THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 27, 1994 TAG: 9407270599
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
A top federal official says the fight against crime must go beyond building more prisons and giving criminals longer sentences.
``A nation that warehouses over one million human beings in federal and state prisons needs to try a different approach,'' said John J. Wilson, acting administrator of the office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The Justice Department official said Tuesday that quick fixes are not the answer. Instead, he said, ``prevention is the answer.''
Wilson addressed a joint meeting of a new Virginia Commission on Youth task force and 13 community teams from across the state learning about juvenile delinquency prevention.
``The public is in the mood right now to lock up, keep away and to forget about'' criminals, said Del. Alan A. Diamonstein, D-Newport News, a commission and task force member. ``That could lead to a disaster, but that's the political reality.''
The commission began organizing the Early Intervention Task Force in May to get more services to youngsters earlier in their childhoods. The project will parallel a similar executive branch effort begun during the Wilder administration.
Wilson painted an ugly picture of the current state of Virginia and the country's youth.
According to figures released by his office last week, juveniles from the age of 12 to 17 were raped, robbed and assaulted in 1992 at a rate five times the rate for adults over the age of 35.
Across the country the number of violent crimes heard in juvenile courts increased by 68 percent, to 118,600, from 1988 to 1992, Wilson said.
Wilson argued that ``we can't wait to intervene in a young person's life when they're already half grown and have already developed destructive behaviors.''
KEYWORDS: CRIME JUVENILE OFFENDERS JUVENILE DELINQUENTS
by CNB