Fixing the Bridge: Treating the Root Causes of Crime | Ben David | TEDxAirlie
Summary
TLDRThe speaker highlights the link between social determinants of health and the root causes of crime, advocating for preventive measures over punitive actions. Using stories about drowning victims and a starfish, the speaker emphasizes the importance of community involvement, addressing trauma, and providing support through schools, nonprofits, and business opportunities. He calls for universal assessments for children, reinvestment in treatment for adults, and collective action to build a healthier, safer society. The message encourages unity, compassion, and proactive efforts to address systemic challenges and uplift those in need.
Takeaways
- 🚑 Prevention is better than cure: Addressing social determinants of health can prevent crime, similar to how treating health issues improves overall well-being.
- 🌊 Water metaphor: The story of a drowning man and a bridge with a hole illustrates the importance of addressing root causes rather than just responding to symptoms.
- ⚖️ Criminal justice insights: The speaker has witnessed firsthand the challenges within the criminal justice system, emphasizing that the problems are bigger than the system can solve alone.
- 🔍 Crime reduction success: Over the last 20 years, violent crime has decreased by 65% in the region, showcasing the impact of focused efforts.
- 💉 Opioid epidemic crisis: The region is grappling with severe challenges from the opioid epidemic, including a rise in overdose deaths and babies born addicted.
- 👶 ACE scores: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scores have a significant impact on future outcomes, including crime involvement and health, stressing the need for early intervention.
- 🎓 Education focus: Keeping children in school and supporting their success is essential to preventing future crime, as high school dropouts are disproportionately represented in prison populations.
- 🏢 Community collaboration: Nonprofits, government, businesses, and faith-based groups are key in reducing crime and improving social outcomes through collaboration and intervention.
- 💼 Employment as a solution: Programs like 'Hometown Hires' aim to reintegrate justice-involved individuals into the workforce, emphasizing the role of jobs in preventing recidivism.
- 💪 Resilience and recovery: Children are resilient and can overcome challenges if given the right support, underscoring the importance of holistic community efforts to address health and social issues.
Q & A
What is the main message conveyed by the speaker in the script?
-The speaker emphasizes the need for a proactive approach to crime prevention by addressing social determinants of health and the root causes of crime. He advocates for a community-based response to build healthier, safer environments, rather than relying solely on incarceration.
How does the speaker connect the concept of public health to crime prevention?
-The speaker highlights that the social determinants of health, such as poverty and lack of access to resources, are closely linked to the root causes of crime. By treating these issues, society can prevent crime and improve overall safety.
What is the significance of the Cape Fear River story shared by the speaker?
-The Cape Fear River story illustrates the idea of addressing the root cause of a problem rather than continuously responding to its symptoms. By fixing the hole in the bridge upstream, fewer people fell into the river, symbolizing how addressing systemic issues can prevent larger problems from occurring.
What statistics does the speaker share regarding crime reduction in the region?
-The speaker mentions that violent crime in the region has been reduced by 65% over the past 20 years, reaching the lowest levels in recorded history according to local law enforcement.
How does the speaker describe the opioid epidemic and its impact on the community?
-The speaker describes the opioid epidemic as a public safety issue requiring a public health solution. He shares alarming statistics, such as the increase in opioid-related overdoses and babies born addicted, highlighting the urgent need for effective treatment and prevention.
What approach did the speaker’s district take with crime mapping and the Youth Enrichment Zone?
-The district used crime mapping to identify high-crime areas and created the Youth Enrichment Zone, modeled after the Harlem Children's Zone, to provide targeted support for children living in poverty. This approach aimed to address underlying issues such as gang involvement and lack of structure at home.
What is the speaker's stance on incarceration as a solution to crime?
-The speaker criticizes the overreliance on incarceration, noting that 98% of prisoners are eventually released, with a 66% recidivism rate within three years. He argues that prisons are not the solution for mentally ill or drug-addicted individuals and calls for community-based solutions instead.
What does the starfish story symbolize in the speaker's message?
-The starfish story symbolizes the idea that small, individual actions can make a significant difference, even if they don't solve the entire problem. The speaker uses this analogy to encourage everyone to take part in helping those who are 'falling through the cracks.'
What are the five arms of outreach that the speaker mentions, and why are they important?
-The five arms of outreach include government, nonprofits, schools, the business community, and faith-based organizations. These arms represent the different sectors of society that must work together to provide structure, support, and belonging to vulnerable individuals, especially children.
What are the speaker's three challenges to the audience at the end of the speech?
-The speaker challenges the audience to (1) universally assess children for ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) scores to identify those in need, (2) reinvest saved incarceration costs into treatment programs for adults, and (3) come together as a community to provide better opportunities for children and adults to succeed.
Outlines
🌊 The Power of Prevention in Crime and Health
This paragraph introduces the idea that addressing the root causes of crime and social health determinants can make society safer. The speaker shares a metaphor involving a bridge with a hole that causes people to fall into the river. By fixing the bridge, future problems can be prevented. The speaker emphasizes the importance of prevention, reflecting on years of experience as a district attorney and the profound effect of community engagement on reducing crime.
🚨 Breaking the Cycle: From Prisons to Community Solutions
This paragraph discusses the ineffectiveness of mass incarceration and the need to find alternative solutions. The speaker critiques the U.S. prison system, which holds 25% of the world's prisoners despite representing only 5% of the population. They argue for community-based approaches, highlighting that most incarcerated individuals return to society but are often worse off, perpetuating the cycle of crime. The speaker calls for building community structures to prevent crime, similar to how the starfish regenerates after losing an arm.
📈 Business and Schools: Partners in Crime Reduction
The third paragraph highlights the critical roles of businesses and schools in preventing crime. By providing education and job opportunities, crime can be reduced, especially for justice-involved individuals. The speaker recounts efforts to create job opportunities for formerly incarcerated people through initiatives like 'Hometown Hires,' which successfully placed 500 individuals into careers. They emphasize that nothing stops a bullet faster than a good-paying job, advocating for reintegration and community support for those with criminal records.
👩⚕️ Health, Justice, and Resilience: Building a Safer Society
The final paragraph ties together health and justice, discussing the importance of addressing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to prevent future criminal behavior. The speaker shares how trauma affects children's development and increases their likelihood of entering the criminal justice system. They call for universal ACE assessments for children, reinvesting in treatment for drug addiction, and fostering community support to heal both individuals and society. The closing story about a child saving starfish reinforces the idea that every effort matters, even if the overall problem seems overwhelming.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Social determinants of health
💡Root causes of crime
💡Upstream intervention
💡Recidivism
💡Youth Enrichment Zone
💡ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) score
💡Crime mapping
💡Justice reinvestment
💡Nonprofits and community collaboration
💡Resilience
Highlights
Prevention is key in both health and crime; addressing social determinants of health can also address the root causes of crime.
A powerful analogy about a broken bridge upstream that, when fixed, stopped people from falling into the river, representing proactive solutions rather than reactive ones.
A 65% reduction in violent crime over the past 20 years shows success in Wilmington, but profound issues like the opioid epidemic, gang violence, and rising foster care placements persist.
In one year, there were 285 forced placements of children into foster care, up from 140 two years prior, reflecting the scale of family breakdown due to addiction and other crises.
The success of crime mapping, which geographically isolated areas of high crime, led to the creation of a Youth Enrichment Zone modeled after the Harlem Children's Zone.
The Youth Enrichment Zone, through targeted intervention, reduced violent crime by 28% by increasing graduation rates.
In the Youth Enrichment Zone, only 4 out of 253 children had fathers present, highlighting the role of family structure in crime and poverty.
America holds 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the global prison population, underscoring the need for alternative approaches to incarceration.
A call for reinvesting funds saved from reduced incarceration into treatment programs for those who are mentally ill or drug-addicted.
Nonprofits, businesses, schools, and faith-based communities must work together to create healthier, safer communities, as demonstrated in Wilmington.
A powerful metaphor of a starfish that regenerates its limbs symbolizes the need for community resilience and healing.
School attendance and engagement are critical: a reopened school in the Youth Enrichment Zone became the number one school in attendance, achieving a 98% rate.
Businesses were encouraged to hire individuals with criminal records, contributing to community restoration by giving them a second chance.
The ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) score is a powerful predictor of future involvement in the criminal justice system, with 62% of IV drug users having four or more ACEs.
Children are resilient, and with the right interventions, they can overcome adversity; the call is for universal ACE assessments starting in the first grade.
Transcripts
[Music]
announced that prevention it's worth a
pound of cure doctors nurses your mother
they've been saying that for years but
now it's time that prosecutors police
officers and judges say the same thing
because it turns out that the social
determinants of health they're the same
thing as the root causes of crime stated
another way when we lift up and treat
those in need we make all of us safer
you know water shapes this region the
mighty Atlantic Ocean to the east the
Cape Fear River to the west and it's
also shaped my thinking and there's two
stories I want to share with you that
come from the water there was a man
drowning in the Cape Fear River in
downtown Wilmington and first responders
came in an attempt to rescue him and as
they dove in to help they started seeing
more of people floating down this same
river the natural response was to jump
in and have more first responders to
help but the problem only grew and so
did the response and that's when one
enterprising first responder decided to
walk upstream to see where the problem
was coming from she came upon a bridge a
bridge that people were trying to cross
but there was a hole in the middle and
simply by repairing the bridge she
stopped the people from falling in for
the last 20 years I've been giving
victims a voice at the courthouse I
speak for the dead in murder trials I'm
the conscience for this community
anytime a crime occurs and what I can
tell you is through this job I get to
meet everyone we have five thousand
felonies and 20,000 misdemeanors in my
district every year that's on top of
50,000 traffic tickets in fact some of
you look familiar
but I don't wait for you to come to the
courthouse to go out and meet you I
speak to about 10,000 students every
year in schools I believe it's important
to have an adult conversation with them
about choices and consequences before
they have a right to remain silent but
here's what I have found by doing all of
those things the problems we have at the
courthouse are bigger than we can solve
alone and you've been doing incredible
work in this community
in fact I give every one of my 50
employees two hours off each week to go
volunteer in the community to
proactively prevent the crime that we
see to go upstream but you know it's
just not enough even with the successes
we've enjoyed and check out this number
over the last twenty years we've reduced
violent crime by 65 percent in this
region sixty-five percent it's at the
lowest levels of recorded history
according to our chief and our sheriff
it's never been safer to be in the port
city than right now so why aren't you
cheering I'll tell you why because
there's profound issues that were
confronting and we know what they are
the opioid epidemic if there was ever a
public safety issue in need of a public
health solution that would qualify we're
losing a hundred thirty people a day to
heroin and fentanyl in this country that
translates to about one per week
overdosing in my district statistically
we know of this about our babies five
years ago there were 37 children born
addicted at new head of a Regional
Medical Center last year 135 in our
family treatment courts where we look at
DSS placements into foster care when
these families can no longer take care
of themselves two years ago a hundred
forty forced placements of these
children into other homes last year two
hundred eighty five and then there's the
gang violence the seemingly never-ending
downward spiral of retribution and
retaliation as today's victim becomes
tomorrow's defendant and they look a
whole lot alike by the way drive-by
shootings 30 murder cases last year what
can we do well about a decade ago we got
involved with something called crime
mapping that's where we decided to
geographically isolate where
to this crime was coming from we didn't
pick the area it picked us we looked at
ShotSpotter data literally listening to
where gunshots were coming but also
police reports and even unreported
medical interventions that were
happening at the hospital we found that
it was in a place of crushing poverty
around public housing and all the rest
of the open-air drug transactions of
violent crime that you can think of was
right there so we drew a big zone around
it and called it the youth enrichment
zone and we patterned it after the
Harlem Children's Zone that maybe many
of you have heard about and then we got
to work we decided to go under the roofs
of the children living in this place to
learn a little bit more about what their
day look like we visited 87 homes where
there were 253 children living there
total of four fathers you know when kids
lack structure at home they find it in
each other and that's called a gang so
what do we do with the kids that are
falling through the cracks in the bridge
to say nothing of the mentally ill and
the drug-addicted well for years our
response was to have that pound of cure
called a prison cell we got really good
at that in our country we have 5% of the
world's population and 25% of the
Earth's prisoners let me repeat that in
case you missed it in America we have 5%
of the world's population and 25% of the
Earth's prisoners in that old cliche
about lock them up and throw away the
key doesn't work 98% of the people that
we're putting in prison are getting out
and they're not getting out better in
fact 66% of them are back in that jail
cell within three years under the
current rates of recidivism we have to
do something else so if we don't need to
be building more prisons what do we need
to be building it turns out it's
community because community is also a
structure I've heard it read and seeing
that it's the structure for belonging
and in our community to go out now to
the Atlantic Beach I'm inspired by a
starfish to show you about the structure
of our community you know the starfish
is
one of the healthiest creatures on the
planet because when it breaks off an arm
it has the ability to regenerate itself
I almost never see healthy people at the
courthouse I'm referring now not just to
individual mind body and spirit to be
sure that's included but also people
with healthy relationships among and
between each other we need to focus on
health only about eight percent of us
visit the hospital on any given year and
usually that's in a traumatic event but
a hundred percent of us need to be
worried about wellness
now emanating out from the center of
this starfish are the five arms of
outreach they're the five things that we
can do to lovingly embrace the people
who are falling through those cracks
they're the five things that give
belonging and structure to the people
who I'm talking about and they exist not
just here in my district but in any
place in our country let's talk about
who those groups are and what we're
doing about it in the time I've been
District Attorney first of course
there's the government the government
has a real role here in terms of Public
Safety you know about five years ago I
created a group called law enforcement
leaders to reduce crime and
incarceration and actually you can do
both I went up to Washington DC with
other leaders from around our country to
call our nation to a higher purpose and
met with President Obama and said look
at the example of what we've done here
in North Carolina while these crime
rates have continued to plunge we've
closed 11 prisons we've reduced the
prison population by 10 percent that's
4,000 people to be sure we want habitual
felons the drug traffickers the violent
criminals rapists murderers armed
robbers child molesters of course we
want them in prison but not people who
are mentally ill not people who are drug
addicted
we need to reinvest that money into
their treatment that we save in
incarceration and that's what we've been
doing not just here in Wilmington but
throughout North Carolina and it's
working next we need to focus on
nonprofits that's a great arm of the
starfish in that youth enrichment zone
and I mentioned we created a nonprofit
called the Blue Ribbon Commission on the
prevention of youth violence in just
three short years we reduce violent
crime by 28% by increasing grad
raishin rates by that same number that's
an unbelievable statistic and we did
that organically among all of these
nonprofits that were once in competition
with each other where there were silos
suddenly there was synergy where there
was conflict now there was collaboration
and the whole community came together
and said these aren't black children or
white children they're God's children
and we need to do something better
next of course is the business community
in the schools and at first I want to
focus on the schools because our
children belong there and our adults
belong in jobs fully 70 percent of the
people in prison and on my local jail
they're high school dropouts so keeping
them in school is everything in that
youth enrichment zone when a school
closed down that actually Michael Jordan
graduated from DC Virgo we reopened it
we reopened it as a school of excellence
every child received not just a uniform
but a laptop an extended school day and
a free lunch their grandmothers who were
raising them got involved and made sure
that they had a safe place to go and in
just the first year out of the 42
schools in the public system number one
in the district for attendance rate 98
percent that's an unbelievable thing
because when you give a kid a good place
to go to school and a safe place to
learn they'll respond next as I said is
the business community because the
adults in our community understand the
crime is bad for business
and the business leaders in particular
understand that the street has always
been an equal opportunity employer I met
with a hundred CEOs behind the scenes
and said hire just one person one person
who's justice involved because we have
created a permanent underclass in this
country the scarlet letter F for felony
or M for misdemeanor we have to do
better by them if we're gonna welcome
them all the way back we created
something called hometown hires that was
five years ago and in that time 500
people have been placed into careers
over these next five years we're gonna
place another thousand nothing stops a
bullet quicker than a good-paying job
and then finally the faith-based
community got involved they know that
justice means more than punishing the
wicked it means lifting up the poor in
the oppressed when the old jail closed
down right
next to the courthouse and moved to the
suburbs leaving an empty shell these
different houses of faith pooled their
resources and said let's put our faith
into work they got together and they
brought in different groups to work on
things from human trafficking to
domestic violence our drug treatment
court was run out of there this place of
incarceration became a place of
transformation treating the whole
individual in the whole family unit and
so all of these things are something to
celebrate they are working that's why
the crime rate is dropping and it's
thanks to all of you in this room so why
do we still have people falling through
that hole that I talked about in our
bridge I think it's because we lost
sight of the center we've lost sight of
health you know doctors and lawyers have
long worked together in my profession to
solve cases and prove them beyond a
reasonable doubt this man who had just
convicted of a triple homicide yesterday
we solved it through DNA and the
certainty of science can not only help
us solve these cases it can actually
predict who we're going to see in the
criminal justice system and whose
funeral we're going to attend if we do
nothing here's how it works you know at
hospitals they used to ask questions
like your family history related to
diabetes or to heart disease or to
cancer but a few years ago some
enterprising doctors took what turned
out to be 17,000 patients and started
taking a different family history these
social determinants of health they
created this thing called the ACE score
that stands for adverse childhood
experiences AC e there's ten questions
and the answers to those questions will
have profound implications in a child's
life here they are are your parents
divorced is one of them incarcerated
have you been witnessing domestic
violence under the roof of your home how
about drug use are you neglecting have
you been getting abused mentally or
physically or sexually a child who
answers four or more of those questions
yes has a lot of challenges ahead
70% greater likelihood of coming down to
the courthouse where I work as a
defendant or as a victim in a violent
crime one day 62% of our IV drug users
here in my community and yours answered
for more questions yes and when trauma
is not just an event but it's a daily
process it quite literally changes the
body chemistry and the brain chemistry
ischemic heart disease diabetes teen
pregnancy depression suicide over a
lifetime a kid who answers four of those
questions yes has a 20-year less life
expectancy than everyone else they're
the ones falling through our bridge so
what can we do well here's the really
good news the good news is is that kids
are not washed up at age 8 the clay is
not hardened at age 12 kids are
resilient they can bounce back we can
change the arc of their future in fact I
encourage every justice official in this
room and those watching now to watch
resilience the movie that discusses ace
scores and how you can apply it in your
courthouse - but I'll say this about
these efforts it requires all of us
because if we identify these kids now we
can still find them and buffer them and
make them better and healthy moving
forward which brings me to the second
story from the water there was a little
child he was running down the beach
saving starfish as quickly as he could
they were literally dying on dry land
they were baking in the Sun and they
needed to be returned to the water and
so he said about that task with a fierce
sense of urgency and as he tossed these
fish into the water and it wiser old
adult came and said what are you doing
and he said I'm saving starfish said but
look the Sun is so hot the water has
receded there's so many out before you
you can't possibly make a difference
that little child without looking up
toss the next starfish in and said it
mattered to that one you know
statistics in Washington they have names
in Wilmington I've met them
I've told their stories now they're true
stories in a courtroom for two decades
these bridge work that we all need to be
engaging in right now I have three
challenges for you the first is that we
need to do everything we can to get
these kids universally assessed starting
in the first grade I call for every
child in New Hanover in Kent Pender
counties to be universally assessed for
a scores right now so that we can know
which kids need our resources and need
our five arms of support to reach out
and take care of them second yeah you
bet second for the older adults that are
falling through the cracks we need to
welcome them all the way back to society
if they have a drug addiction or even if
they've been incarcerated you know
through justice reinvestment we've saved
five hundred million dollars over the
last seven years but the idea is it
actually needs to be reinvested back
into treatment and so I'm gonna
challenge our legislature to make good
on the promise that they made to me
when I was president the conference the
district attorneys and we were passing
that law and finally I'll say this to
all of you you know this is not new it's
not novel you don't need a prosecutor to
prove it to you and you don't need
government to give it to you because we
hold these truths to be self-evident
that all of us are created equal that
were endowed by our creator with certain
inalienable augur
the longer I do this job what I realize
is the way to protect life and secure
the blessings of liberty is to make sure
that everyone gets to pursue happiness
that means great schools for kids it
means better jobs for adults it means
that we not only do justice but love
mercy together now the DNA of our
country talks about walking this bridge
arm in arm and the things that divide us
whether they're rural versus Metro black
versus white young versus old Republican
versus Democrat we need to all come
together right now in the interests of
our children the bridge to a better
tomorrow starts with leaving a place of
sickness to a place of health a place of
danger to a place of safety what's going
to allow the kids who I see down at that
courthouse to succeed are the same
things that have caused many of you to
succeed too it's a healthy dose of tough
love these children who I see every day
and will be into the future they've seen
the tough hay whelming ttan hay
Washington hay world it's time to show
them the love thank you very much
[Applause]
[Music]
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