Gang-prevention program working on slim budget (Fayetteville Observer)

Next year, sheriff’s deputies will likely have textbooks and little else to teach skills to local students that will enable them to steer clear of gangs, alcohol and drugs.

Federal funding for the popular Gang Resistance Education and Training program – known as GREAT – was cut so severely that only about a dozen grants were provided to local communities, said Ron Doyle, the national program manager.

Hundreds of those grants paid for officers to travel to required training, summer camps, T-shirts and other giveaways last year, Doyle said.

“That’s all the money that is left is for – to keep the base infrastructure in place,” Doyle said.

Since 2006, the GREAT budget shrank from $25 million to $10 million. Officials expect the budget will be chopped in half during the next budget cycle – leaving local departments to pick up the slack.

About 500 agencies nationwide – including the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office – take part in the program, Doyle said. A few communities have stopped offering the classes because of budget constraints, Doyle said.

“Obviously, it hasn’t killed it yet,” Doyle said. “There are a lot of communities that are committed to this program.”

Cumberland County’s program started about 10years ago, said Lt. Johnathan Morgan and Sgt. Gary Dukes of the Sheriff’s Office. The men plan to continue the program and a weeklong summer camp for fourth- and fifth-graders. To get logo T-shirts, markers and other extras, deputies are going to reach out to local vendors and raise money, they said.

“This is one of the programs I can say the guys believe in,” Morgan said.

From fall 2007 through fall 2009, about 21,800 local elementary and middle school students took part in the training, the men said.

Six-week classes are taught to elementary students; middle-school students go through a 13-week program. Students learn about conflict resolution, decision making and consequences.

At the end of the class, students receive a certificate, a T-shirt and other items, Morgan and Dukes said. The trinkets help cement lessons learned in the classroom by teaching students that good behavior is rewarded, the men said.

“They light up,” Dukes said. “It’s like a high school student getting their diploma.”

Text and workbooks are provided free through the Institute for Intergovernmental Research – the training arm that is funded through the federal grant.

Mandatory training that each deputy must complete before entering a classroom is free, too. However, training sessions typically fill up fast. Dukes and Morgan said some deputies have been sent to Oregon and the regional training center in Florida.

Nine deputies are scheduled to attend a class in late June in Salemburg. The class has been full for more than a month, Morgan said.

“We’ve had enough requests where we could put a second one in North Carolina if we had the funds to do it, which we don’t,” said Doyle, the national program manager.

Gang affiliation
Over the past few years, the number of children affiliated with gangs has slowly grown, said William Lassiter, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice. Last year, about 9percent of the 20,000 children who entered the juvenile system were associated with a gang, Lassiter said.

About 24 percent of schoolchildren say there is a gang presence in their school, Lassiter said. Programs such as GREAT help stop the spread of gangs by highlighting the consequences associated with joining one or using alcohol or drugs – points that often are not shared by their peers, Lassiter said.

“There’s a whole other, ugly side of it kids don’t hear about,” Lassiter said.

Published: 06:40 AM, Thu Apr 22, 2010
Staff writer Sarah A. Reid can be reached at reids@fayobserver.com, or 486-3569.

Project Safe Neighborhoods targets ‘gun-toting criminals’ (WRAL.com)

Project Safe Neighborhoods is cracking down on gun crime, gangs and repeat offenders in communities across eastern North Carolina, federal prosecutors and local law police officers touted at a press conference Monday.

The operation is a joint effort by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that started in the 1990s.

“We’re here as a team to assist the communities and community organizations to take back these communities from gang members and drug dealers and gun-toting criminals,” said George Holding, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

In the 1990s, the Eastern District prosecuted less than 100 gun crimes a year. Since the creation of the Safe Neighborhoods and Anti-Gang task force, that average has jumped to 300. Last year, the district ranked fourth in the U.S. for firearms prosecutions.

(See cases prosecuted by Project Safe Neighborhoods.)

Convictions for gun crimes in federal court results in significantly stiffer sentences than state courts could impose.

For example, in August, a federal judge sentenced Kendricus Marquell Williams, 21, of Raleigh to 226 years in prison after a jury convicted him of a robbery spree in which a store clerk was shot.

“To be slinging rocks (of crack cocaine) and having guns in your pocket 24-7 will get you 24 years,” Raleigh Police Chief Harry Dolan said. “We’ve got to send that message to change your life and to help so many young people.”

Those stiff sentences are only part of the strategy of Project Safe Neighborhoods, though, officials said.

Team leaders utilize neighborhood outreach programs to reach offenders before they commit serious crimes.

Of a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to Wake County, $1 million is dedicated to gang prevention and $500,000 to anti-recidivism directed at gang members who have served time. Raleigh is focusing its efforts on the southeastern section of the city that has the highest rate of gang-related crime.

“This strategy gives identified offenders a second chance to turn their lives around and become productive citizens,” Holding said in a release.

Reporter: Cullen Browder
Posted: Today at 12:32 p.m.