This study has been around for more than ten years, but its lessons are always current, always important. A well-designed program of early invention with at-risk children produced long-term benefits of nearly thirteen times the cost. The effects were dramatic in fewer high school dropouts, better work records, fewer teenage pregnancies, and most dramatic of all, less criminal behavior.
The study is available on my other website. You can access it immediately with this link:
Pre-schoolIntervention
To access other articles about crime, recidivism, and rehabilitation, go to this page:
Articles
It's no secret that we spend fortunes on incarceration. In fact, some $400 to $500 per household each year is used just to keep people in jails, prisons, and halfway houses in America. Well, you may ask, what else can we do? We have to keep our citizens safe.
Agreed.
But there is much that can be done better. Rehabilitation programs and early intervention may not be as exciting to those whose thinking about crime stops at "get tough!" but they'll do more in the long run, for less money, than just building more and bigger prisons.