Investing in Youth to Reduce Crime

To the Editor:

Re "A Rise in Youth Arrests Prompts an Appeal for Solutions" (news article, Oct. 20)

This article presents an invitation to react to this challenge with ineffective, punitive measures against our children. We must not accept that.

The rise in violent youth crime and the matching rise in adult crime in New York City are, of course, troubling. The article quite rightly points out that a critical factor is the disinvestment in youth programs that provide alternatives and tools to avoid resorting to violence and crime.

Detaining a young person is expensive and a fast track to creating a lifetime of adult incarceration.

Alternatively, solving for their underlying social problems (specifically getting them back in school and into the workplace) is a proven strategy to prevent them from reoffending. That can be done at a fraction of the cost of locking them up.

The answer to this problem requires investment in youth, not reverting to old ways already proven to be failures. We know what to do. In New York City, this is absolutely achievable.

Gisele Castro
New York
The writer is the C.E.O. of exalt, a nonprofit that works with court-involved teenagers.

Nov. 10, 2024