Crime battle waged on wrong fronts.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Vicki Douglas

In an ideal world, we'd kiss our kids good night knowing that no child molester was going to snatch them from their beds. Our children could romp in parks without finding dirty needles on a primrose path.

Unfortunately, crime is a fact of life. Elliott Ness doesn't live in your neighborhood, and the average deputy district attorney is buried in cases that would give Superman heartburn.

You can't scare kids straight. Building more prisons is not the answer. Everything that needs to be said about how to reduce crime and make communities safer already has been written; it just has not been politically expedient to follow through. Until the public cuts through the hype and looks at the facts, this won't change.

America now imprisons 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the world average. Nationwide, according to the Department of Justice statistics comparing 2002 to 2006, the number of juveniles arrested for murder and non-negligent manslaughter and robbery rose 17.8 percent and 34.4 percent, respectively. The number of arrests for weapons violations increased 20.2 percent.

The most recent National Institute of Corrections statistics for Oregon show the crime rate is 2 percent higher than the national average. Property crimes in Oregon now account for 92.5 percent of total, 7 percent higher than the national rate.

In 2008, Oregon taxpayers paid 37 percent more than the national average for corrections as a percentage of total state expenditures. The annual cost of incarcerating an inmate here is more than $28,000 a year.

During my career as a deputy probation officer in California, there was an axiom - "the rule of thirds":

About one-third of probationers were unlikely to re-offend with or without probation interventions.

The next third needed some community-based public and not-for-profit services. They responded well and did not re-offend.

The last third were repeat offenders who usually ended up in prison. Of this group, about 8 to 10 percent were responsible for the most serious offenses, were not treatable and probably needed life in prison. The remaining 23 percent eventually got released from prison, and post-release had about a 30 percent recidivism rate. I believe this axiom holds true today across the country.

Figures released this year by the Oregon Department of Corrections show a 30.4 percent recidivism rate among parolees (those on post-release supervision who were convicted of a felony within three years of release).

Males between the ages of 16 to 26 are the most prolific offenders when it comes to crimes against people and property. Many lack good family support systems, education, job training or social skills. These offenders are the most likely to join gangs, carry weapons, and abuse drugs and alcohol.

The most cost-effective ways to spend taxpayer dollars to reduce crime and its impact are to:

Equip law enforcement with enough staff and resources to get the 8 to 10 percent of the worst offenders off the streets, and pass laws making it harder for them to get parole.

Stop building more prisons for nonviolent offenders; instead, beef up community-based programs that address their educational, mental health and substance abuse needs.

Build locked facilities for forensic mental health offenders.

Increase funding for public and not-for-profit, community-based, front-end services for early interventions for families at risk.

There is no cure for urban crime, but we can reduce it to a manageable level if we address its root causes. In Oakland and Berkeley in the 1980s, it was not until African-American grandmothers stood up and said "no more dead children" that the consciousness of the community got raised to a degree that got policymakers moving to really concentrate on families at risk. These programs made those communities safer.

We need to make programs for families our priority in Lane at-risk County, and we need to do it now.

Vicki Douglas, known professionally as Vicki Warn Bodhaine, retired in Springfield after 29 years as a county juvenile probation officer in California. She is the former executive director of the State Coalition of Probation Organizations.