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Community Anti-Violence and Restoration Effort for Chicago City-County Action Plan

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Community Anti-Violence and Restoration Effort for Chicago City-County Action Plan COMMUNITY ANTI-VIOLENCE AND RESTORATION EFFORT CARE FOR CHICAGO CITY-COUNTY ACTION PLAN 1 CARE for Chicago: City-County Action Plan VISION You're safe in every neighborhood, and you feel it. We envision a Chicago where we feel safe in any neighborhood, where we are measurably safer than today. As one of our most visible and painful challenges, violence is everyone's problem and it must be a top concern for us all. Therefore, we're setting the measurable goal of making Chicago the safest big city in America by 2020. This is a big goal, yet it reflects a level of crime reduction other cities have achieved. When our communities are safer, you and your neighbors will have more choices for school, work, and play. Safe communities will help the Chicago region grow and compete globally. Achieving this vision will require commitment from tens of thousands of government workers and hundreds of thousands of residents, action aligned to the same collective impact -- a safe Chicago where we're all happy to raise a family. CARE for Chicago: City-County Action Plan 2 3 CARE for Chicago: City-County Action Plan CONTENTS Executive summary . 1 The context today: Violence is falling, but remains unacceptably high . 7 Planning process: Multi-sector, multi-community leadership . 13 Actions: Prevention, Intervention, Response . 16 Legislative agenda . 38 Community leadership . 35 Accountability and collective impact . 40 Leadership group and pro bono support . 43 CARE for Chicago: City-County Action Plan 4 19 JULY 2012 Making every community in the Chicago area safe is a top priority for us personally and for everyone who works at the City and the Count. We can't do that without you. We need your help on your block, in your community, and with your family and friends. The schools, police, and social workers, the block clubs, community centers, and churches are all ready to get you involved. Read this draft plan, discuss it with your neighbors, and share your ideas with us -- and take action. Together, we can make our hometown America's safest big city. Honorable Paul P. Biebel, Jr. Evelyn Diaz Presiding Judge, Criminal Division, Commissioner, Chicago Department of Circuit Court of Cook County Family & Support Services Shauna Boliker Garry McCarthy First Assistant State’s Attorney Superintendent, Chicago Police Department Dr. Byron Brazier Pastor, Apostolic Church of God Jesús Reyes Acting Chief Probation Officer, State of Jean-Claude Brizard Illinois Circuit Court of Cook County CEO, Chicago Public Schools Michael D. Rodríguez Rashanda Carroll Executive Director, Enlace Chicago Executive Director, Re-entry and Diversion, Cook County Sheriff Alexander Gail Sherman Principal, Civic Consulting Alliance Donald A. Cooke Senior Vice President, Juliana Stratton Robert R. McCormick Foundation Director, Justice Advisory Council, Cook County Felicia Davis First Deputy Chief of Staff Thomas J. Wilson to Mayor Emanuel Chairman and CEO, The Allstate Corporation 5 CARE for Chicago: City-County Action Plan DRAFT CARE FOR CHICAGO: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Violent crime in Chicago has fallen for several years, yet in most of our region violence remains unacceptably high. Every single day three school-age youth are shot in the city. Last year, 37 Chicago Public School students were murdered. Overall, only three out of ten people live in areas as safe as the other two big American cities.1 No one -- especially not our youth -- should have to live with such violence and fear. This report summarizes what's been done already to alleviate violence in Chicago, and it's also a blueprint for how our community leaders, government, nonprofit leaders, and our youth can work together to make every resident safe. From the 1960s through the 1980s, violence skyrocketed everywhere in urban America. Since then, New York and Los Angeles have each cut violent crimes in half and are now much safer than Chicago. We still have more gangs and more guns than other cities: Chicago police routinely recover more guns than New York and Los Angeles police combined. Inequities remain in the city and suburbs, and people's quality of life thus varies widely. Violence is preventable. Recent research points to how policing can be more 1 Six Chicago police districts are as safe as the New York or LA effective, for example, through focusing average, accounting for 29% of the population. Violent crime: homicide, criminal sexual assault, robbery, aggravated battery. on beat cops and holding commanders Source: FBI: 2001-2009. CPD, NYPD, LAPD 2010-2011. Definitions of aggravated battery differ between FBI and PDs. US Census. CARE for Chicago: City-County Action Plan 1 DRAFT accountable for all activity in their process included hundreds more from districts. Equally important are communities and government. programs that prevent violence, for Teenagers and young adults (many example, helping teenagers cope with caught up in the justice system) and stressful situations more peacefully. community leaders participated in more Youth in one such program, many of than a dozen planning sessions. whom had been arrested before entering the program, committed 40% fewer Businesses offered pro bono support for violent crimes than before the program. the planning, providing $3 million in service at no charge to taxpayers. Everyone pays for our high level of violence. Across the range of Actions: government and community programs, Prevention, Intervention, Response from policing and courts to counseling and youth services, we're collectively Rather than preventing violence, we spending $4.4 billion a year in the region spend much more money dealing with -- that's $2,300 per family per year. It's violence after the fact. The people who not a question of resources alone; it's a worked together on this plan concluded, question of how we work together. first, that prevention, such as helping young families, is much less difficult on "If I had a superpower, communities and much more cost- I'd have time travel. effective. Second, with information about People getting shot -- the causes and patterns of violence, I'd go back in time and service providers can target resources more stop it." efficiently, intervening with those at risk of West Side youth violence before it happens. Multi-sector, multi-community The partnership convened by the Mayor leadership and County President agreed on a series of actions for prevention, intervention, Last year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and and response that reflect the best Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle thinking in Chicago and elsewhere. joined forces to address violence. They These draw on clinically proven, assembled 50 leaders from government, evidence-based practices to address faith, community, business, foundation, many of the risk factors that destabilize and research (page 43). The planning communities. 2 CARE for Chicago: City-County Action Plan DRAFT ACTION STEPS FOR COMMUNITY-GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS Prevention in communities. We must promote positive behaviors and prevent the risk factors that destabilize communities by taking action to reduce gun violence, fostering strong families, and providing more jobs. 1. Strong blocks "wraparound". To prevent crime from returning after the police clear a drug market, city services will help hold the block and community members will re-build. 2. Expanded safe passage. Community members will patrol more paths to and from school, to intervene before violence occurs or escalates. 3. Policy reforms based on youth shooting review. "Social autopsy" of a homicide involving youth by representatives from all agencies accountable for their safety will help identify ways to prevent recurrences. Intervention with youth at risk. We must intervene with youth who are at greater risk to re-engage students in school, offer more choices out-of-school, and instill the social and emotional skills youth need to deal with stress peacefully. 4. Coordinated out-of-school programs. Arts, science, technology, sports, and jobs offer youth positive options after school, and customized programs like One Summer PLUS serve teenagers who are typically left out of programs. 5. Specialized mentoring and family engagement. Social-emotional learning at school helps young adults foster positive ways of relating to peers and adults; some services are tailored for those most at risk of violence involvement. 6. Restorative justice for school discipline. Alternatives to out-of-school suspension keep youth safer and help them stay engaged until graduation. 7. Student re-engagement centers. Those who miss many days of school can find customized paths and coaching at a cross-agency collaborative. Response. We need to respond better after a violent incident has occurred to distinguish high-risk segments, help low-risk defendants get services rather than go to jail, and connect offenders leaving prison to services so they don't return to crime. 8. Gang accountability (Violence Reduction Strategy). Police call in gang leaders, offering social services and threatening "zero tolerance" policy if one of their members kills anyone. 9. Community-based alternatives to detention. Expanded programs will keep low-risk people out of jail, allow them to stay connected with their families, jobs, or schooling, and thus be less likely to get involved in more serious crime. 10. Enhanced pre-trial services. Better, more reliable information will help judges supervise release more appropriately and allow low-risk defendants to return to their communities without risk to public safety. 11. Aftercare services for ex-offenders. Immediate case management, service, and educational linkages will replace the surveillance and punishment focus of juvenile parole. CARE for Chicago: City-County Action Plan 3 DRAFT Almost every single one of these In each neighborhood, there are priorities is already underway in at already many types of prevention and least one community. Nearly half of intervention, such as block clubs, Head the $35 million annual cost is already Start, and workforce training. There committed, and the remainder will be are many assets, such as schools, identified through savings and farmers markets, parks, community entrepreneurial funds.
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