New Mexico’s Law Enforcement Leaders: Keep Early Childhood Funding or Foot Bigger Prison Bill Later
Feb 15th 2010
Contact: Ted Eismeier
Cell: 315-335-9222
SANTA FE, N.M. (February 15, 2010) -- At a news conference today, New Mexico Attorney General Gary King,
They released a report from the national organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids indicating that high-quality early childhood programs for at-risk children can significantly reduce crime and ultimately cut corrections costs by a quarter or more.
Currently in New Mexico, there are over 16,000 incarcerated adults in jails and state prisons, with corrections costs exceeding $320 million every year. General King, Chief Segotta and D.A. Martinez said that New Mexico would save about $80 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 $31,000 a year in New Mexico—twice as expensive as a year’s tuition at the University of New Mexico, which costs around $13,000.
Attorney General Gary King said that although New Mexico is facing tight budgets today, lawmakers should continue to invest in high-quality early education in order to avoid much greater prison costs in the future.
“We have a choice: either we pay now or we’ll pay much more down the road. I hope we can keep these investments in early education in place to avoid real budget busters ten or twenty years from now,” General King said.
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.
The group 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 in Minneapolis found that the Perry Preschool program had an annual rate of return on investment of 16 percent. The majority of the cost savings in the Perry study came from reductions in crime and incarceration.
The Santa Fe Area law enforcement said 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.
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.
“When you compare the costs between early education or prison, it’s a no brainer,” D.A. Martinez said. “We are in a tough fiscal situation and we have to carefully consider budget choices. But if we cut early education dollars this year, we could face increased crime in the future and also lose an opportunity to save tax dollars.”
The law enforcement officials also urged New Mexico’s 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 new Early Learning Challenge Fund will support early education programs, such as 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 in mid-September that includes support for the Early Learning
Challenge Fund.
“I would rather see our tax dollars going to help young children get the right start than pay room and board for career criminals,” Chief Segotta said. “I hope the legislature will take that into account when they vote on this year’s budget.”
General King, Chief Segotta and D.A. Martinez 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 52 in New Mexico.
###
