West Virginia Law Enforcement: Fight Crime Through Health Care Reform
Jul 28th 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 28, 2009) -- Cabell County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Chiles, Boone County Sheriff Rodney Miller and Kanawha County Sheriff Michael Rutherford met with U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-West Va.) on Capitol Hill to discuss opportunities to deter crime and violence through preventive health care policies.
Chiles, Miller and Rutherford urged Rockefeller to include funding for voluntary home-visiting programs, proven to prevent child abuse and neglect in high-risk families, as part of health reform legislation under discussion in the Senate Finance Committee.
In addition, they also recommended that health reform include coverage for substance abuse treatment for pregnant women, as substance abuse during pregnancy can cause mental and behavioral disorders that lead to involvement in crime.
“By no means does every kid with a rough childhood end up in trouble, but we know there is a connection between these early experiences and later crime. To safeguard our communities, we need to make sure that families are able to give their kids a safe and healthy start in life,” said Chiles, who is also currently the president of the National District Attorneys Association.
By preventing childhood exposure to abuse or neglect, home-visiting programs significantly reduce the risk of future crime. Most survivors of abuse and neglect never become criminals, but children who are abused or neglected are much more likely to act violently and commit crimes as adults. They are also many times more likely to abuse their own children.
Voluntary home-visiting programs send trained workers to the homes of at-risk mothers, coaching them from pregnancy up through the first several years of a child’s life. The visits have shown a clear impact on improving prenatal care and children’s health, preventing child abuse and neglect and, as a result, preventing later crime.
A study of the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), a home-visiting program that employs nurses, found that mothers who enrolled were half as likely to abuse or neglect their children than mothers who did not benefit from the visits. The children whose mothers received the visits were also 60 percent less likely to be arrested by age 15, compared to those whose mothers did not participate.
“We’re facing some tough economic times right now, and when family stress boils over in the home, it’s often children that pay the price. Providing resources and advice to at-risk parents is a clear cut step to prevent child abuse and make our communities safer for years to come,” Rutherford said.
Polling figures from earlier in 2009 verify law enforcement’s concern for a link between abuse and financial woes. A national poll of law enforcement leaders, conducted by the independent firm Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, Inc., found that 88 percent of police chiefs, prosecutors and sheriffs agree that increasing anxiety and stress in families stemming from the current economic crisis has led or will lead to greater incidence of child abuse and neglect.
The West Virginian law enforcement leaders also emphasized the cost-savings benefits of home-visiting initiatives. Independent researchers found that NFP saved taxpayers approximately $18,000 per family served through reductions in crime costs and welfare payments. The nurse visits also reduced short-term health care expenses, such as trips to the emergency room.
Reducing the number of child abuse cases in itself would save money. Data collected by the Urban Institute show that indentifying and caring for victims of child maltreatment costs West Virginia taxpayers almost $140 million each year.
They also sought his support for interventions for troubled youth and juvenile offenders who have mental, emotional or behavioral problems. Evidence-based interventions focused on community and family involvement, such as the Functional Family Therapy approach, have been proven to cut repeat offenses in half and save taxpayers as much as $32,000 for every youth served.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If we can avoid the costs of crime and corrections through getting kids a healthier start to life, it will save West Virginian taxpayers millions each year. Investing in the lives of children is a financially prudent step to fight crime,” Miller said.
Chiles, Miller and Rutherford are members of FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS, a national anti-crime organization based in Washington, D.C led by over 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors, including 77 in the state of West Virginia.
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