We now understand that most juveniles will be less likely to commit serious second crimes if they have alternatives to incarceration. We understand that many people with mental health problems can be treated outside of institutions, and we know that when people gain useful skills, not only do they grow personally, but also they make an economic contribution to society. And it can be in everyone's best interest. Examples include the mentally ill person, not involved with substance abuse, who does better outside an institution, or a poor neighborhood with economic potential on the receiving end of good business decisions to invest, or the public housing ghetto replaced with mixed income housing or the revived center city bringing economic strength to a region needing to complete globally. A third theme has to do with how we best enlist people to help themselves, how we harness market forces to address social problems, and how we make the most of what government, business, and civil society have to offer - separately or in partnership.
Government has a role as well.
We know that it cannot deliver all services or fix all problems. It can provide resources, tax incentives, and information about best practices - but there is no substitute for local initiative, local imagination, and local responsibility. But government and civil society together are not enough. In a country where business and free enterprise are the engines that fuel the economy, the private sector is the indisputable third partner with government and local communities. I am not talking here about the blunt instrument of privatization to shape up ossified public bureaucracies.