Colorado Law Enforcement Leaders: Invest in Early Education or Foot Bigger Prison Bill Later
Sep 18th 2009
DENVER (September 18, 2009) -- At a news conference today, Colorado Attorney General John W. Suthers, Denver District Attorney Mitchell R. Morrissey and Milliken Chief James Burack released a research brief indicating that high-quality early learning programs for at-risk children ages birth to five can significantly reduce crime and ultimately cut corrections costs by a quarter or more.
To read a copy of the report, click here.
Currently in Colorado, there are nearly 38,000 incarcerated adults in jails and state and federal prisons, with corrections costs exceeding $760 million every year. General Suthers, District Attorney Morrissey, and Chief Burack said that the state would save about $190 million in taxpayer dollars if it cut prison costs by a quarter by investing in early learning. A year of state lock-up costs taxpayers $27,000 a year in Colorado-more expensive than a year's tuition, room and board at the University of Colorado-Boulder, which costs around $18,000.
With kids heading back to school, law enforcement is urging the U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, as well as the rest of the Colorado Congressional Delegation, to support new federal legislation to implement the proposed Early Learning Challenge Fund, which will provide $1 billion per year for states to expand and improve their early childhood development initiatives. The law enforcement leaders also urged state legislators to invest in early education and care for the youngest at-risk children.
A long-term study of the high-quality Perry Preschool in Michigan found that by age 40, the kids left out of the program were 85 percent more likely to be sentenced to jail or prison. Another study detailed in the report showed that at-risk kids who did not attend Chicago's Child-Parent Centers were 24 percent more likely to be incarcerated than similar kids who did attend.
D.A. Morrissey emphasized the cost-saving benefits of investing in high-quality early childhood education and care, especially for at-risk young children. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that the Perry Preschool program had an annual rate of return on investment of 16 percent. The majority of the cost savings from the Perry Program came from reductions in crime and incarceration.
"There's no doubt that we are better off paying for a seat in an early learning classroom than a bed in a prison cell. Not only is the seat much less expensive, but each seat we pay for means fewer adults needing prison beds down the road," D.A. Morrissey said.
The new Early Learning Challenge Fund will support early education programs, such as Head Start, Early Head Start, pre-kindergarten or quality child care, which offer constructive environments for the healthy growth and development of young children in the first five years of life. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that includes support for the Early Learning Challenge Fund.
The law enforcement leaders say that more support is needed at the state and federal level to ensure that quality early childhood programs are available and affordable to more families. Costs for enrolling young children in early learning programs can run as high as $7,300 a year, which many families are unable to afford.
"State budgets are tight today, so we need to carefully consider how we spend scarce taxpayer dollars," Chief Burack said. "We either pay now for high-quality early education or pay a whole lot more later for high-security incarceration."
The need to increase access to high-quality early learning opportunities is great. For example, the federally-funded Head Start program for children in poverty serves only half of eligible children nationwide due to inadequate funding. And the youngest children, from birth to age 3, are even more dramatically underserved. In fact, Early Head Start serves only about three percent of eligible infants and toddlers nationally.
The research shows that quality is essential to getting the crime and incarceration reduction benefits of early learning. The Early Learning Challenge Fund legislation will enable states to adopt best practices, including higher qualifications for teachers and caregivers. In addition, it encourages smaller class sizes, and early screening and treatment of mental, emotional and behavioral problems, as well as parent coaching, which teaches at-risk families ways to promote their children's development.
General Suthers, D.A. Morrissey and Chief Burack are members of FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS, an anti-crime organization led by 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors nationwide, including 81 in Colorado.
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