1
 1
 2                            Remarks by
 3                    ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO
 4               The White House Leadership Conference
 5                 on Youths, Drug Use, and Violence
 6                      Thursday, March 7, 1996
 7                   Eleanor Roosevelt High School
 8                        Greenbelt, Maryland
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 1                       P R O C E E D I N G S
 2                                                   (4:35 p.m.)
 3              ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO:  You have got one happy
 4    Attorney  General, General McCaffrey,  because you are now
 5    the
 6    drug czar.
 7              (Laughter.)
 8              ATTORNEY  GENERAL  RENO:    I  cannot  think  of
 9    anybody
10    I would rather be working with.  It is an exciting time, a
11    challenging  time.    I  appreciate  all  those  wonderful
12    remarks.
13    We have got a lot to do.  And I cannot think of anybody
14    better to work with.
15              I want to  thank everybody  that has been  here.
16    The
17    energy that I felt  last night the  sense of, yes, we  can
18    make
19    a difference, the sense that this is an extraordinary
20    challenge, but we are making a difference in our community
21    and in our program.  And what we are doing is just
22    infectious, and I want you to know how important your work
23    is and how important the fact that you all would be here
24    today to take  the time and come, many of  you from across
25    the

                                                               3
 1    country, it is just a great tribute to your commitment to
 2    this issue.  And all I can say is thank you.
 3          I want to thank the principal, the teachers,
 4    everybody at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, who made this
 5    possible today.  I cannot imagine what it must have been
 6    like having all these people troop through your school.
 7
 8              Most of all, I would like to say a special
 9    thank you  to the  students, the  students from  Roosevelt
10    High,
11    and the young people who have come from across the country
to
12    participate in this program.  I think the most important
13    thing we  can do  in our  whole undertaking,  to give  our
14    youth
15    a future, is to listen to our youth.  They have tremendous
16    ideas.
17              (Applause.)
18              ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO:  We beat around the bush.
19
20    We talk in jargon.  They talk so direct and right to the
21    point.  They say it from the heart.  They know it from
22    experience.  And they are a wonderful resource.  And thank
23    you so much for providing your insight today in such a
24    wonderfully articulate and thoughtful way.
25              Where do we go from here?

                                                               4
 1              I  hate to go  to conferences  and say,  well, I
 2    went
 3    to the conference, I  met a lot of nice people,  I heard a
 4    lot
 5    of good ideas, and what are we going to do now?
 6              Well, in my group, I asked that question.  I got
 7    very specific answers, and I am going to go over the
 8    transcript and make sure I have got the answers so that we
 9    can follow up and  get back to you on  specific ideas that
10    you
11    have for the Federal Government.  But I think the sense I
12    got from this conference is that what we really need to do
13    is to reinforce the coalitions that we are forming across
14    this country,  coalitions between  the Federal  Government
15    and
16    State and local government, between the private and the
17    public  sector,  between  schools,  police,  and  doctors,
18    between
19    everyone concerned about our future.
20              When you see people come together, when you see
21    people focussed together on the problem, when you see them
22    reweave the fabric  of community around kids  and families
23    at
24    risk, you can see the difference that such an effort can
25    make.  And so I think, from here, we must go forward,

                                                               5
 1    rededicated, each of us, to forming partnerships at local
 2    levels.
 3              Now, that is  kind of a  difficult task for  me,
 4    when
 5    I  look  at  the thousands  and  thousands  of communities
 6    across
 7    this Nation, but, working together, working through our
 8    various public officials, working through housing leaders
 9    in the community, through U.S. Attorneys, through local
10    police  officers, teachers,  families, students,  that can
11    make
12    a difference.  I think we can do it.
13              Where do we begin?
14              I think what we say matters a lot.  And I think
15    we should talk in direct, simple terms about what matters.
16
17    I  think we have  got to send  the message loud  and clear
18    about
19    violence and what it is doing to our young people -- that
20    it kills, that  it hurts, that it  ruins.  We have  got to
21    send
22    a message  very loud and  clear that drugs  can tear  up a
23    life,
24    and ruin a life for the future, or make it very difficult
25    to get back on the main road.

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 1              But as we send that message, I think it is
 2    imperative that we send, from all that I have heard today,
 3    another message to our young people:  That we are here for
 4    you, that we are here to support you, that we are behind
 5    you, that we  trust you and respect  you and want to  work
 6    with
 7    you in trying to work together to see how we solve this
 8    problem.
 9              Wherever I go, I try to talk to young people who
10    have been in  trouble or who are  in trouble.  I  ask them
11    what
12    could have been done to make a difference, how could they
13    have  avoided the problem  in the  first place.   And they
14    come
15    back poignantly, again and again, with two points: 
16    Something to do in the afternoon and evenings, something
17    constructive, something that  can keep me occupied  during
18    the
19    summertime.  And then, somebody to talk to, somebody who
20    understands how  difficult it  is to  grow  up in  America
21    today,
22    somebody that can give me a pat on the back when I deserve
23    it, and somebody that can tell me I have done wrong when I
24    know that I have, or need some direction.
25              We can  make this difference  if we talk  to our

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 1    kids
 2    in clear, supportive terms, providing limits, but reaching
 3    out to develop the trust and respect that is so critical. 
 4    But if we are going to talk in terms -- in
 5    simple, clear terms -- we have got to mean what we say.  We
 6    have got to let people know that there are sanctions when
 7    we do wrong; that these sanctions have got to be swift,
 8    certain, sure, and they have got to fit the crime.
 9              But that when a kid first gets in trouble when
10    they  are 11 or 12,  it does not do any  good just to send
11    them
12    home, and  then send them home  again when they  are 13 or
13    14. 
14    You have  got to develop  an understanding of  what caused
15    the
16    problem in the first place.  You have got to do a
17    comprehensive assessment and evaluation.  And it cannot be
18    just a one-month program for a kid who has been neglected
19    for 11 years of his life.
20              You have got to put together a comprehensive
21    assessment that can be followed up with a program that can
22    correct  the  problem.     And  it  cannot   be  corrected
23    overnight. 
24    A kid ignored for  11 years is not going to  be changed in
25    one

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 1    month.
 2              It  is  going  to   take  a  more  comprehensive
 3    community
 4    effort to change that young person, a comprehensive
 5    community  effort of  community  police officers,  working
 6    with
 7    teachers, working with community activists, parks and
 8    recreation persons, social workers, youth counselors, to
 9    make a difference.  People giving that young person an
10    opportunity to talk,  to understand, to explain  the pain,
11    to
12    explain what has happened in their life, an opportunity to
13    talk out the problems and develop the confidence and
14    self-esteem so necessary to cope with the problems of the
15    world today.
16              We  have got  to  make sure  that  as the  young
17    person
18    gets in trouble again, there is going to be a more certain
19    sanction each step of the way.  But it has got to be
20    followed with a plan of treatment.
21              If  there  is a  drug  problem, we  have  got to
22    address
23    it firmly, directly,  with enough  resources to give  that
24    kid
25    a chance to get off on the right foot.  Again, in some

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 1    instances, it will not be done overnight, it will not be
 2    done with a five-week program in a treatment unit.  It may
 3    take a year and  a half.  It  may take two years.   It may
 4    take
 5    aftercare.  But we can make a difference if we concentrate
 6    our efforts, looking not just at the child, but the child
 7    and the family and the neighborhood and the school and the
 8    whole world that that child lives in.
 9              If you correct one part of a child's life and do
10    not  address  the  other  causes  that  have  created  the
11    problem,
12    you are going to waste money as you go along.  We have got
13    to  recognize  that   there  are  some   serious  youthful
14    offenders,
15    people that rob and hurt and shoot and maim and kill.  And
16    we have got to develop programs for them and serious
17    offender programs for them, and, in some instances, adult
18    prosecution that can occur when the crime requires it.
19              But,   again,  we   have   got  to   develop   a
20    comprehensive
21    system that makes sense from the beginning.  But all the
22    best juvenile justice programs that we could probably put
23    together will be for naught, based upon everything I have
24    heard, unless we provide programs for aftercare and follow
25    up.   To send a kid to  the best youthful offender program

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 1    in
 2    the country, and then to return them to the apartment over
 3    the open-air drug  market where they  got into trouble  in
 4    the
 5    first place, with no backup, no support in the community,
 6    will only waste all the dollars that we have spent on this
 7    wonderful program for youthful offenders.
 8              Aftercare can make such a great difference.  A
 9    24-hour hot line, somebody that you can call, job training
10    and placement, the opportunity for a real job, the
11    opportunity for a real future.
12              But before we get to that, it was exciting today
13    to hear what a difference police officers can make in
14    keeping people out of the system in the first place.  The
15    President, who spearheaded the effort to put 100,000
16    community police officers on the streets of America -- and
17    we have heard a lot about  what they are doing -- but  key
18    to
19    it all is the community police officer who goes into the
20    community  and  gets  to  know  not just  the  law-abiding
21    people,
22    but all the people, not just the good kids, but all the
23    kids.
24              A police officer  who knows  how to  communicate
25    and

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 1    relate and who cares about people is probably one of the
 2    most  effective  forces for  good  in this  country today.
 3    Those
 4    police  officers  are  on  the  cutting edge  of  bringing
 5    America
 6    together again, ending division in communities, of
 7    developing trust and understanding.  And it is exciting to
 8    hear from  young people what  one good police  officer can
 9    do,
10    in terms of easing frustrations, reducing tension, and
11    making a difference.
12              But a police officer not only that relates to
13    particular citizens in the neighborhood, but a police
14    officer who can form a partnership with schools, with the
15    parks and recreation specialist in the community, 
16    a police  officer who
17    can
18    work with  families  with difficult  situations, to  refer
19    them
20    appropriate facilities  in the  community  that will  help
21    solve
22    those situations, and make a truly significant difference.
23              And law enforcement can make a difference in
24    tracking guns and  figuring out who  is getting guns  into
25    the

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 1    hands of kids, and interrupting the supply of guns.  Law
 2    enforcement  can  be  so   effective  in  disrupting  gang
 3    activity
 4    by  focussing  on   those  that  lead  the  gangs,   in  a
 5    cooperative
 6    effort   between   Federal  and   State   and  local   law
 7    enforcement,
 8    each, done in the right way, while at the same time,
 9    developing programs with community police officers to get
10    those on the periphery back into positive pursuits before
11    it is too late.
12              Again, we can make such a difference.
13              But  the  message I  heard  loud and  clear from
14    police
15    officers, from sheriffs, from juvenile court judges, from
16    young people, from almost everybody that I have talked to
17    both last night and today, is that we cannot wait until
18    people  get into  the juvenile  justice system.    We will
19    never
20    be able to develop  enough programs if we wait  till a kid
21    is
22    16 years old  and an armed robber.   We have got  to start
23    much
24    earlier.
25              We have got to recognize that more kids are

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 1    without adult supervision than ever before, that they are
 2    spending their time in unsupervised environments, or
 3    watching TV, or  playing computer games,  and they do  not
 4    have
 5    that mentor,  they do not have  that support, they  do not
 6    have
 7    the limits that  are so critical to  helping children grow
 8    in
 9    a strong, constructive way.
10              If we put our moneys, as one young person said
11    today, you  know how  much it  takes to  keep somebody  in
12    prison
13    or how much it takes to put somebody in the jail?  If we
14    just took that and put it up front into afternoon and
15    evening programs, and in summer programs, not just sports,
16    but other programs that can help educate and help prepare
17    our  young   people,   and   provide   them   constructive
18    activities,
19    we can make such and extraordinary difference.
20              We can make a difference by developing the true
21    partnership between  the schools  and police officers,  so
22    that
23    we focus on kids in the elementary school.  Why does a kid
24    have  to be  13  and think,  I do  not  trust that  police
25    officer,

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 1    if schools and police had worked together, and, at
 2    second grade, they got to know that police officer and
 3    respected him  as a person they  could trust, as  a person
 4    they
 5    looked up to, as a person who was fair, it could make all
 6    the difference.
 7              We can make a difference if schools and police
 8    officers and others learn to work together to identify
 9    conflict resolution programs that can make a difference. 
10    If we can send a man to the moon, we can surely, surely
11    teach our young people how to resolve conflicts without
12    knives and guns and fists, and some of the conflict
13    resolution programs that exist in the country today are
14    marvelous lessons for what we can provide in the future. 
15    And mentoring programs, again, somebody for that young
16    person to talk to, somebody that can make a difference.
17              But everybody kept coming back to the fact that
18    when a child was in the sixth grade, oftentimes it was too
19    late.   And that  sometimes it  was too  late even  in the
20    second
21    grade.  If we are going to do something long term about
22    violence in America, if we are going to make a difference,
23    we have got to start focusing on children when they come
24    into  this  world, when  they  learn what  the  concept of
25    reward

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 1    and punishment means, when they develop a conscience, in
 2    those ages of 0 to 3.
 3              And so, as  we forge  partnerships, as we  leave
 4    here
 5    today, as we go forth from here today, let us forge a
 6    partnership not  just  to  improve  the  juvenile  justice
 7    systems
 8    of this country,  not just  to provide wonderful  activity
 9    for
10    our young people, and opportunity for our young people in
11    elementary school and in high school, but let us forge a
12    future for those kids being born today, to give them the
13    foundation upon which to learn, upon which to grow without
14    violence, upon which to grow with self-confidence and
15    self-esteem.
16              Let us, in effect, reweave the fabric of society
17    and community  and family around  the children who  are at
18    risk
19    in this world.  Let us give them the confidence, the
20    self-esteem they need to cope with a world that is faced
21    with extraordinary challenges.
22              Yet some people tell me this seems too hard.  It
23    is not too hard.  I have already made notes today of ideas
24    that I got from an hour-and-a-half's conference of things
25    that  I  want to  follow  up on,  issues  that  I want  to

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 1    address,
 2    issues that  I can address  in the Department  of Justice.
 3    And
 4    we are going to go over those transcripts.
 5              
 6    I have  got a  bunch of
 7    get-back
 8    lists for myself today.
 9              But it is so important that we follow up on this
10    within  communities, and that  it is  not just  for today,
11    that
12    you continue to let us know, if it is something that Donna
13    Shalala can do, let her know.  If it is something that I
14    should be  doing that I  am not doing,  let me know.   But
15    let's
16    take what we have learned today, let's take the ideas and
17    go forth.
18              And we can make a difference.  I look at it this
19    way.  On the early morning of August 24, 1992, Hurricane
20    Andrew hit the area in which I lived.  I have never heard
21    a noise like that before.  It was a howl.  I went out the
22    next morning, and the whole world looked like a World War
23    I battlefield.  Every tree was down.
24              I walked out, and this physical disaster had
25    really broken for a day or two the bonds of community. 

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 1    People  were afraid.    They  were absolutely  undirected.
 2    They
 3    did not know quite what to do next.
 4              And then suddenly, you watched the world come
 5    together.  You watched people  stand out in the middle  of
 6    the
 7    street, directing traffic, because every traffic light was
 8    out.   You watched  people bring  in water to  a community
 9    that
10    was more desperately impacted than another.  You watched
11    people come together and share.
12              You  watched  people  bring  people  into  their
13    homes. 
14    You watched Americans come from hundreds of miles away to
15    help.  And they continued to come to help, and to send
16    materials.  And you watched a community come back together
17    again, a community that now, over 3 years later, has still
18    some scars, but has healed because Americans came together
19    in a partnership.
20              And then I saw it more recently.  In the Sunday
21    following  the  blast  in  Oklahoma  City, I  watched  the
22    citizens
23    of Oklahoma City  gather together to join  forces to speak
24    out
25    against the violence that had spawned that blast, to help

                                                              18
 1    the victims and the survivors begin to heal, to help law
 2    enforcement bring the people accountable, responsible for
 3    that, to justice.  I watched a force and a spirit that I
 4    will never forgot.
 5              And then I saw it in other places.  I met fire
 6    fighters in Indianapolis, who had gone to Oklahoma City to
 7    help.  And again, the spirit existed throughout this
 8    country.
 9              This Nation can do so much in times of disaster.
10
11    It can come together and be strong, and be the nation that
12    we  know  it to  be.   We  have got  a situation  now with
13    respect to our  youth, the violence, the drugs,  that have
14    beset them.
15    But we have got  a resource.  They are so  young, but they
16    are
17    so resilient.  They are so tender, but they are so tough. 
18    They are so innocent, but they are so bright and
19    intelligent.  And if we all come together, as we have and
20    will continue to do in time of disaster, we can truly make
21    a difference.
22              Thank you all so very, very much.
23              (Applause.)
24              (Whereupon, at 4:55 p.m., the Attorney General's
25    remarks were concluded.)