Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990 TAG: 9006210260
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
"I think the inner-city housing projects, which have become breeding grounds for drug dealing and violence, should be eliminated," Peter G. Decker Jr. said. Decker was re-elected Wednesday as chairman.
"Law-abiding residents of the projects are terrorized by outlaws who lure generation after generation of young men into lives of delinquency and crime," he said.
So that "these ghettos of crime can be abolished," government and private companies should team up to provide safe, low-income housing for the law-abiding, Decker said.
Decker also called for broader use of drug education and prevention programs, parole of greater numbers of non-violent prison inmates, and greater use of work-release programs.
"I believe much more needs to be done to attack the root causes of crime and delinquency, in an effort to prevent some of those future convicts from the behavior that leads to imprisonment," Decker said.
Decker, a Norfolk lawyer, cited a lack of education as one of the root causes of crime. About 70 percent of the state's 14,600 prison inmates lack a high school education, he said, and nearly half the inmates had juvenile-court records before being imprisoned.
"The day is fast approaching when anyone without the equivalent of a high school education will be virtually unemployable, making a future of delinquency and crime even more likely," Decker said.
He said stronger incentives are needed to persuade teen-agers to stay in school.
Decker proposed that the General Assembly enact laws to block a school dropout from obtaining a driver's license or a work permit. He said a student's driver's license should be revoked if he or she is expelled or suspended from school.
Decker also said there should be a state law that a high school education or its equivalent be a prerequisite for getting any type of state or local government job.
He also proposed that prison inmates be required to earn the equivalent of a high school education before becoming eligible for parole.
More of the growing numbers of convicts are in prison because of drug convictions, Decker said.
"The number of felony drug convictions has been growing at 21.6 percent annually since 1985," he pointed out.
The time has come to match the "enforcement efforts with an equal drive to reduce the market for illicit drugs through innovative prevention programs," he said.
by CNB