This article originally appeared in the January-February 2000 issue of the Children's Advocate newsmagazine, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Prevention and early intervention cost less, work better

• The Perry Pre-school study in Ypsilanti, Michigan, showed that children from low-income families who attended a quality preschool were much less likely to be chronic lawbreakers as adults. The study showed that every dollar spent on preschool saved the state $7 in future costs due to crime, health problems, unemployment, etc.
• Syracuse University's Family Development Research Program shows a 90 percent drop in delinquency for kids who participated in quality early childhood programs.
• A study done in Seattle by University of Washington researchers showed that children whose parents and elementary school teachers had been trained in more effective parenting and teaching methods were 19 percent less likely to commit violent acts before they reached age 18.
• High school freshman boys from low-income households who were randomly selected to be part of the Quantum Opportunities afterschool program were one-sixth as likely as nonparticipants to be convicted of a crime during high school and were twice as likely to graduate on time.
• A study by the RAND Corporation found that parent training, graduation incentives, and home-visiting programs for at-risk new mothers were more cost-effective crime prevention strategies than the "three-strikes" law.

Sources: Fight Crime, Invest in Kids; Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, 9/99; RAND Corporation

Books or bars?

• California spends nearly $4 billion a year on prisons. Since 1984, the state has added 21 prisons and only one university campus.
• California already spends more to incarcerate a youth than it does to educate one. The state spends $33,500 a year to house a youth at the California Youth Authority and $5,000 a year to educate one in public school.
• The cost of incarcerating one person for a year is the same as the cost of sending 10 people to community college for a year, five to a California state university, or two to the University of California.

Sources: California Youth Authority; Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice