to reduce gang violence and youth violence. the community would then apply for a grant to implement that policy. one of the interesting aspects of that is the people around the table also have to agree that as they save money, as they will, they will reinvest the money to make sure that the programs can continue after the initial grant. the one question occurs is whether we can afford all of these programs and we would point out that if you just do the back of the envelope arithmetic and look at a 2200 incarceration rate when 500 and above is counterproductive and take those 1700 people that should not be in jail, counter productive incarceration level, and look at the amount of money times $30,000 you're spending, by 30,000 children out of 100,000 people and do the back of the envelope arithmetic, and

you will notice that if you spent the money you're wasting on counterproductive incarceration, you could be spending $5,000 per child every year. with the wasted counterproductive incarceration. you go through that same arithmetic and you find that they are wasting about $10,000 per at-risk child per year. so obviously we're spending the money now, and it's a question not of whether we can afford it but how we spend the money that we're spending. the youth promise act in the last few years has gathered the support of over 250 national, state and local organizations, many cities have passed resolutions endorsing it, including los angeles, and pasadena and san francisco, california, santa may, new mexico, new york, east cleveland, ohio, pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and several cities in virginia. the u.s. conference of mayors at the 77th annual meeting in 2009

adopted a resolution urging the passage of the youth promise act and were working to gather more support today. but we have a distinguished panelists today and before i recognize the panelists let me recognize a couple of people in the audience. judge barnett who is a retired juvenile court judge in washington, d.c., very active in drug prevention, is with us. and aaron voldman with the student peace alliance, is in the audience, he has been very active in helping with the youth promise act. and corinne day la berta with world vision has been helpful. she is in the audience today too. our first panelist we'll hear from is hill harper, an american film, television and stage actor and author. he plays dr. sheldon hawks on cbs drama series csi new york. he created a nonprofit

organization manifest your destiny to provide at risk teens opportunities for empowerment in education and excellence, he is a best-selling author and has written several books including betters to a young brother and letters to a young sister. he's graduated from cum laude from brown university, earned a law degree from harvard law school and master of public administration at harvard university. after we hear from him we'll hear from john pendergast, author who worked for peace in africa, for over 25 years, he has co-founder of the enough project, and initiative to end genocide and crimes against humanity affiliated with center for american progress, he worked for the clinton white house, the state department, two members of congress and many organizations promoting peace and human rights. he's been a big brother for over

25 years, as well as a youth counselor and basketball coach and co-author of 10 books and co-authored unlikely brothers which he has a copy here today. unlikely brothers which with his first little brother in the big brothers program, michael maddux who is also on our panel. michael is the co-author of the unlikely brothers with john pendergast, he emerged from living in a homeless shelter, as a teenage e becoming a husband and father of five boys often work two jobs and once in order to support his family. he helps coach his sons on their football teams. we'll hear from dr. catherine gallagher, the director of the cochran college for policy at george mason university where she is the associate professor of criminology and law in society. her research focuses on

improving the intersection between health care and justice systems to better address the needs of at-risk populations and public health in larger communities. she also provides guidance to numerous federal agencies, holds a ph.d. from the university of maryland. then we'll hear from dr. georgia leap, at ucla, she has worked internationally in violence -- in violence post-war settings with major focus on gangs and youth violence. she serves as senior policy adviser on gangs and youth violence for the los angeles county sheriff, lee baka, a strong supporter of the youth promise act and works with california wellness foundation, the california endowment and the advancement project. she is author of a new book, jumped in, what gangs taught me about violence, drugs, love and

redemption. and we have a copy of that book. then we'll hear from bobby kemper who is a former police officer in newport news, virginia, founder of the national center for the prevention of community violence and best-selling author of no colors, 100 ways to stop gangs from talking -- from taking away our communities. he is also a consultant for universities in our area and for the virginia department of justice. and last, certainry not least, we'll hear from frankie kyrylo, a student at loyola marrymount university in california. after 20 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, he has been exonerated and is now dedicated himself to promoting juvenile and criminal justice

reform. before we hear from our speaker we're going to hear from the now ranking member of the joo judiciary committee, a gentleman from michigan who has a long career of advocating for justice, mr. john conyers. >> thank you, chairman bobby scott. i would ask everyone to give you a round of applause. as a matter of fact, this is a forum. let's thank chairman bobby scott of virginia for all that he's doing. [ applause ] and with the tragic loss of one young man in our country, travon martin, which electrified the nation, here comes chairman bobby scott with a forum on the youth promise act. that's worth another round of applause because it's right on time. [ applause ]

what this bill does is it makes us safer, and on top of it, it's cost effective and it brings greater hope and justice for our youth. as chairman scott said, we incarcerate more people than any other country on earth. and it's way too many and i celebrate what we're doing here today. i close with this observation. hill harper was late coming to this forum, wasn't he. and attorneys bobby vasser and attorney carol is thshadra and e trying to determine if we should issue a warrant or a subpoena to bring him here one way or the other. i'm glad we don't have to do that now and i thank you,

chairman scott. >> thank you, mr. conyers. now for equal time, we recognize hill harper. >> thank you so much, chairman. i was wearing my hoody and i got stopped on the way. you know, it's an honor to appear and speak on behalf of the youth promise act. we talk about educational opportunities, mentoring, intervention and all types of wrap around services for our youth, i'm the founder of a foundation called the manifest your destiny foundation and we seek to serve traditionally underserved youth across this country. and we hope to empower them to give them access to college skill, training, academic programming and also pass along lessons i learned coming out of the public school system and being able to go on as the chairman said to brown and to

harvard for grad school. i wouldn't be able to make that transition from our public school system to these great private institutions if it wasn't for interventionist programs. that served me and helped me overcome certain obstacles that i came across. i want to start my remarks with a letter that i received recently. it's -- you can see it's a handwritten letter from a young man. i get a lot of different types of mail comes through my office and you know, fan mail, folks want csi paraphernalia, all sorts of things. but this particular letter had a very circuitous path. it didn't up directly because this young man didn't have access to finding out where my office or what it was, so this letter went on a very long path and finally found its way to me. i'm going to read a bit of it. to sort of set the stage for my remarks. it reads, dear, hill harper, my

name is brian. i'm 16 years old and i'm in jail. i can't use a computer so i can't e-mail you. i wrote these to some place in new york and i hope and pray the fax these letters to you are given to you some way. because i really want to talk to you about a lot of stuff, hill. i just finished reading your bookleters to a young brother. it's the best book i ever read. so if give you these letter i would like to have your home address so we can correspond back and forth. like you said many young people don't have a role model. i didn't have one. that's why i'm in jail. the letter continues. i want to stop right there. like you said in your book, many young people don't have role models. i didn't have one. that's why i'm in jail. the main focus of my foundation now is to deal with the drop-out crisis in america. as many of you know there is a

direct correlation between the drop-out rates and incarceration rates. if i was to offer up a graph of our increasing drop-out rates in this country and lay it over our increasing incarceration rates those would almost look identical. since there is this relationship and we can identify that it would seem to me if we take a smart approach and step back, let's deal with this drop-out crisis, let's do something. to me, the youth promise act represents that. as was mentioned earlier the u.s. has the highest average incarceration rate in the world and the impact of the focus of the slogan driven law enforcement such as three strikes you're out or do the adult crime you do the adult time, disproportionately falls on minorities, african-americans, and hispanics. the drop-out vat driving the nation's increasing prison populati population, one of the country's costliest problems. researchers at the center for labor market studies at

northeastern found that the collective costs to the nation over the working life of every high school drop-out is $292,000 per person. we lose too many of our youth to a lifetime cycle of incarceration way too early. to me the youth promise act directly addresses these root causes. the promise model intervenes in the lives of our youth before they end up in the juvenile correction facilities which is critical because my foundation we work in conjunction with many juvenile correctional facilities. most of those facilities, unfortunately, they focus on punishment rather than treatment and rehabilitation. and in a certain way, what is sad, they foster environments that often harden our youth, thus making it more difficult for them to productively reintegrate into their families and communities in a healthy way. in a way, this crisis that we're talking about can be called a pipeline from the cradle to the

prison. my work with my foundation and other organizations has proven to me that we can solve this problem, that we can deal with the crisis, and there's overwhelming evidence to show that it is entirely mobile to move children from a cradle to prison pipeline to a cradle to college jobs. pipeline. but to deal with this crisis like any crisis we need all hands on deck. and foundations and nonprofits like mine working in conjunction with private entities, corporations, recently have been working my foundation has been working with at&t and their aspire campaign. they dedicated over five-year period $250 million. corporations are willing and open to help. like at&t. if we come at them with something that is provable. research has shown that youth

who spend time with a caring adult mentor regularly for at least one year are five times more likely to graduate, 46% less likely than their peers to use illegal drugs, 27% less likely to start drinking alcohol, 52% less likely to skip a day of school. without effective intervention as many as 70% of children with incarcerated parents or care givers become involved in the criminal justice system. this letter came from a young man who is incarcerated and i'm going to seek to close with finishing from where i left off. he wrote, you said many young people don't have a role model. i didn't have one. i have one now. his name is hill harper. i hope he give you this letter first class, and if you do get it, can you please write me

back. i read in your book you play csi new york. i like that show and i also like "csi: miami" but i like your show a little better. that's good. i also read you went to harvard with barack obama. if you could tell him i said hello. if i was at home i would have voted him president if i was older. i'm only 16. i'll tell you why i'm in jail and how much time i have left if you write me back. or even if you get my letter. which i hope you do. well, that's everything for now. hope you write back. your friend and brother, brian. when i got this letter i was -- i read it on a plane and i got kind of choked up and i decided by the time i was going to land i was going to do something for this young brian. tracked him down and i found him. i decided i was going to use the weight of my foundation to intervene in his life. i was going to do whatever it took to make a difference. and as i spoke to his warden,

his warden told me, you know, mr. harper, you sound like a very well intentioned young man. i said i want to change this young man's life. he had the courage to write me this letter. if you listen to the way it's written you realize it's a 16-year-old young man who is probably writing in a third or fourth grade level. made me think about did we fail brian or did brian fail us. and i didn't want to fail him. and the warden said well, mr. harper, you're not going to be able to do much for this young brian. i said i'm going to help him as soon as he gets out. you must not understand something. mr. harper, you're going to be dead before brian ever gets out. i said what do you mean. he said well, he was tried as an adult, he committed a heinous crime, and he's going nowhere. i won't be the warden when he gets out and you won't be alive. what that set me back in a way, to realize there are so many brians and briannas out there.

it's up to us to catch them before we actually lose them. to grab them before they are gone, before it's too late. and so, i celebrate the youth promise act in that regard because it seeks to do those things. and i promise that i will not stop fighting, that my foundation won't stop fighting to grab every brian, every brianna out there before it's too late. so i appreciate the work that's being done so far but we have so much more to do. and the youth promise act represents a step in that direction. thank you. [ applause ] >> can i introduce the esteemed amazing, the best number one

freshman congress person in history of congress, my classmate from harvard and everyone talks about our presidentinging an outstanding student. she was my classmate as well and let me tell you, she was better than both of us. she was smarter than both of us. and i can't necessarily speak -- she didn't get as good grades as the president and myself but that's not because of her lack of intellect. more in the fact she was focused on so many things, you understand. congresswoman terry, i love her.

>> we started bill harper's presentation with an opportunity for equal time. i guess we'll provide the same opportunity for representative terry seoul. >> let me say thank you so much, hill harper, for your beautiful introduction. said just like my mother wrote it. no. serio seriously, i am honored to not only be a part of this program today and to support the youth promise act but equally as proud of you and your work, not only on the screen but equally as important in our communities. you have been a role model not just for me and lots of young black boys and girls, but all youth. and for that your work should be commended. mr. chairman, i want to say

thank you so much for inviting me to be a part of this today. and also just bring attention to how important the youth promise act is and i think that all of us will agree that in the waning days after travon martin, the incident with tray strvon marti all of us needlook at our youth and do all we can do to make sure they keep and live up to their own promises. thanks. >> thank you. thank you. john pendergast. >> thank you for your unswerving leadership on these terribly important issues. i'm humbled to be on this panel. like the others we can only hope we'll get paraphernalia from csi new york at the end of this as our reward. but this isn't my primary profession like it isn't in hill's. and my qualification largely stems from stumbling onto a life

changing path at the age of 20 years old, when i was visiting a friend of mine who was working in a homeless shelter here in washington, d.c. and i ran into this guy here to my left, michael maddux, who was all of 7 years old. so since my experience as a mentor is why i'm here on this panel, i want to tell you about three of the ten guys that i worked with over the last 25 years. and the very different trajectories which resulted, i would argue, from their varying access to the kinds of programs, the very programs that this youth promise act would be supporting. first story is about nasir. he was the biological brother of my first formal little brother in the big brothers big sisters program in philadelphia. i worked intensively with nasir's brother but we would

bring nasiralong on outings in philadelphia. from a young age, though, nasirhad an explosive temper and constantly in trouble in school and his neighborhood. there were no programs that addressed the needs that he had and after i moved away from philly to africa, and then down to d.c., he slowly transitioned from the formal system to the streets. he dropped out of school, no one followed up on it. he entered the juvenile justice system and cycled through that until tragically he was shot to death on the very street i used to pick him up when he was a little boy with an unforgetably brilliant smile. the second story i want to tell you is about michael here to my left. as i said, i met michael and his family when they were living out of plastic bags, literally out of hefty bags at a homeless shelter at 14th and end street

eight blocks from the white house. we started going to the library together and i became his big brother. though not formally with the big brothers pramt. he and two of his siblings came and lived with me for the summer. i was 22 and had to grow up fast. michael will tell you his story. but suffice to say from my perspective that when i left for africa, and sort of left michael hanging, eventually he dropped out of school and lots of stuff happened that i'll leave to him to tell. but in effect, again, the formal system abandoned him. but i don't think i can ruin the ending because he's right here sitting here, a husband, a father of five boys, if i tell you this. michael's told me many times over the last few years that if he hadn't had a big brother, someone investing and believing in him, particularly in his early years he might never have made the choice to leave the streets behind.

for years michael had someone who challenged him and cared about what he was doing. that's what mentors do. the third story i want to tell you is about jamar. he is from here in d.c., right up on georgia avenue. when i first met jamar through the big brother big sister program he was extremely withdrawn, but volatile. he couldn't have a touchdown scored 18 football game before he would end up in a fight or on the sidelines. his grades were poor and his conduct at school was worse. he was different than nasirand michael only insofar as his mother was enrolling him in every possible alternative or supplemental program out there she could find. so besides big brother big sisters and my relationship with jamar through that he was part of the boys and girls club and other after-school programming and even the au football league.

now five years later he is in ninth grade with a scholarship to one of the best high schools in d.c. his grades are good and he plays on the football and basketball teams. none of the programs he participated in cost much. all were neighborhood based and worked. small investments, huge pay-offs, lives saved. that's what i found over and over again with the kids i coached and mentored over the last 25 years, for the most part, the formal system abandons them. rarely did they have access to the kind of alternative programming that has proven to make a difference time and again the kind that the youth promise act is going to support. children constantly fall through our nation's tattered safety net as they leave or are pushed out of segregated schools or passed around in foster care, suffer abuse and trauma, enter the juvenile justice system, cycle through that, serve time for a felony, eventually become second class citizens, face

discrimination in their attempts to get employment, housing and schooling. after doing so little for these kids as they are growing up with abuse and single parenthood, our government finally steps in and starts really spending money on these kids once they make a big mistake. to prosecute them and put them away in prison for a long time like the story hill told about. all kinds of evidence, there is all kinds of evidence that big brother big sister type programs mentoring programs have a remarkable effect over time on kids' development and their self-esteem. and there are countless other school and community-based programs that made a difference in preventing crime, preventing drop-out rates, the kind of things hill was talking about. they are underfunded. in conclusion back to what i know, mentoring and mentorship, i've seen first hand how mentoring can really make a difference in young people's lives. mostly because it addresses that

critical missing ingredient for so many young people from difficult backgroundings. self-esteem, self worth they experience. without it there's no foundation. mentors can help develop that, fundamental requirement in life. mentors come in many forms, big brothers big sisters, teacher, supervisors, camp counselors, all of the kinds of programs the youth promise act would support. most importantly, mentors in the program that they are part of provide a light that helps a young person navigate through difficult waters. sometimes that light can make the difference between freedom and incarceration, or even between life and death. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you. i'm here to tell my story about

you know, how mentoring is so important. i had a brother that got shot on washington, d.c. streets. basically fell through the cracks, you know. i mean, the school system let us like suffer, we didn't drop out. they didn't come around and see that you know, what was going won the school thing or nothing. if we had programs in the school that cared then we wouldn't have been doing the things on the street that we was doing. it came a time with john, he was out in africa and wasn't there to menltser us. if he was there to mentor us, we wouldn't have fell through the cracks. it's really important for males and females to mentor the