One of the businesses honored with a 1998 Governor's Community Investment Award for its commitment to youth was Beaver Street Fisheries in Jacksonville. Employees get paid time off to mentor kids, who are promised a future job if they stay in school and out of trouble. We got the message - that we cannot win this battle with force. No matter how many kids you put in jail, you cannot win this fight. And the vandalism there has all but disappeared.
Prevention is cheaper than locking up a juvenile.
A 1996 study by the RAND Institute found that programs encouraging high-risk youth to finish school prevent five times as many crimes as those imposing stiffer penalties.