Sidebar: Curbing Gang Crime

As the chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development, Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas is revamping the way the city interacts with gang members, primarily through a unique intervention program.

"[This] is a program where individuals with what they call street credibility can walk up to a gang member and say, ‘Why are you doing what you're doing? We have ways in which we can help you get some skills to get a job, to pull you away from that lifestyle,'" Cardenas said. "It's not an easy thing to do."

Since gang members can start as young as 12 years old, convincing them to quit can be a difficult task, Cardenas said.

"Can a social worker do it? Probably not," he said. "Can a police officer do it? Yeah, they might get attention for the moment, but they're not going to get through to them because they don't speak their language, they're not seen as a friend, there isn't a connection between them other than a momentary respect because they don't want to have to deal with the officer."

A gang interventionist is, more often than not, a former gang member, and that's what gives him street credibility, Cardenas said.

Since 2000, when Los Angeles started investing more earnestly in intervention prevention programs, youth homicides and youth violence has slightly decreased each year.

"In my legislation, I required the [California] Department of Corrections, which actually gives out the money to local governments, to report back to the state of California about how many programs they utilize the money for, how many youth were helped, etc.," Cardenas said, adding that technology plays a role in the required documentation from these organizations. "Everybody is using computers; everybody is communicating by e-mail now."

Cardenas said that the average intervention prevention program costs the government about $1,200 to $1,300 per person, while the state spends more than $40,000 per year to incarcerate an adult, and more than $90,000 per year to incarcerate a youth.

"This preventive intervention investment is saving the state millions of dollars," he said, "and over time, billions."