Crime Prevention-Needs and Support
Crime Prevention-Needs and Support
JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER
The current Sheriff wants to build a jail annex at a cost of millions to Benton County tax payers. Major mistake! This county must get on track with building a new and effective Juvenile Detention Center. If we want to reduce crime, we need to get to the root of the problem, our youth!
I am asking the citizens of Benton County to get involved with this important issue now, before you have a personal need. No secret Benton County is the fastest growing county in the state and region and that holds true with juvenile issues. Studies have been done on juvenile crime. The studies revealed by the year 2015 we will have the largest population of juveniles ages 15 and under, on our streets in America.
Juvenile crime has risen sharply in the last two decades, many of these crimes are violent and we have witnessed that trend right here in Benton County. Remember when you are discussing the issue of a new JDC that all of our adult criminals were once juveniles!
Briefly, here is how the JDC should operate. After the youth is arrested and assigned to the JDC by the Circuit Court the process of maturing them should begin. This is strictly youths that have been convicted and have been assigned long term to the JDC. Immediately all their medical needs will be taken care of. Everything from head to toe! If they are on drugs will become drug free. Once on their feet they will spend the next three months in a JDC Boot Camp. The youth offender will get in shape, learn to respect authority, learn what team work is, learn proper hygiene, learn how make their beds, clean their clothes and police their surroundings, etc. Upon graduation of boot camp the youth offender will start rehabilitation programs that will develop them into a productive and mature young adult. JDC programs and education programs would run in tandem with the youth’s current education level. We will instruct the youth with hands on education, such as shop programs like carpentry, mechanical, welding, hair dressing, home ed, etc. Computer training, resume writing, job interviewing and how to manage a bank checking and saving account. Nearing the end of their incarceration, the youth offender will participate in wilderness survival training. We will teach them how to set up camp, fish and trap for food, respect for the environment, completing this program on a positive and self confidence building theme.
Benton County will be reconized for sending a juvenile delinquent into the juvenile system and releasing him or her into the world a mature young adult!
Benton County Women’s Shelter and Benton County Children’s Advocacy Center
You have seen on national and local news many stories of child pornography and sexual assaults on our children and missing women only to be discovered later, murdered. It almost seems that is a daily news lead.
Frequently we should be hearing from the elective Sheriff about two agencies in Benton County that play a major part in protecting our women and children. These agencies are the Benton County Women’s Shelter and the Benton County Children’s Advocacy Center. When elected I will see with the assistance of my wife, Holly, that the Sheriffs Office take the lead in obtaining funding to support these two agencies.
When I was Sheriff, my wife, Holly worked full time and was unable to get involved in important projects such as the Children Advocacy Center and the Women’s Shelter. Holly is now retired. She would like get involved in three projects and promote their importance by using the platform of the Sheriff’s Office. We will immediately start a campaign to secure the funding and monies it will take to support these three projects: The Juvenile Detention Center, The Children’s Advocate Center and the Women’s Shelter. We expect that corporations and citizens in Northwest Arkansas to support these vital agencies. So be on the lookout we will be knocking……..
A foot note; As your Sheriff in 1988 the first thing we did in training was to have every Deputy attend a training program on violence against women and then tour the Women Shelters of Benton and Washington Counties. This training went on every year I was Sheriff. This training will once again start up when I am re-elected Sheriff. Our Office will not neglect the importance of protecting women, and children against violence.
There simply is no excuse for women and child abuse anywhere and especially in Benton County. I will deal with this growing epidemic with a vengeance!
Suggested reading:
CHILDREN’S ADVOCATE CENTER
http://www.nationalcac.org/ncac/who_we_are.html
http://www.nationalcac.org
THE WOMEN’S SHELTER