court cases, granted, it doesn't represent the full universe of cases, and we found that across 37 cases, of all of those cases, just one made it through the appeals process. so four to six could make it through the first round in the court. but by the circuit court review, there was only one that succe succeeded and the final value reward for the plaintiff was $34,000. so it was kind of mind boggling that 37 deaths in situations that weren't simple kids just taking opportunity, there were signs and there were rules that had been violated and gross negligence, just $34,000, which to me, and i'm sure to you, certainly does not validate the loss of the life of this young

person. there are differences between circuit courts, but i'm not going to go deeply into this. finalizing today's lecture is what happens if we state the status quo? what if we just do nothing and keep the system as it is? well first of all, we're not saving any money by continuing to not invest federal dollars. taxpayers are still going to foot the bill regardless. whether we're doing it through paying hospitals, through paying through loss of community stability, through loss, inability to be gainfully employeed, so there's no gain there. we haven't seen any reductions despite the general reductions in some areas of crime. for a serious violence and

that's a significant warning sign. so we might be happy the crime rate has been reduced in some areas, that know that we have seen increases and particularly property crime, we know that the serious violence for youth is not decreasing. so, here, the investment is much better in prevention than it is in the so-called treatment, which is what we consider incarceration and the like. and what we also consider is the fact that we seriously underestimated the public's willingness to pay for prevention up front, so when we have lawmakers sticking with the slogans of get tough on crime and reform this, three strikes that and wave kids to criminal court and do all that, we're really doing a disservice to the public and we're really underestimating their ability to understand what it is that they can contribute through taxpayer dollars to making a better life

for these kids who in the end of the day, they are going to be responsible for any way. and so with the final plug, rational legislation is probably the only thing that can help us at this point. what's promised in the youth promise act is everything we need to guide states to provide guidance to achieve binding stn zards with the state's locality, to allow local decisions to benefit from local strengths and assets and to bolster what we've already invested in other social programs like head start and nurse home visiting. and also anticipate further risks to human rights is a system that continues to adjust to the loss of economic -- so the california closing facilities, which is great news, other states closing prisons, we are still going to be addressing the ramifications. crowding and the subsequent violence that will take place

and we can anticipate that. i'll leave it and say thank you very much and i'm very honored to be here. >> thank you very much. now, do you got to make your slides available so we can put them on our website? >> absolutely. >> okay, it will be on our website. also, appreciate the fact that you're talking about, the programs you're talking about are primary prevention which will reduce crime and teen pregnancy and dropouts. you point out we're paying already in hospital costs, for prisons, particularly youth prisons, around $100,000 a more per year. the cost in teen pregnancy, medicaid and social services and so like you said, we're already paying. thank you very much. dr. lee.

>> hi, i'm jorja leap and i'm honored, but i'm embarrassed to tell you that while i am a professor, what i do -- okay, i'm a different type of scientist. i'm an an throw poll gist. most go to foreign countries and study tribes. my tribe consists of the young people who have either been in gangs, are in gangs or are thinking about joining gangs. i do my work in the city of los angeles and as you know, most people think of it as ground zero for gangs. one out of every gang member in the united states of america resides in los angeles, so i have a lot of people to observe and a lot of people that i spend my time with, who i talk with, who i live with, who are my sisters and brothers, my god

children and they are my guides. i've interviewed and done life histories on over 300 gang members and i think it's very important, we've heard a lot of stories here today and we're going to hear a lot of stories here today, but i wanted to mention a group that hasn't been mentioned, which are women and young girls. i'm looking at some of your faces knowing that your sisters are a part of gangs or at risk for joining gangs in our country as well as transnationally right now. now, as i've listened to these voices that we rarely hear and we're so lucky to hear them today, as i listen, there's a young man who was 18 years old. one month past his 18th birthday, he was facing life in prison without the possibility of parol. precisely like mr. hill harper,

offered the account of in that letter. his entire life was gone one month after his 18th birthday and he asked me a question. he said why wasn't there anyone to tell me there was another way to go? and his question has haunted me. i am sorry to be here talking in support of the youth promise act. let me tell you why i'm sorry. i was here over three years ago talking in support of the youth promise act. why am i still here talking in support of this? why isn't it already funded? you are going to hear from panelist and you have heard from panelists who are telling the truth. they are armed with statistics, information, i can tell you what i am armed with from the streets. i am armed with these words, why isn't there another way?

i am armed with the stories of people like a young woman i know named dark eyes who committed our first crime when she was 10 years old. her father belonged to a gang, her mother was a drug dealer, her brothers and sisters were all in gangs. why wasn't there another way? to ask that question, for the past three and a half year, i've been engaged in the -- father greg boyle, an amazing man, was on capitol hill at the time talking about the promise act. for three years, i have stud dud i home boy industries. i was very honored for the visit. the largest gang intervention agency in the united states of america.

mentoring, therapy, counseling, education, job training and a place to belong. after three years and the study is going to last at least five years, i have been following gang members for these past three years. 300 of them. two-thirds of them have not gone back to jail. 200 have not gone back to prison. really. the reason why is that home boy offer what is the youth promise act talks about and it can only reach 400 people. that is all the funding they have. the need is so great. the funding is small and we have to ask ourselves why aren't we doing better by our children? i have been honored to work with

one of the most gang infested housing prokts in the united states of america. every wednesday night, i go there with a group of men who are gang members who want to make sure their children do not join gangs. even gang members look for something like the youth promise act. i can tell you what it takes. it takes community involvement. it takes former gang members and former incarcerated youth to reach out because they have street credibility. it takes professionals, therapists, doctors, lawyers, who can exsponge records and it takes research like what dr. gallagher is doing, what i am doing, what a lot of researchers across the country are doing. we know it's best practices. everyone in this audience knows

it's best practices without having read a scholarly article or looked at statistics, it is pure common sense. to incarcerate a youth in california takes $180,000. to put them through the program at home boy industries for one year, full time, costs $30,000. i am not a math whiz. i can tell you one is cheaper than the other. what are we doing? why am i still here? why are we talking about the youth promise act? we have to engage and make sure this becomes public policy law and is funded. we need to think about how many poets we have lost. how many doctors we have lost. how many musicians we have lost. how many scientists have we lost. who has died because this act is

not yet law? what is the matter with us? i want everyone to leave this room thinking of the question that was asked of me. thinking about what a young boy, a young boy who is facing the rest of his life in prison, asked me. we have to all engage and work unceasingly to make this act law. we have to think of that question. why wasn't there someone to show me another way? we have to dedicate ourselves to no child, no youth, no young adult, ever asking that question again. i would urge you to talk one another. i would urge you to listen to these voices. i would urge you to read all of the books that are talked about.

i would also urge you to listen to what this young man had to say and other young men like him had to say. all to just find an answer to that question. why wasn't there someone to show me another way? i'm glad you're all here. i'm glad we're engaged in this research. i'm glad we are in this kind of public policy, but we need to make it the policy of this country. we need to make sure that there are those comprehensive wrap around services, we need to make the youth promise act law. thank you so much. >> chairman, could we add to dr. leap's fine presentation, a request that eon or hears about this afternoon's

activity, check and ask their member of congress where they stand on this subject. >> sounds like a good idea. bobby kipper. >> thank you, congressman scott and for having me to capitol hill to talk about such an amazing i think legislation that i, and with dr. leap, wondering why i'm continuing to come and talk about this. i believe we've been doing this for about two cads or better. we were talking this a long time ago in newport news, virginia. 1977, i joined my hometown police department in newport news. as a third grader, i wanted to be a police officer. i got that opportunity at the

young age of 20. i joined a department and saw a lot of things i thought were very unusual, but remember being judged by the number of people we locked up. a good police officer works in numbers. a good police officer was one who stepped up to the plate and made sure everybody knew who he was in the community not from a peaceful perspective, but from a perspective of making sure that incarceration was at the top of your list. it went on that track for a number of years early in my police career, then was asked by a supervisor to go to one of our local elementary schools, actually a very young primary school, on 16th street in newport news. they wanted me to give a talk on citizenship, so there i was, a young, white police officer

going into a predominantly african-american school of kindergarten through second grade students. i learned this was their graduation and was told this is the first step in a head start program and not being very familiar with educational policy, i had to inquire what that meant. i was told quickly that a number of of these children had not earlier in their education shown promise to be able to achieve those early childhood educational goals. while being a person who questioned just about everything in life, i wondered how that could be, then i was told that many of the children did not have the opportunity to have early childhood education. i began to really understand the terms of injustice and it stung me hard that day, but i did something that most people should not do. i asked at that particular gathering if any of these young people had any questions. well, as you know, 5 to

7-year-old questions don't have questions, they have a lot of stories and they all began to raise their hand one by one, i was listening to stories about their life. i was getting ready to wrap up and one little girl, i'll never forget her face. she said at night, mama forces me to sleep under my bed. and i looked at her and just a surprised look, child abuse or neglect, to went to her again and said, what is your name? she said, my name is keyshah. i said, what did you say? she said at night, mama makes me sleep under my bed so when the bullets come in from those mean drug dealers shoot, they won't hurt me. i don't know whose eyes watered up more, mine or hers. that what we had done and what i had established as a career goal was not working.

i knew that day that we would not arrest our way on this problem. that we had to find other solutions for the community. i began to believe the only way to fight crime in communities is by improving the quality of life inith being put away. it had everything to do with who you picked up and i don't mean picked up from a police perspective, but saw that they had the quality of life to succeed. thus, i went on a campaign as a local law enforcement officer. congressman scott will let you know that i formed a number of prevention programs in our city. we were committed to the message got to every young person. i believe that the power of positive messages came first. in many localties in america, that does not occur. there is not a message of hope

for young people in the community. it's a message of how quickly that can be embraced in these facilities, which we know do not work. had the opportunity shortly after, my retirement, con aware be director of the virginia program. had the honor to serve capacity for almost four years. one day, i was told$2.5 million of federal money to improve the city of richmond. it was about the fifth most violence.city in america by per i was told that i could architect a program, could sort of engineer an effort to bring that crime rate down. put together a program that sort of pushed everywhere that can go and sort of called it the peer program. it was originally called the

peer program out of wa washington, d.c. on prevention f richmond's and intervention. i put most of our $2.5 million in public funding in prevention and intervention and reentry and just a little bit into enforcement because i knew that prevention and intervention and reentry would be the rule of the day to get the job done. i'm proud to sit here today to tell you that richmond's one of five communities in america that's been able to hold their gang issues and their violence we cut violent crime drastically in that city and took it from one of the mostin arica to one thriving cities. many people can me today you did you do this in a community? we built community. we rebuilt the dreams of people in communities. i can tell you we caravans into the probably highest crime areas of that

community and we triaged over 5,000 people. many of those people haven't been to a doctor for years. the community started taking their own community back. they started believing that when you raised a quality of life in citizens, when you raise their hopes, their dreams, especially when they're young, then you do get them to believe in their community and get them to believe in their own life to the point where they seize their neighborhood and call it their own and they become proud of where they live and they do defeat crime. this is what the youth promise act stands for. it's not soft on crime. it's smart on crime. it doesn't have anything to do with just pushing out a program. it makes every community in america responsible for adopting a strategy. we're not passing federal legislation or asking for

legislation to be passed to make sure that this program shines or that program shines, but this legislation is creative in nature. it is the same creativity that i used in the city of richmond to take the city back. i agree with dr. leap. this is a no brainer situation and i have come here today to testify to the fact that i have been on the streets handcuffs myself and i know that you like to hear the rhetoric of three strikes and you're out. we like to hear the rhetoric of charging teenagers at a very young age. you know what educators tell me, this is really fascinating. they say that they spend about 90% of their day in their schools dealing with about 10% o f the population, but what's more important to that statistic is they tell us who that 10% can be.

we can do a lot with technology, i'm here to tell you that i've been a witness, we can do a lot with people, communities and yes, through the evidence based that we talked about here today and pure community strategies which is incorporated in the youth promise act, we can save communities one life at a time. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> you'll tell what grip stands for. >> it's model came out of united states justice department and we took the model and made it a little bit different by calling it peer and that stands for prevention, intervention, reenforcement and reentry.

we'll be glad to give anybody further information on that. >> thank you. and bobby mentioned the richmond program where he spent $2.5 million and they reduced the annual murder rate from 19 to 2. 17 fewer murders. you think of the number of people who are shot and don't die and multiply how many people didn't show up at the medical college of virginia emergency room, trauma unit and hospital, obviously have more than $2.5 million right there, nothing about the reduction in law enforcement expenses.k up all t people. so it's a very successful program. thank you, bobby. >> first of all, chairman, thank you for having me. it's an honor to be here representing the youth promise

act. everyone, welcome. my story takes us back to when i was 15 years old living in california, a suburb just outside of los angeles. there i was riding my bike at a local park with my friends and an officer pulled up right next to us, on to the lawn and just chitchat started. where you guys from, who's your mom, your dad? what school do you go to? by the way, do you mind posing for a photograph. we all did. i think i smiled in mine. what happened soon after that, that photograph was used in a crime investigation about a year after that was snapped where it turns out that a crook officer, deputy sheriff, coerced 15-year-old boys into selecting my photograph, so i was arrested based on that moment, based on that identification of that photograph. i was soon tried as an adult.

i was in adult court, confused, not sure what was going to happen to my life, but i had some sense of what justice was about and i was relying deeply on that. trial started and ended with wrongful conviction. i was sentenced to 30 years to life plus life and spent the next 20 years in pris. not until a woman, an attorney named ellen eggers got involved were they able to prove my innocence. the witnesses who 20 years prior testified against me all recanted, so here i am today. i've been home for one single l year. to the month. i've been home for a year. my story is not basically my story.

it's the story of many people. many young men who i left behind in prison. many adults who have the inner child still damaged and hurting and maybe can never take that back. can never relive that. but there are grown adults now who suffer from a terrible upbringing. since my release, i have jumped right in. i made myself a promise that if and when i ever get out, i would lend my voice and time and dedicate myself to ibs that were close to my heart as is the youth promise act. to my true blessing was i came across professor scott wood and seth winer from the law school center for justice and these men embrace embraced me and i em based them and our mission to restore a number of issues, mainly those involving of youth and the cities, mainly los angeles. i've been spending my time on

youth detention centers of juvenile halls going back and what hurts me so much is to realize that not much has happened in 20 years. i was amazesed at the technology that was transpired since i have been gone. graffiti has dropped in los angeles. the streets seemed a lot cleaner, but at least in my opinion, how we handle youth and make the mistake of thinking that youth can kind of figure out it out themselves and we'll just stand back and let them make a mess of it and then complain. on the way in today, i saw the statue, there was a statue of lady liberty with the light in her hand and there was a young child at the engraving said the spirit of justice and it struck me because there was a child

there and this inscription of you know engraving, the spirit of justice. there it was in the martial form. it bothered me that here i am, this young boy, well, part of me feels like a young boy, but a grown man from los angeles who never imagined being here on capitol hill to witness something of that magnitude and beauty, but there it is and i think that one of the things that the promise act can do is liberate that child and that woman and allow that to just be part of our every day communities. and i think about my youth and how easy it was for not only myself and my community to take on the behavior of a sheep and to be herded around and eventually pinned up and made to feel insignificant, that our voices weren't to be heard, and yo