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Shannon CSI Components

There are three main components to the Shannon CSI program:

1) Community Gang and Youth Violence Reduction Partnerships
The primary goal of the Shannon CSI is to reduce gang and youth violence in Massachusetts through coordinated programs for prevention and intervention. To accomplish this goal community partnerships were funded across the Commonwealth to adopt comprehensive gang and youth violence reduction strategies which include: social intervention, opportunity provision, suppression, community mobilization and organizational change. To learn more about comprehensive approaches to reducing youth violence and gangs follow the link to Comprehensive Gang Intervention Strategies.

2) Local Action Research Partners
To support the activities of the Shannon Community Safety partnerships Local Action Research Partners were funded to provide strategic, analytic, and research support to ten of the Shannon CSI partnerships. To learn more about the action research approach follow the link to Action Research.

3) Statewide Youth Violence Research Partner

A Statewide Research Partner, Northeatern University was funded to share lessons learned from the Shannon CSI grantees and Local Action Research Partnerships and to assess and document the results achieved by both the Shannon CSI grantees and the Local Action Research Partnerships. These goals are accomplished throug:

Information Session Meetings:

Quarterly technical assistance meetings facilitate collaboration across sites and provide technical assistance by addressing topic areas identified by the he Local Action Research Partners (LARP) and the Shannon CSI grantees.

Shannon CSI Technical Assistance Website:

This website provides summaries of meetings, information on lessons learned and identify strategies to help overcome challenge cities by the Local Action Research Partners and the Shannon CSI grantees.

Resource Guide Series:

A series of resource guides is being developed to illustrate features of the initiative and highlight best practices from Shannon sites. The first guide in the series, Comprehensive Approaches to Reducing Youth Violence and Gangs in Local Communities can be found here.

Case Studies and Annual Reports:

To understand the progress made by each of the organizations receiving funding under the grant award to maximize the potential of the Shannon CSI projects the Statewide Research Partner reviews quarterly activity reports, conducts site visits, and gathers information about the activities of the Shannon partnerships and their LARPS.

Over the course of the project case studies and an annual report have been developed to document the progress of Shannon communities in addressing youth violence and gang problems in their communities. The annal report from the first year of Shannon CSI can be found here.

Comprehensive Gang Intervention Strategies

The Charles E. Shannon Community Safety Initiative encouraged communities in Massachusetts to adopt the national best practices model of combining strategies which have proven to be successful in reducing youth violence and gangs nationally in a comprehensive local program. The following describes the comprehensive gang intervention model in more detail.

In the early 1990s, researchers developed a typology of promising gang intervention strategies that address the fundamental causes of gangs, gang crimes, and the other problems that gangs cause. These strategies were later adopted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) as best practices to reduce gang violence. The five strategies identified by the OJJDP Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression are:

(1) Social intervention programming which can include crisis intervention, treatment for youths and their families, and social service referrals. In many communities this includes using street outreach workers to engage gang-involved youth.

(2) Opportunity provision programming which stress education and job related services as well as developing healthy youth activities. Such programs are thought to be especially important for older gang members who are not in school but may be looking for legitimate opportunities to provide for their family or themselves.

(3) Suppression programs which include law enforcement and criminal justice interventions such as arrest, prosecution, imprisonment, and surveillance.

(4) Community mobilization which focuses on cooperation across agencies to produce better coordination of existing services.

(5) Organizational change in which communities determine which organizations within their community will provide services identified in the other strategy areas and work to ensure resources are provided to the appropriate agencies. In many communities this includes the development of multi-agency strategies such as task forces to address to gang problems in a community.

Each community funded under the Shannon CSI was encouraged to incorporate programming across at least four of the five strategy areas when developing their proposed approach. For more information about the comprehensive approach to community gang interventions see:

Irving Spergel and David Curry (1993). The National Youth Gang Survey: A Research and Development Process. In A.P. Goldstein and C.R. Huff, eds., Gang Intervention Handbook. Champaign, IL: Research Press.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2002). OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model: A Guide to Assessing Your Community's Youth Gang Problem. Washington, DC.

Action Research

Action research is an interactive process that recognizes the changing nature of complex social problems and provides continuous assessment and revision of both the problem itself and the strategies developed to address it. Action research involves collaboration between practitioners, policy makers, and researchers in an effort to develop and implement data-driven interventions. Given the complexity and continually changing nature of gang violence, action research is a particularly useful tool with which to engage in comprehensive gang reduction strategies.

To support the action research principles of the Shannon CSI project the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security utilized funds from the Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) program to fund ten Local Action Research Partners (LARPs) working in coordination with Shannon CSI communities to provide strategic, analytic, and research support. More information about the Shannon CSI LARPs can be found here.

The action research approach is consistent with the SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment) problem solving approach, which is the basis for problem-solving policing.

The following are the major principles of action research:

1. Clear identification of the problem - Researcher(s) work with agencies to identify what data are currently available and what information is needed in order to fully assess the nature of gang problems within a local community.
2. Clear identification of outcome indicators - Once the problem has been specified, it is vital for the partners to establish indicators to be tracked throughout the course of the project so that it is possible to measure the strategy's implementation as well as its success.
3. Regular and frequent data collection and analysis - Tracking outcome indicators must be done on a regular and frequent basis to account for changes that may be associated with the interventions.
4. Regular assessment of the strategies being implemented based on the analysis of data - Following the analysis of the data, the partners need to come together to discuss how well the strategy appears to be working or if it requires revision.
5. Revision of strategies as needed based on analysis - If the partners agree that the data reflect a need for a strategy revision, they must plan and implement changes that address the deficient areas.
6. Revision of strategies as needed based on analysis - If the partners agree that the data reflect a need for a strategy revision, they must plan and implement changes that address the deficient areas.
7. Continuous communication between project partners - Continuous communication between partners is a vital component that will facilitate all elements of the project. It will contexualize the data being collected, promote information sharing, and enhance all partners' understanding of the issues.
8. Full evaluation of efforts - In addition to regularly assessing and revising efforts as needed, a longer term evaluation should be conducted to fully assess the strategy over time. This differs from the regular tracking and assessment in that it addresses the overall goal of the strategy (e.g., substantially reducing violent gang crime and gang involvement in middle and high schools) rather than individual components of that goal (e.g., changes in the number of disciplinary actions taken by the schools for fighting).

In order to facilitative a useful action research partnership at the outset of your collaboration, it may be helpful for the project partners to answer the following questions:

• What is the goal of the partnership? Do all partners agree? What other objectives do the partners have?
• Who will be involved in the partnership, will this change during the project?
• Is enough information available to fully define the problem in your local community? If not, what additional information is required?
• How will the partners measure success? What are the short and long term indicators?
• How can the practitioners and local action research partners effectively gather data and share information?
• What are the expectations of the partners in terms of working together?
• What are the challenges that will be faced during the action research partnership? How can these challenges be overcome?
• What are the reporting requirements throughout the course of the project? Who is responsible for the reporting?
• How often will the partners meet? Will all partners attend the meetings? Where will meetings be held?
• How will you deal with "bad news?" (i.e., indications that the initiative is not being implemented as planned or is not working as planned).

The value of action research lies in being able to address a well-defined problem with continually updated information. This is particularly important where, as in gang violence, the problem is complex and dynamic.

A partnership involving the Lowell, Massachusetts, Police Department, academic researchers, and other state and federal government agencies for the Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative demonstrates the potential of action research. In Lowell, an initial problem analysis identified that almost half of all gun assault offenders were gang-related. Asian gangs were identified as a particularly difficult part of the problem. Due to the gangs' racially homogeneous and insular membership it was difficult to gather intelligence about the gangs. Witnesses were also reluctant to cooperate with police out of fear of retaliation.

Further problem analysis helped to reveal a strong relationship between Asian street gangs and older members of the Asian community who operated local businesses as fronts for gambling houses. Researchers also helped to provide information on Asian gangs from previous research in the field. Based on this knowledge and interaction between the police and researchers, the police targeted gambling houses to exert pressure on the gangs affiliated with them. Police explicitly informed those individuals suspected of being involved in gambling that violence committed by the affiliated gangs would result in increased attention to local gambling houses. By focusing attention on the fronts, the Lowell police were able to decrease the business of several gambling establishments closely associated with the city's Asian gangs. Additionally, evaluations of the intervention show associated decreases in aggravated assaults with guns in Lowell over two years.

Technical Assistance

Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security

If you have any questions regarding the Shannon CSI project or the Action Research component, please contact:

James Stark
Shannon Grant Manager
Research and Policy Analysis Division
Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security
Ten Park Plaza, Suite 3720
Boston, MA 02116
email: James.Stark@state.ma.us

Statewide Youth Violence Research Partner

The Statewide Youth Violence Research Partner, Northeastern University, provides assistance to Shannon community partners, LARPS and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to help inform the Shannon Community Safety Program. This work includes:

1) Training and technical assistance to Shannon CSI community grantees and LARPs through a series of bi-monthly technical assistance meetings

2) Encouraging and supporting research collaboration across Shannon CSI sites

3) Working with the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to develop and publish lessons learned from the Shannon CSI experience

4) Reporting on the impact of Shannon CSI in local communities and statewide.

The Statewide Partner team includes:

Dean, Jack McDevitt,

Dean McDevitt has more than 25 years of research experience both in Massachusetts and nationally. He has experience leading large research and technical assistance projects, including work with Dr. Amy Farrell to lead the analysis of racial disparities in traffic stops in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In the area of youth violence research, Dean McDevitt has served as the PSN Research Partner for the District of Massachusetts for the past four years where he has worked with law enforcement agencies from across the Commonwealth in initiatives to combat gun violence. Dean McDevitt is also part of the national research technical assistance group for PSN, providing training and technical assistance to sites across the country on ways to increase community involvement in violence reduction efforts. Dean McDevitt is the co-author of three books and numerous articles, most recently serving as lead author on two of the upcoming monographs from the United States Department of Justice on Project Safe Neighborhoods strategies. In addition to his PSN efforts, Dean McDevitt serves as the academic partner for the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs Association, a group comprised of the 35 largest Police Organizations in the Commonwealth. He has also provided research support to Law Enforcement Councils across the state.

Dr. Amy Farrell

Dr. Farrell's research focuses on discretionary decision-making of various actors within the criminal justice system. Over the past six years she has been actively involved in the analysis of racial disparities in traffic stops and searches, authoring numerous state reports and A Resource Guide on Analyzing Racial Profiling Data for the Department of Justice. In addition to her work on police practices, Dr. Farrell has conducted research on risky behavior of juveniles, with a special emphasis on girls. She is currently conducting a major project funded by the National Institute of Justice to understand law enforcement responses to human trafficking. Dr. Farrell has been actively involved in action research and has extensive experience providing technical assistance to police agencies in Massachusetts.

Lisa Laguerre

Lisa Laguerre is the Associate Director of Community Relations, for the Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University. In this capacity she has established the IRJ Community Advisory Board, which consists of prestigious local community practitioners in criminal justice, education, youth development, and political processes who are dedicated to partnering with the Institute to support social justice research as a tool towards social action. She has also organized and assisted in convening the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety Community Task Force on Racial Profiling, as well as its Committee to Promote Discussion on Race and Traffic Stops. In her role she has also co-authored the Institute on Race and Justice Community Dialogue report for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security and assisted with the Institute's report for recommending a civilian oversight model to the City of Boston.

Two additional expert team members assist the Statewide Youth Violence Research Partner.

Dr. Scott H. Decker, Expert Team Member

Scott H. Decker is currently Professor and Director of the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Arizona State University. Dr. Decker has evaluated dozens of prominent national and local police-community gang initiatives and conducted extensive fieldwork with active gang members. A hallmark of Dr. Decker’s career has been his commitment to action research, the engagement of researchers and practitioners in use-based knowledge to change the structure and culture of practice. Dr. Decker’s work with SafeFutures, SACSI, JAIBG, Weed and Seed, YFVI and Project Safe Futures are prominent examples of that commitment. During the course of action research, Dr. Decker has worked on a weekly basis with local law enforcement, state probation and parole, state level prosecutors, the US Attorney’s office and juvenile courts.

Dr. Tim Bynum, Expert Team Member

Dr. Tim Bynum is a Professor at the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Dr. Bynum's principal research interests lie in the area of evaluation of public policies and interventions in the area of crime and justice with a focus upon using research results for policy impact. He is the former Associate Director of the Institute of Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State where he directed the Evaluation Research Division. He is also the Director of the Michigan Justice Statistics Center, the state Criminal Justice Statistical Analysis Center. He is the Co- Principal Investigator of an initiative at MSU to provide training, technical assistance, and research in support of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). Dr. Bynum has been involved in several major interventions focused upon gangs. He was the evaluator for the Anti-Gang Initiative in Detroit, a component of a 10 city program funded by the COPS office, a principal member of the national evaluation of the Youth Firearms Violence Initiative, and is working with the Urban Institute in the evaluation of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Gang Reduction Program, a comprehensive model involving prevention, intervention, and suppression components in four cities across the country.

Local Action Research Partners (LARPS)

Funds through the Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) program were awarded to ten Local Action Research Partners to provide strategic, analytic, and research support to Shannon CSI partnerships.

The following updates provide detailed information about the work of Local Action Research Partners with Shannon Community Safety Initiative communities thoughout the first and second year of the Shannon CSI project.

Quarter 1, July to September 2006

Quarter 2, October to December, 2007

Quarter 3, January to March, 2007

Quarter 4, April to June 2007, 2007

Quarter 5, July to September, 2007

Quarter 6, October to December, 2007

Previous Spotlights

Haverhill's VIP Program

The Violence Intervention Program (VIP) was established in 2006 to reduce gang membership in Haverhill. It is a school-based violence prevention program serving Haverhill and Methuen. Currently, there are 60 student VIP members, with over 20 more on a waiting list. The program is open to Haverhill High School students, and seeks out at-risk youth to join the program. This after-school program provides students with an inviting alternative to the streets and other unsupervised and unsafe settings. The VIP room is completely renovated with couches, educational books and magazines, anti-violence and health posters, musical instruments and art supplies, along with computers and a television. Students are also provided with free homework assistance, snacks, workshops and field trips. VIP holds weekly meetings for all of its members, which include activities and trainings that focus on violence prevention, conflict resolution, and anger management. Shannon funding has helped keep VIP open for its members and recently funded an evaluation of the program. Results of the evaluation found that students improved school attendance, were engaged more in their classes, were more ready to be employed, and positively changed their peer group associations. VIP recently received a Good Citizens award, which is given out to individuals or organizations in Essex County that do extraordinary things to make their neighborhoods and communities safer.

SCSI Previous Events

Shannon Kickoff Event - Friday, August 4th, 2006 at Northeastern University, Boston, MA:

The kickoff event brought together research experts, law enforcement practitioners, policy makers, and community organizations from across the Commonwealth. During the meeting, project partners discussed their ideas, questions, and concerns regarding their role in the Shannon Community Safety Initiative. These groups then worked together to develop plans for getting started and moving toward project goals.

Technical Assistance Meeting - Friday, October 6th at Clark University, Worcester, MA:

On October 6th Northeastern University and the Executive Office of Public Safety will sponsor the first technical assistance meeting for Shannon Community Safety Initiative Communities and their Local Action Research Partners. The technical assisatnce sessions will begin with a review of successful and unsuccessful intervention strategies. During the second sessions grantees will discuss the Statewide Gang Definition and Gang Selection Criteria. The afternoon session will focus on action research methodologies for local action research partners.

Click here for a summary of the days events.

Boston, November 16th, 2006: Community Safety Summit II

More than 150 people participated in the November 16 Community Safety Summit, hosted by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) and its Metro Mayors Coalition to advance strategies to combat youth violence and drug abuse in Massachusetts. Participants included municipal and law enforcement officials, community and faith-based leaders, legislators, and other stakeholders from across the state.

Click here for the official press release.

Technical Assistance Meeting - Thursday, January 25th at Northeastern University, Boston, MA:

On January 25th, 2007 Northeastern University and the Executive Office of Public Safety sponsored the second technical assistance meeting for the Shannon Community Safety Initiative Communities and their Local Action Research Partners. The technical assistance session began with a presentation on Utilizing Crime Mapping in an Action Research Model by Jennifer Robinson and Sean Varano. Following this, project partners met up with their research partners to discuss their application of the Shannon Grant. During the afternoon session grantees discussed qualitative research methods and strategies.

Click here for a summary of the days events.

Technical Assistance Session 3 - Friday, April 27th in Weston MA:

Shannon project partners gathered at Northeastern's Henderson House Conference Center. The meeting was comprised of several panels that facilitated discussion on a number of topics. During the first panel, representatives from Lynn, Fitchburg, and Haverhill discussed mentoring and after school programs. The second panel then discussed job training and placement programs. During the third panel, Shannon panelists from Brockton and Lowell discussed serious offender list methodology.

News

2009 News Articles

1. Anti-gang funds get support
   

   By Jim Johnson
   01/21/2009
   Herald Salinas Bureau

   A pair of anti-gang programs will probably get enough county funding to continue their efforts through June amid a flare-up of gang violence that has shaken the county. On Tuesday, during a special budget committee meeting, supervisors Lou Calcagno and Fernando Armenta indicated their support for allocating enough funds for the popular Joint Gang Task Force and Silver Star Gang Intervention and Prevention programs to keep them going through the end of the 2008-09 fiscal year. The full board will vote on the funding proposal, and will likely consider the issue at its regular meeting on Tuesday. Calcagno praised the efforts of Sheriff Mike Kanalakis and Probation Chief Manny Real in slashing the gang task force and Silver Star budgets to the point where the already cash-strapped county could make up the difference. Combined, the programs had been facing a budget deficit of nearly $650,000 for the rest of the fiscal year. Kanalakis said the task force would have run out of money by April 10 without additional funding. The supervisors had already given the two programs half a year's share of funding, plus an extra month's worth of county money to give officials time to come up with a budget reduction plan. The resulting proposed cutbacks narrowed the gap to about $224,000, which the supervisors said they believe the county could cover despite facing a $24.9 million budget deficit this fiscal year and a projected $40 million shortfall in 2009-10. "A couple of weeks ago it looked like doom and gloom," Calcagno said. "I appreciate the sheriff and Manny Real for their efforts. I realize these programs are important, but it comes down to a matter of money." The cuts to the gang task force and Silver Star budgets were given the county staff's blessing via Budget Director Dewayne Woods, who said they appear to meet the terms of the supervisors' instruction to cut costs. But the county's planning and building departments didn't fare so well. Woods said those departments' proposed cutbacks, designed to reduce a budget shortfall of nearly $3.5 million as a result of a major drop in revenue, fell far short of their goal. The departments are proposing a series of cutbacks that would include eliminating 36� positions, deleting temporary staff and closing the Marina permit center, among other measures. But those cuts would only save about $2.18 million. Planning and building officials Mike Novo and Tim McCormick said the departments' revenue streams � which come from permit and project application fees, and the like � always lag well behind the associated work. That leaves those departments to figure out how to continue already paid-for work with lower staffing levels. Meanwhile, the owner of the helicopter company that had its contract for service with the sheriff's office abruptly terminated earlier this month asked the budget committee to address the program's value and effectiveness during a future meeting. Jim Cheatham of Salinas-based Verticare told the committee that his copter service had proven to be "cost-effective" at fighting crime and should be continued. Kanalakis and Sheriff's Advisory Council member Al Saroyan also expressed support for the program, which was caught in the vortex of the $3 million deficit in the Sheriff's Office through the end of June.

2. Some Anti-Gang Workers Tempted Into Old Lifestyle
   

   By Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times
   

   January 13, 2009
   

   Marlo "Bow Wow" Jones was a well-known gang intervention worker in South Los Angeles. Last March, the former member of the Grape Street Crips was working on a gang reduction effort with USC football Coach Pete Carroll. Connie Rice, the prominent civil rights attorney, called Jones a charismatic figure who could bring rival gangs together. Police officers who worked with Jones said he helped prevent retaliatory shootings. But on Saturday, Jones was arrested on charges of robbing and beating a member of the rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony at the Universal City Hilton hotel. His arrest has again shaken the world of gang intervention, which relies on former gang members to help police prevent violence and get gang members out of the life. Jones is the latest of several well-known gang intervention workers to be accused of falling back. And some believe his case underscores the need for changes in the city's gang strategy. Rice, who wrote a lengthy report on Los Angeles' anti-gang strategy last year, said Jones' arrest raises a key question: how to keep former gang members from slipping back into gangs. "He was very useful and made himself a go-to person," Rice said. "He was not a professional. He didn't have the value system of a professional and the dedication of a professional," Rice said. The Rev. Jeff Carr, who oversees the mayor's anti-gang programs, said Jones' arrest is resonating. "They are devastated and worried that their comments will be characterized in the frame of this individual," Carr said. "But that's not the lesson that should be learned." Rice and Carr believe officials need to do more to monitor gang intervention programs, including criminal background checks and drug testing. At the same time, there is a need to build more professionalism by giving gang interventionists a salary, healthcare benefits and training, they said. "This is a more high-risk enterprise than most. It's the reality of the business," Rice said. "We are trying to create a profession here. The [anti-gang] groups are going to stumble. The agencies are going to stumble. This is an experiment," she said. Jones worked for Unity One, a nonprofit anti-gang group based in southern Los Angeles. The group was a subcontractor for the larger Toberman Neighborhood Center. "We want people to know about the good, not just the bad," said Gloria Lockhart, chief executive officer of Toberman Neighborhood Center. "You need to remember the young men who are out there at 2 a.m. after a shooting saving lives by preventing another shooting." But she said her group won't tolerate any criminal behavior. "If you derail, you aren't going to be here," she said. Jones had served seven years in state prison after being convicted of robbery and narcotics charges. Even after he became a gang intervention officer, he continued to have trouble with the law. In October, he pleaded no contest to felony spousal abuse and was placed on five years' probation, according to police and prosecutors. It is unclear, however, whether his colleagues or employees in the gang intervention community knew about the plea. Jones was known to ride with Coach Carroll as he made inroads into the toughest parts of the city with his A Better LA charity, which helps fund Unity One. Last April, it was Jones who provided the escort in a beat-up car as Carroll and a sports columnist for The Times accompanied them into Watts. "Hey man, you're doing great, keep it going," Carroll told Jones. "Coach, thanks," Jones replied. "It's been tough lately . . . we're holding on." (Carroll said he was aware of the situation but declined to comment at this time.) On Jan. 5, Byron McCane, also known as Bizzy Bone, had returned to his room at the Universal City Hilton, where he was confronted by several men who beat and choked him before taking his jewelry, police said. LAPD officials said they are seeking other suspects. Jones was arrested at 8:50 a.m. Saturday in South Los Angeles and is being held on $1.1-million bail at Parker Center Jail downtown. Jones could not be reached for comment. He is far from being the first gang intervention worker to face new accusations. Last summer, Mario Corona, once a top official with the Communities in Schools group that helped ex-gang members secure jobs, was sentenced to 32 months in prison for alleged drug violations. Last year, Hector "Big Weasel" Marroquin, the director of the anti-gang organization No Guns, which the city of Los Angeles once paid $1.5 million to steer Latino youths away from lives of crime, pleaded guilty to illegally selling assault weapons to federal undercover officers and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Councilman Richard Alarcon, who in the early 1980s oversaw the city's role in the countywide gang program for Mayor Tom Bradley, said success in gang intervention always means walking a tightrope. "If you lean too much one way, you aren't trusted by the people you work with," Alarcon said. "If you lean the other way, you run afoul of the law. There's a very difficult balance."
   

   2008 News Articles

3. Mistakes can be Costly, Experts Say
   

   By Nana Littlefield, Union Tribune
   

   July 13,2008
   

   Twenty years ago, the clues pointing to whether someone was a gang member tended to be unequivocal. Certain clothes, gestures and esoteric language clearly revealed a person's gang ties to allies, to rivals and, intentionally or not, to police. These days, the clues are less reliable. Some experts say law enforcement officials face a growing risk of misidentifying people as gang members as aspects of gang culture move into the mainstream. Misidentification can have serious consequences in court, where gang-related crimes can carry stiffer sentences, and on the streets, where imitators could have violent encounters with actual gang members. "Kids act like gangsters who aren't gangsters," said Al Valdez, a sociology professor at the University of California Irvine who specializes in the history and culture of gangs. Valdez testified recently as an expert witness in a high-profile San Diego Superior Court case. Advertisement "Kids mimic what they see," he said. "You see kids flashing gang signs, using words once only associated with gangs. I see that all the time." Some defense lawyers say individuals are often branded as gang members undeservedly, because of the clothes they wear or the neighborhoods where they live. "It's been a problem for a long time, but it's becoming more pronounced as time goes by," said Chief Deputy Public Defender Carl Rusty Arnesen. "The gang look is becoming more popular," he said, adding that the styles that attract attention range from baggy pants or shorts to tattoos and shaved heads. Valdez, a former gang investigator with the Orange County District Attorney's Office, referred to the misidentifications as "false positives." He said he believes an increased potential for false positives has made gang cases more complicated over the past five years. But some local investigators aren't worried. "If it did happen, I think they would be very few and far between," said San Diego police Detective Andrew Spear, who monitors gangs in the city's southeastern neighborhoods. Spear said police keep up to date on gang-related trends through ongoing training and contact with informants. He said investigators are required to follow strict guidelines in order to officially identify a person as a gang member. In San Diego, for example, a person has to meet at least three of nine criteria during a single contact with police to be "documented" as a gang member, or meet at least one of the criteria during three separate contacts. The criteria include wearing gang clothing, displaying hand signs, being seen with other documented gang members and frequenting known gang areas. "If we don't have anything concrete, the person is not going to be documented," Spear said, adding that even if an individual's name is added to the department's gang file, the designation isn't likely to cause problems if that person remains law-abiding. "It's not against the law to be a gang member," he said. Those who are documented but have no further contact with police are purged from the file in five years. Valdez said one popular gang look "baggy pants cropped just below the knee, paired with high socks" came from California prisons. It was a look born of necessity, when prisoners tried to cool off in warm weather without sending an unintended message to fellow inmates. "To show any part of your leg to a man would have been considered a homosexual come-on," Valdez said. "Twenty years ago you would not have seen a non-gang member wearing that." Valdez testified recently on behalf of the defense in a murder case involving five men accused of fatally beating a professional surfer in La Jolla last year. The men were part of a group known as the Bird Rock Bandits, which prosecutors argued was a criminal street gang. According to testimony at a May hearing, the group had a reputation for drinking and starting fights at parties in the affluent neighborhood, and prosecutors charged the men with assault and battery in connection with several altercations dating to 2004. In a video played in court, some of the defendants shouted, "BRB!" and, "Bandits for life!" and displayed hand signs. Valdez said the Bird Rock Bandits case is a good example of a false positive. He testified that the group met a broader, "sociological" definition of a gang, but failed to meet the legal standard. A judge agreed and dismissed gang allegations filed in the case. The allegations, or enhancements, typically increase potential punishments in criminal cases. Four of the five defendants have since pleaded guilty to lesser felonies, leaving one, Seth Cravens, still facing a murder charge. Cravens' case is scheduled to go to trial next month. "The group was a problem," said Valdez, who reviewed evidence in the case before testifying. "(But just) because the group is a problem, we shouldn't stretch the law. We shouldn't make the foot fit into the shoe." Valdez said he supports aggressive prosecutions in gang cases and doesn't believe, based on his experience, that the laws are being stretched on a routine basis. Although he stressed that false positives are a growing problem, Valdez said he is less concerned that people who imitate gang culture will attract police attention. Instead, he said, the problem is that they often draw the ire of actual gang members. "To the real gang member, gang attire is a uniform," Valdez said. "If you look like a gang member, the real gang member has a tendency to do a 'hit up' and ask, 'Where you from?' or, 'Who do you claim?'" The wrong answer could cause a violent response, he said.
   

4. Out of School, Risking Violence Shooting Victims had Poor Attendance, System's Data Show
   

   By Sara Neufeld and Annie Linskey , Baltimore Sun
   

   May 9,2008
   

   Baltimore students who were murdered or shot had poor school attendance before they fell victim to the violence, according to new data released yesterday by the school system and health department. Between 2003 and 2007, 115 youths in Baltimore were killed, and 405 were victims of non-fatal shootings, Health Department figures show. The school system was able to retrieve attendance data going back to 1999 for 391 of the 520 total victims. The Health Department pooled the data from the two agencies. The youths were absent from school an average of 46 days annually, and more than two-thirds of them had been suspended or expelled at least once. The data are intended to illustrate the public health implications of truancy and suspension as city schools chief Andres Alonso tries to get the entire community involved in improving Baltimore's educational system. Alonso also is urging principals to find alternatives to suspension for nonviolent offenses to keep students off the streets. "Many, many of our students end up as victims of homicides and shootings, and we see the correlation to the fact that they're not in school," Alonso told reporters yesterday. He said what's happening to those students is "a dereliction of duty" by the community. The release of the information comes on the heels of several high-profile incidents of violence involving Baltimore's schools and students, which prompted Alonso to issue a public call for community volunteers. In the latest incident, a mother interrupted a class yesterday morning at Calverton Elementary/Middle and started a fight with the teacher. Calverton has been under lockdown twice in the past month because of shootings in the neighborhood, and on Sunday, two 13-year-old students allegedly broke into the school, and one has been accused of trying to rape a staff member who was there doing extra work. Among the findings of the review, which examined the attendance files of 83 homicide victims and 308 non-fatal shooting victims: - Youths who became victims of homicides and shootings attended an average of 105 days of school per academic year, an attendance rate of 68 percent. While an academic year has 180 days, the students were enrolled for an average of only 151 days, likely indicating that they were frequently moving between schools. - Before the homicide or shooting, 261 victims - 67 percent - were suspended or expelled at least once. - Victims who were suspended or expelled had an average of 2.2 suspensions or expulsions per academic year. They missed an average of 14.6 days of school per year because of suspensions and expulsions. "Problems with attendance, suspension, and expulsion place youth at risk not only for school failure, but also for severe injury or death from violence," wrote the city's health commissioner, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, in a letter to Alonso detailing his staff's findings. In the letter, Sharfstein says it's likely that the results are underestimates, in part because the review did not include suspensions that schools imposed but did not report to the system's central office. Sharfstein and Alonso said they are continuing to merge data from their two departments to show the broader implications of what happens - or doesn't happen - in schools. Alonso has faced criticism within the system for urging principals to find alternatives to suspension for nonviolent offenses. While he has been clear that schools must suspend students for violence, some have taken his guidance as a directive not to suspend at all. But Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III applauded Alonso's efforts. "When these kids are suspended or expelled, they don't volunteer their time in a soup kitchen," Bealefeld said. "They wait outside the school or just outside the school property and victimize the other kids. That is what they do. He [Alonso] knows that, I know that, all the kids who go to the school know that." Bealefeld said that the police department can help by stepping up truancy arrests and targeted juvenile arrests. He said the findings of the review are consistent with what he sees in the streets. "I am not surprised that bad kids don't go to school," he said. "I'm not surprised that the victims of homicides get in trouble in schools. I don't think it is news, but what is newsworthy and what is a positive thing in this whole situation is Dr. Alonso's commitment to fixing something that has problems." Next academic year, as principals have more control over their individual school budgets, Alonso has urged them to use their discretionary money to develop in-school suspension programs. The link between school attendance and homicide is clear in the case of Barbara Griffin, an 18-year-old who was shot and killed last summer outside West Baltimore's Bentalou Elementary School. As a sixth-grader, Griffin transferred to four different schools and was suspended for bringing a knife to school. At the time of her death, she was enrolled in Woodbourne Day School, which serves students with emotional problems. She was enrolled there, off and on, for four and a half years and advanced only from ninth grade to 10th grade in that time. Meanwhile, she joined a Bloods gang and ran wild on the streets as her family slipped into poverty. Her murder case remains open. In late November last year, Ty'wonde M. Jones, 13, was stabbed to death, and his body was found in a Park Heights alley. The boy was among the youngest homicide victims of 2007. When he was in elementary school, he had excelled. But entering seventh grade at Garrison Middle School, he began staying out late at night and hanging out with a rough crowd. "I talked to him. I punished him. I grounded him," his grandmother, Annabel Jones-Tillman, told The Sun after he died. About a week before he was killed, Ty'wonde was suspended because he and some other kids jumped and beat another boy at school. His suspension hearing was set for the week after his death.
   

5. Youth Workers Press Mass for Funds
   

   By Peter Schworm, Boston Globe
   

   March 31,2008
   

   Block by block, day after day, James Davis walks the Chelsea streets where he grew up. A former convict who is now a youth outreach worker, Davis preaches to drug dealers and gang members about avoiding the mistakes he made and rising above the streets that once dragged him down. More stories like this "They're going through the same thing I went through," he said. "We just try to tell them there's a different way to live and we're here to help you. We meet them where they're at." For "hard-headed" teenagers he works with, youth programs are pivotal, potentially their best hope for a better life, he said. Davis, a 23-year-old who works for Roca, a Chelsea youth development organization, will join hundreds of other youth workers at a State House rally today in a show of support for increased funding for violence prevention programs. Sponsored by a coalition of 25 community and youth organizations, the rally marks the beginning of National Youth Violence Prevention Week. Governor Deval Patrick, Attorney General Martha Coakley, Executive Office of Public Safety and Security Secretary Kevin Burke, and Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis are scheduled to speak at the 1:30 p.m. event. In the coming weeks, lawmakers will debate Patrick's budget, which calls for increased spending on a range of outreach, mentoring, substance abuse treatment, and jobs programs aimed at reducing youth violence. With the state facing a budget gap of more than $1 billion, the extent of funding for such programs is in question, and advocates say they worry the Legislature will not consider it a pressing priority. In response, youth advocates, law enforcement officials, and teenagers affected by drugs and gang violence from cities across the state, including Lowell, New Bedford, Brockton, and Springfield, plan to showcase successful antiviolence programs. "It's definitely a statewide problem, not just a Boston problem," said Emmett Folgert, director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative. "We now know where and when violence is likely to happen with a level of specificity we've never had before, and when you have that level of specificity, you can do something." Youth advocates say focused community programs are a proven way to reduce inner-city crime, drug addiction, and poverty. Mentoring troubled teenagers, helping them finish school and find jobs, and showing them alternatives to dealing drugs and running with gangs can steer them away from crime, advocates say. James Davis said that although teenagers and young adults sometimes think of outreach workers as "Roca police," and are slow to trust them, they are more likely to respect those who have shared their experiences. Strong, stable relationships with adults, Folgert said, is by far the most accurate predictor of whether a teenager will succeed as an adult. With more generous funding, youth organizations could follow law enforcement's lead in targeting high-crime areas and provide teenagers in those neighborhoods with a range of prevention programs, Folgert said. "We need to give people in the dangerous places safe places to go," he said. Folgert praised $1.6 million in new grant funding from the state Department of Public Health, announced in November, as a major advance for community prevention programs that has prompted immediate gains. In Lowell, for example, a $160,000 Department of Public Health grant helped the United Teen Equality Center expand peacemaking efforts among rival gangs blamed for the bulk of the city's violence. After hiring more outreach workers, center officials were able to create a citywide coalition that arranged dozens of meetings and three summits between gang leaders. Gregg Croteau, the center's executive director, said efforts at broad change, while successful, will take time to make lasting progress. "Funding for us needs to reflect the context of the services, and there's still a lot more work ahead," he said. "Change takes a significant amount of time and takes a major investment." Lewis Finfer, director of Massachusetts Communities Action Network, said advocates have been pressing lawmakers for increased spending for several months. Specifically, they are calling for boosting the budget for antigang violence from $11 million to $15 million; for youth development programs from $2 million to $7 million; for summer jobs for teenagers from $6.7 million to $9.2 million; and for after-school programs from $2 million to $14 million. Relatively modest investments in reaching out to at-risk adolescents, Finfer said, can yield profound dividends. He urged lawmakers to consider raising taxes on cigarettes and corporations, or dipping into reserves, to increase funding. Frank Garvin, a former police chief in Chelsea who now works at Roca, said outreach workers are addressing the root causes of inner-city violence and drug abuse. "They're going to the heart of the problem," he said. "They take the kids from dysfunctional families, the kids who no one wants, and they embrace them. When you intervene in their lives, you give them a little hope."
   

   2007 News Articles

   1. Gang Violence Still an Issue in Boston and local Cities
      

      By Lisa Granshaw
      

      October 3, 2007
      

      "The majority of violent crimes are not known to be or believed to be gang-related, [but I'm] not going to hide that it happens," Upton said. Even so, the "not known" category may be more expansive than imagined. The Boston Police Department has estimated, for example, that while 27 percent of shootings in Boston in 2005 were attributed to gang violence, 55 percent or more would be a better guess. Regardless of how prevalent the violence is, a number of local initiatives aim to curb whatever remains of a gang presence in Somerville. The Charles E. Shannon, Jr. Community Safety Initiative is one component of this anti-gang campaign. Run through the Executive Office of Public Safety, it received $11 million in Governor Deval Patrick's May budget. Somerville received $86,610 in Shannon grants for this year, $48,000 of which went to the Somerville Police Department (SPD). The rest went to Teen Empowerment. While Somerville has not received its allocation for next year, city Public Information Officer Jackie Rossetti expects that it will be similar to last year's. With the help of these funds, the SPD has added a number of its own programs with anti-gang goals. One of them brings local fourth and fifth grade students to the station to interact with officers and learn about gangs, crisis management and other issues. "Mostly we're targeting kids before they get into gangs as opposed to after because it's too late at that point," Upton said. With the help of these programs, Somerville has been able to cut down on its gang activity. McLaughlin believes that because of them MS-13 has less authority in East Somerville and the youth center, one of its former strongholds, is "safe" again. Part of the success, especially that of TE, stems from Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone's commitment to youth programs as a solution to gang violence. "A main focus of my administration has always been to increase and improve youth services," Curtatone said in an e-mail. He has attended some of the events sponsored by TE, including last spring's Youth Peace Conference, which focused on issues such as street violence and what could be done to stop it. Even though there has been a decrease in the violence, McLaughlin says the biggest problem facing Somerville now is the "sense of hopelessness" that residents feel. Curtatone, however, disagreed. "I feel very strongly that 'hopelessness' would be absolutely the wrong label to apply to the attitude of the young people I see today in our schools, in our streets and in our community groups," he said. "I see hope and promise in the faces of our city's young people."
      

   2. Malden Gets Anti-Gang Funding
      

      By Amanda J. Mantone/amantone@cnc.com
      

      Fri Sep 14, 2007
      

      Malden - Malden streets could be getting a whole lot safer this year, thanks to a grant designed to combat youth crime and prevent gang violence. Malden is one of 39 communities scheduled to receive state funding through the Senator Charles E. Shannon, Jr. Community Safety Initiative, Senate Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei, R-Wakefield, and Representatives Christopher G. Fallon, D-Malden, Paul J. Donato, D-Medford, and Stephen Smith, D-Everett, announced this week. The legislators said Malden and eight surrounding communities will share an $822,000 grant awarded recently by the Executive Office of Public Safety to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. The funds will be used to sustain a variety of youth violence prevention initiatives and to promote local law enforcement efforts targeting gang violence. After Gov. Deval Patrick failed to fund the $11 million program in his FY08 budget proposal, Malden�s State House delegation worked closely with colleagues in the House and Senate to restore the money. Thanks to their efforts and the lobbying of the Metro Mayors Coalition, the funding was reinstated in a supplemental budget signed by the governor on May 16. The best way to combat youth crime and gang-related violence is through a coordinated response involving law enforcement, local schools, government agencies and community-based organizations, said Tisei. pleased we were able to deliver additional state funding to help Malden continue its efforts to address this serious problem and make the community safer.� �This is one of the largest public safety grants given out this year by the Office of Public Safety,� said Fallon. �In my discussions with Chief (Kenneth) Coye of the Malden Police Department and Chief Mazzie of the Everett Police Department, this additional state funding comes at a very opportune time. I have no doubt that this additional aid will be used judiciously to make our community a safer place to live.� Although Malden�s share of the funding has not yet been determined, it is expected that a portion of the money will be used to fund a gang officer and school resource officer. The remainder of the funding will be devoted to prevention programs, including a youth after-school program. �The late Senator Charles Shannon was a close personal friend of mine who really understood the issue of youth violence,� said Donato. �I am pleased that my colleagues and I were able to restore this money that I feel will have a positive impact on Malden�s public safety.� �Once again we are pleased that the city of Malden has continued to receive state funding via the Shannon Grant, which continues to help communities with their public safety initiatives, said Smith. The Shannon grant program is named for the late Senator Charles E. Shannon, Jr., who served in the Massachusetts State Senate from January of 1991 until his death in April of 2005. A 20-year veteran of the Lexington Police Department, Shannon had worked on a series of legislative initiatives to combat gang violence in Somerville during his tenure in the Senate. Shannon grants are awarded to communities based on factors such as the local crime rates for violent and property-related crimes; the percentage of the population that is between the ages of 15 and 19; and the homicide victim rate among young people. Throughout the last two years, the grant program has reached out to 7,100 Massachusetts youths and helped to fund the creation of dozens of new programs across the state.
      

   3. GOVERNOR PATRICK ANNOUNCES $15 MILLION FOR STATEWIDE ANTI-CRIME INITIATIVES
      

      Posted by John Hosty-Grinnell: Live, Love and Learn
      

      Thursday, May 10, 2007
      

      BOSTON � Thursday, May 10, 2007 � Prior to the first meeting of the new Anti-Crime Council, Governor Deval Patrick today announced a $15 million anti-crime plan to put more police on the street and to combat youth violence across Massachusetts. �With summer school vacation just around the corner, communities struggling with gang and gun violence must have the resources they need to keep their streets safe,� Governor Patrick said. �We want our kids to make positive choices in life, and our job, not just as government officials but as adults, is to create safe spaces for them to exercise those good choices.� A supplemental budget to be filed today includes $11 million for grants under the Senator Charles E. Shannon Community Safety Initiative and $4 million for the hiring and training of new police officers. �Our response to crime must be firm. The funds we are putting on the table will allow new well-trained, well-equipped officers to provide a familiar presence in communities, a proven strategy in stemming gang violence,� Governor Patrick said. �I look forward to quick and favorable consideration by the Legislature, and to working with members to get this money to communities that urgently need it.� The Shannon grants, administered by the Executive Office of Public Safety, are to be awarded to communities based on risk assessments that took into account the city or town�s violent and property crime rates, the percentage of population between the ages of 15 and 19 and the number of young homicide victims. The grants cover a range of proven crime-fighting activities including but not limited to increased surveillance and patrolling of hot spots, youth outreach and mentoring, after-school programs, tutoring, drug treatment, job training and placement, GED programs and community-wide anti-gang meetings. �As incidents of violent crime continue to escalate throughout the Commonwealth, it is important that those who are fighting back have the resources to address this problem on all fronts,� said House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi. �The Shannon Grant funding we approved last year has already helped take gangs and guns off our streets and this swift, united action from state government will ensure there are no gaps in these critical programs as we head into the summer.� �The senseless violence that is threatening many of our neighborhoods is alarming,� said Senate President Therese Murray. �The Shannon grant program not only provides valuable funding for outreach programs and community policing initiatives, it also signals our willingness to partner with cities and towns to battle a rising tide of violence.� Since its creation in 2005, the Shannon initiative has helped reach out to an additional 7,100 youths through programs that were either started or expanded through the grants. At least 37 new programs were created with the assistance of Shannon grants. �This is a great day for public safety in Massachusetts. The Governor has made good on his promise to aid cities and towns, and Boston in particular, with more resources to attack violence in our neighborhoods and I thank Governor Patrick for delivering,� Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. �This legislation will help Boston put 70 new police officers on the street and will continue to fund the Shannon Grant, which allows cities and towns to fund vital community programs.� The new, multi-agency, multi-disciplinary Anti-Crime Council is part of the Patrick Administration�s comprehensive strategy to combat violent crime in the Commonwealth. The council will focus on the present challenges facing crime victims, social service providers and Massachusetts law enforcement organizations. The council will produce coordinated law enforcement, including strategies for intercepting gun and drug trafficking as well as for early intervention and prevention. The Administration also has filed anti-crime legislation to limit gun purchases to one per month; to mandate post-release supervision and reentry support for all inmates sentenced to state prisons and county jails; to require felony punishment for using a firearm in a crime of violence; and to add firearm offenses to the list of crimes where, after a dangerousness hearing, a person can be held without bail pending trial
      

   4. With Increased Violence, Antigang Funding Gets a Push Dozens Rally at State House for State Grants
      

      By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff
      

      March 30, 2007
      

      Amid a rash of recent violence, dozens of district attorneys, police chiefs, city officials, and community workers from urban areas around the state gathered at the State House yesterday to press lawmakers to continue funding antigang efforts. Last year, as Boston and other cities in Massachusetts struggled with increased gun and gang violence, the state launched an $11 million program that provided grants to police departments and nonprofit organizations for antigang law enforcement, intervention, and prevention. But Governor Deval Patrick did not include money in his proposed budget for the Shannon Community Safety Initiatives. Instead, he budgeted extra money to put more police officers on the streets, as he had promised to do in his campaign. Urban public safety officials and youth workers consider the antigang effort a priority because it encourages law enforcement personnel to collaborate with public health and social service workers. "We have a culture of guns, and we have a mentality around respect that can only be answered by violent activity," said Police Commissioner Ed Davis. Refunding of this grant is extremely important to the level of violence and the level of gang activity that occurs in our community," he said . In his campaign, Patrick pledged to add 1,000 new police officers to the streets. But with the state facing a budget gap of more than $1 billion, he settled for adding 250 new officers in his first budget proposal, paid for in part by eliminating legislative earmarks, money set aside by lawmakers for specific purposes, for public safety programs across the state. Kevin M. Burke, secretary of public safety, said the governor's plan would help stem gang violence, too. "When the money is put where it's needed, it will be put in places where it can affect gang violence and gun-related violence, so it's not contrary to anything under the Shannon grants," he said. But lawmakers have expressed strong opposition to Patrick's elimination of the earmarks. And yesterday, advocates of the Shannon grant program said solving the gang problem could not be done with police alone. "It is a blended approach, an approach that combines prevention with smart enforcement, taking those individuals off the street who are most likely to commit crime," Davis said. In the last year, Boston received $3 million in Shannon grants; the money was spent in a variety of ways. One program helps adult offenders settle back into the community after leaving prison; another places social workers in district police stations to work with youths who are arrested by the police. Trauma training in neighborhoods with high violence rates and technology for police intelligence gathering were also funded . At yesterday's press conference, Hasaan Seales, 18, of Roxbury, said that the Youth Opportunity Boston program helped him turn away from street life. He is now working, helping on a botany project at Franklin Park, and is about to start studying for his GED. "These people here, they saved my life," he said. The Shannon grants also pay researchers to study the effectiveness of the grants. Burke said that the governor's approach might indirectly help communities pay for nonlaw enforcement antigang efforts by allowing them to redirect money they would have otherwise spent on an officer's salary. Advocates of the Shannon Grant program said they are optimistic that the House and Senate would restore or perhaps even increase funding for Shannon grants in their budget proposals. "I believe that at a time when crime, in particular youth crime, is spiking and we are looking for ways to reduce violence in urban neighborhoods, that we have in front of us the answer in a program that has proven itself," said state Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, cochairman of the Legislature's Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee and a sponsor of the antigang initiative. The program is named after the late Senator Charles E. Shannon Jr., a Winchester Democrat who was a police officer in Lexington for 20 years before becoming a state legislator. He died in April 2005.
      

      2006 News Articles

      1. Chief plans mentoring program for youth
         

         By Kyle Alspach, Sentinel & Enterprise
         

         August 22, 2006
         

         Police Chief Edward Cronin has said that he plans to use some of the funds provided by the Charles E. Shannon Community Safety Initiative to help pay for full-time mentors in the Fitchburg region. Fitchburg, along with Leominster and Gardner, was awarded $175,000 to aid in its gang prevention efforts. Instead of just suppressing the gang violence, Cronin seeks to prevent the crime problem, which often begins at a very young age. The Spanish-American Center in Leominster is expected to receive funds to hire two full-time mentors to work with between 40 and 80 at risk middle and high school-aged teens. The Fitchburg High School Principal Richard Masciarelli also hopes to initiate a teacher-mentorship program in the fall with the eventual goal of every student having a mentor.
         

      2. November 16th, MAPC Press Release - Community Safety Summit II

      3. November 16th - At Summit On Youth Violence, Program Backers Urged To Show Their Results (State House News Service)

         By Priscilla Yeon

         State House News Service

         Roxbury, Boston, November 16, 2006

         At a summit on youth violence held at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center, Senate President Robert Travaglini said that community activists, mayors and law enforcement agents need to show their current initiatives are successful to receive further funding. Last year the Senator Charles Shannon Community Safety Initiative was approved; this gave $11 million in funding to pay for programs to steer young people away from violence. Community members now wish to expand the grant to continue their initiative. However, Travaglini said that the economy will face a "downturn," increasing the competition for state budge funds, but if the communities keep on working collaboratively and getting results "I'll keep the dough coming, fair enough"?

         So far the Shannon grants have been used to increase the number of summer jobs by 16% and in the next few months will allow the city to hire 25 at-risk teens to engage in a city-wide peace conference to talk about youth violence. The grant has also allowed for better communication between police officers and kids to dispel "fear and mistrust" among the community. Thus far youth arrests have decreased 34% and kids in extra-curricular activities have increase from 58% in 2004 to 63% in 2006. There have also been apparent decreases in gang violence in Lowell, New Bedford and Boston. If results are to continue then it is important that this model of partnership among the community be maintained, said Jack McDevitt, director of the Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University.

      4. November 17th - Antigang Initiative Works, Say Law Officials (Boston Globe)

         By April Simpson, Globe Staff

         November 17, 2006

         Massachusetts law enforcement officials and political leaders told a public safety meeting that state antigang grants are helping their communities combat violence and more funding is needed, the Boston Globe reports. More than 100 police chiefs, district attorneys, legislators, and other officials gathered yesterday to discuss the benefits of the Senator Charles E. Shannon Jr. Community Safety Initiative, $11 million in anti gang grants that support regional approaches to addressing youth violence. Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said his city's grant has had big results, with more students enrolled in extracurricular activities and fewer teen suicides, drug overdoses, and youths joining gangs. "Thanks to this initiative our officers have gotten a chance to meet and patrol together weekly," Curtatone said. "We share information to officially address problem areas before incidents occur." Said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino: "It's not just going to be about 1,000 more police; it has to be intervention, and prevention, and enforcement."

      5. Urban Institute Panel Disputes Notion of Growing Youth Crime Wave (summary)

         NCJA Justice Bulletin

         November/December 2006

         A panel of experts convened on behalf of the Urban Institute to discuss the recent media attention being given to the potential of a juvenile crime surge. The panel raised concern of the misuse of statistics by the media to present them in a manner with which to elicit the greatest response from the public. The panel argued that this misinterpretation commonly leads to an unnecessary fear of crime and subsequent pressure on policy makers to focus on enforcement rather than preventative measures. Although there has been an increase in arrests the panelists believe that this may not be associated to an increase in crime at all. Rather, the statistics may imply that law enforcement officers are simply bolstering suppression oriented operations which yield more arrests. Panelists argue that in order to better address the problem of juvenile crime, the juvenile justice system must adjust its focus from incarcerating youth to establishing more preventative programs that will decrease the likelihood of recidivism among these youth.

      6. State Crime Forum Hails Lowell's Gangs Strategy
         

         By Rick Heller, Lowell Sun
         

         November 17, 2006
         

         On November 17, 2006 mayors, law enforcement officials and community leaders met with an audience of 200 people at Roxbury Community College's Reggie Lewis Center to share strategies for combatting gang and youth violence. Lowell was recognized for its significant decrease in gang violence as a result of its collaboration with the Asian community; emphasizing "the importance of partnerships with federal law enforcement." Last year Lowell received $820,000 as a result of the Shannon grants, which it used to increase patrols and initiate a program to prevent school truancy. Senate President Robert Travaglini also made reference to the Shannon grants which allowed for programs such as these to occur. The grants, which amounted to $11 million were awarded to communities with the goal of reducing gang and youth violence. Upon receiving an award, Travaglini made the comment that "if you demonstrate to us that this collaborative continues to work...I'll keep the dough coming."

      7. Mylott, Cronin Attend Boston Teen Violence Conference
         

         By Rick Heller, Sentinel & Enterprise
         

         November 17, 2006
         

         Two-hundred officals, including Mayor Dan H. Mylott and Police Chief Edward Cronin of Fitchburg, met at "Roxbury Community College's Reggie Lewis Center to hear speakers emphasize the need for partnerships between law enforcement and community groups." Among these speakers was Sayra Pinto, executive director of the Twin Cities Latino Coalition, who emphasized that youths need to be thought of as "partners rather than problems." Police Chief Edward Cronin also spoke, describing how his department uses funding from the Charles E. Shannon grants to provide extra patrols to hot spots such as the Heath Street Area. He also spoke about how although the problem in his area is primarily with at-risk youth, that early intervention will mean fewer of them get in trouble.
         

      8. AG Pushes For Action Against Gangs
         

         By Rita Savard and Kyle Alspach, Sentinel & Enterprise
         

         December 16, 2006
         

         U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales spoke at the Second Annual Anti-Gang Summit at the Boston Convention Center promising more funding to anti-gang programs as a resutlt of the increase in violent crimes that have occured in Massachusetts. He also noted that because police resources are currently being stretched, it is extremely important for the community to join "the effort to deter youth from choosing a life of crime." To assist in this effort, the Fitchburg, Leominster, and Gardner Police Departments have banded together to form an anti-gang partnership. This effort received $175,000 of funding from the Charles E. Shannon Community Safety Initiative and has enabled them to increase "patrols in crime hot spots as well as fund a mentorship program for at-risk youth." The city of Lowell also received a grant, amounting to $820,000, from the Charles E. Shannon Initiative, which has allowed them provide new recreational programs, truancy prevention programs, and job opportunities to the city's youth. Currently they have succeeded in bringing back 71 students to school and 300 teens to the recreational programs as well as provide an additional 59 jobs. Gonzales concluded his speach by saying that although a tough challenge lay ahead, "a network of law enforcement and community is stronger than violence."