th 2007 introduction by Chief Probation Officer Colleene Preciado states that “they supervise over 20,000 juvenile and adult offenders living in the community….”
She goes on to report having “six juvenile correctional facilities where over 900 juveniles are detained daily.”
If you wish specific data simply indicate same. And no, I am not picking on Anaheim or Santa Ana. I preselected those communites as they are located in Member Solorio’s District.
One could also make an analysis comparing individual cities that have their own police department to the cities covered by the OCSD. Let me now add the sheriff’s Department stats of the 12 cities and unincorporated areas they serve to close out this lengthy response.
Total 2005 crimes 1,010 of which 14 were ho,mocides, 50 forcible rapes, 265 robberies and 681 aggravated assaults.
Stat’s.
In today’s coverage of the meeting by Register reporter Doug Irving he cites the following:
O.C. gangs.
338 (Number of known street gangs)
13,259 (active gang members in 2004)
38 percent decrease ingang membership over the past decade
63 gang related shootings in Santa Ana between Jan and July.
Souirces: City of SA and Assembly Member Jose Solorio.
Government focuses on intervention – arriving after something bad has happened to punish the perpetrator and offer services to the victim. Everyone knows that family support/prevention services work – this is making services available to families before they are in crisis. However, that work is primarily left up to volunteers and non-profits. Government needs to put more funding into prevention via family support services and family resource centers. It will pay off in the long run by creating fewer vitims, fewer crimes.
AS MANY PEOPLE EXPECTED, SOLORIO’S FORUM ON GANGS, WAS JUST ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO CONVINCE TAXPAYERS TO SPEND MILLIONS ON SPECIAL PROGRAMS FOR GANGS, RATHER THAN INCARCERATION. WHY WASN’T THE SUBJECT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BROUGHT UP? AFTER ALL MANY GANG MEMBERS OR PARENTS OF GANG MEMBERS ARE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
Anonymous 9:58 a.m.
We are all in agreement that you need to stop gang violence before it begins. That goes to the first panel who addressed PREVENTION.
Teen Challenge’s TC Kids program is a great example of that solution. At our church last week, where they hold some of their classes, I walked in on one of their meetings. After a time of prayer they were playing games. Each of these kids are bussed across the freeway from the poor area of San Juan. Before going home they were each given new back packs for school. An appropiate and useful gift.
And yes, there is no question that the private sector is on the front lines working with these young boys and girls to show them a road to a better future.
Anonymous 11:04 a.m.
As posted by Art last week Assembly Member Solorio set the Agenda for this meeting. At no time did anyone raise the issue of the status of the kids in these gangs in terms of whether or not they were here illegally. It was not the topic of this Town Hall.
Perhaps you might contact him and request a follow up on that single issue.
Furthermore, neither the probation department data that was presented, nor the information in their booklet, covered this information.
Perhaps this was an oversight.