Durham Law Enforcement Leaders: Invest in Early Education or Foot Bigger Prison Bill Later
Aug 31st 2009
DURHAM, N.C. (August 31, 2009) -- At a news conference today, Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez Sr., Durham County Sheriff Worth Hill and Hillsborough Police Chief Clarence Birkhead 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.
Currently in North Carolina, there are nearly 63,157 incarcerated adults in jails and state prisons, with corrections costs exceeding $1.07 billion every year. The chiefs and sheriff said that North Carolina would save about $270 million in taxpayer dollars if it cut prison costs by a quarter by investing in early learning.
With kids heading back to school, North Carolina law enforcement leaders are urging U.S. Senator Kay Hagan to champion new federal legislation to implement the administration's proposed Early Learning Challenge Fund, which will provide $1 billion per year in grants for states to expand and improve their early childhood development initiatives. Senator Hagan is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is expected to consider the early learning bill soon.
"If we invest in early education programs, we'll reduce the likelihood that at-risk kids will end up in jail, which is very expensive. It's about dollars, cents and common sense," Chief Lopez 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.
Sheriff Hill 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 found that the Perry Preschool program had an annual rate of return on investment of 16 percent. The majority of the cost savings indicated in the Perry study came from reductions in crime and incarceration.
"They say that crime doesn't pay, but like it or not we do pay for crime," said Hill. "We know from the research that kids who get early education are less likely to end up behind bars. Let's make sure every at-risk kid has that opportunity."
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 education committee in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in July that includes support for the Early Learning Challenge Fund.
Chief Birkhead 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.
"During the earliest years, kids have dreams of what they want to be when they grow up," Birkhead said. "I can guarantee that not one of them dreams of being a crack dealer or gang-banger. This is the period of life we need to focus on with early learning. Early learning gives them the foundation they need to be a success in life and realize those early dreams."
The need for increased 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, 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.
Lopez, Hill and Birkhead 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 82 in North Carolina.
###
