ILLINOIS–Rock Island Law Enforcement Leaders Say Early Childhood Programs Pay Off
Report: early education cuts crime, reduces prison costs and saves taxpayers dollars
PART OF A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact:Tim Carpenter, tcarpenter@fightcrime.org
Cell: 312-339-0583
Sally Puleo, spuleo@fightcrime.org
Cell: 630-677-8673
ROCK ISLAND, IL (May 18, 2011) – Noting that Illinois taxpayers are spending more than $1.3 billion a year on corrections, Rock Island Chief of Police Scott Harris today urged support for high-quality early education as a critical strategy to reduce crime, lower prison costs and save taxpayers money.
Chief Harris read to children in the preschool program at the Skip-a-Long Child Development Center on Wednesday and discussed the value of early childhood education. The national anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is sponsoring the event as part of a law enforcement campaign to promote support for high-quality early childhood education. Tim Carpenter, State Director for Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois, also spoke at the event.
Citing a new research brief called “Pay Now or Pay Much More Later,” the law enforcement leaders said that investing in high-quality early care and education can help at-risk children in Illinois succeed, significantly reduce the likelihood that they will commit crimes and save taxpayer dollars from reduced prison costs.
“There’s a saying that if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. From all the criminal investigations I’ve handled over the years, I’ve learned that many young people who end up in trouble could have had much more productive lives with a quality education,” Chief Harris said. “We need to make sure that more kids start school well-prepared through early learning so they end up as well-adjusted adults.”
While overall crime rates are decreasing in many jurisdictions, Illinois still spent $1.3 billion in 2010 on corrections with over 45,000 Illinois adults locked up in either state or federal prisons on the first day of 2010. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Illinois’ corrections costs nearly doubled between 1982 and 2008.
A long-term study of Michigan’s Perry Preschool found that at-risk children who did not participate in the high-quality program were five times more likely to be chronic offenders by age 27 than children who did attend. Because of their increased involvement in crime, the children who did not attend were 86 percent more likely to be sentenced to jail or prison by the age of 40.
Law enforcement leaders also agree that cutting funding for early childhood programs would be shortsighted and risky since quality early care and education programs actually save money in the long run. The Perry Preschool Program cut crime, welfare and other costs so much that it saved taxpayers an average of $180,000 for every child served, with the vast majority of the public savings coming from reduced crime costs alone.
The law enforcement leaders called on Senators Richard Durbin and Mark Kirk to maintain funding for federal early care and education programs and strengthen them through legislative action. They also called on Senator Kirk, as a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, to support a shift from the current “K-12″ system to a model that focuses on early education to high school graduation.
Illinois had nearly 85,000 children in state-funded preschool for Fiscal Year 2010, and the program was funded at $342 million. The federally-funded Head Start program serves over 40,000 children in Illinois, using $280 million in federal funds. In addition, the Child Care and Development Block Grant serves 68,000 children at a cost of $337 million.
Chief Harris is a member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, the national anti-crime organization of police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, attorneys general and violence survivors, with over 300 members in Illinois and over 5,000 members nationwide.
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