(July 20)
Someone can be “tough on crime” and at the same time, without logical contradiction, also want to do preventive work addressing crime’s “root causes.” Social work and prosecutorial work need not be mutually exclusive, and indeed can be complementary.
Especially with nonviolent youthful offenders, an ounce of prevention can be worth a whole ton of prison doors.
That’s why it is so important that Louisiana, under oversight from the state Supreme Court, boasts programs across the state called Families In Need of Services, or FINS. Even better would be if more private-sector or nonprofit groups stepped up to partner with the FINS groups and multiply the FINS’ good work.
As reported by this paper’s Haley Miller, the FINS group for the parishes of West Baton Rouge, Iberville and Pointe Coupee is “full of success stories.” What FINS does is take “status offenders” — those who engage in small-scale offenses that by definition can be committed only by minors, such as truancy — and intervene to keep them out of the court system by leading them to counseling or to other resources that can help turn their lives around.
Plenty of families lack basic necessities such as running water, electricity or access to transportation. Gracie Bergeron, the director of that tri-parish FINS, told me that FINS will “create a service plan that has a list of providers” and also will provide mentorship and accompany children to meetings at school or at courts to help the children and their families feel comfortable with plans to get the kids on the right track.
Little things matter, she said: “How can you go to school if you don’t have clean clothes or you don’t have lights or even water to brush your teeth with in the morning?”
One of the wonderful outfits that partner with FINS is called GUMBO, for Global United Mission Benefiting Ourselves and Others. A multifaceted nonprofit run by disabled veteran Deborah Dickerson, GUMBO provides meals for the community’s needy while using kids referred by FINS as kitchen workers…. [The full column, including relevant lessons from Mobile’s NEST program, is at this link.]
