Public Safety Assessment


 

Preliminary Planning

The preliminary planning recommendations listed below are based upon literature, data for Austin/Travis County, focus groups, and input from community members. These recommendations attempt to address the needs of offenders, victims, and the community. Preliminary recommendations for improving public safety in Travis County include:

  • Create a Balance between Funding for Incarceration and Funding for Prevention/Intervention: Change focus from reacting to criminal behavior to an approach that addresses root causes of criminal behavior. Publicly and fiscally recognize that, in the long run, prevention and intervention cost less and are more successful than incarceration.

  • Improve the Delivery of Prevention Services: Develop and implement a comprehensive prevention method that directs services to youth at risk of offending and their families and that holistically and for an effective duration addresses known risk factors for crime.

  • Provide Positive Activities for Youth during the After-School Hours. Provide positive activities for youth during the hours when most juvenile crime occurs.

  • Improve Services for Victims of Child Abuse and Neglect: Increase resources to reduce caseloads, increase salaries, and improve training of child welfare workers so that victims of child abuse and neglect and their families are better served

  • Improve the Social Service System for all Victims: Develop and implement a more accessible, less fragmented system of services for victims of crime, so as to break the cycle of violence. Studies show that youth who are victimized and those who witness violence are at a higher risk of engaging in criminal behavior.

  • Better Prepare Incarcerated Adults for Release into the Community: Implement a comprehensive continuum of services for incarcerated adults by which to prepare them for release into the community. Continue providing services for adults released from incarceration, to help them move towards self-sufficiency and reduce the high rates of recidivism.

  • Improve Data Availability and Quality: Improve access to and quality of data relating to public safety, so that the community can make more planning decisions.

    As a planning body in Travis County, the Community Justice Council has taken initial steps to address the second recommendation. The Council is pursuing the concept of a community assessment center to improve the delivery of services to children and families in Austin/Travis County. The center would provide comprehensive assessment and referral to youth at risk of offending, as well as their families.

    In addition, the Victim Services 2000 Task Force recently reconvened to work towards improving the victim services system in Travis County.

    Finally, the Austin region's Parole Office has connected with a community-based council that has recently been created to begin community dialogue about the need for addressing the re-integration of offenders into the community.

    The hope is that these efforts will be pulled together into an action plan that will improve public safety for the entire community. The Community Justice Council has taken initial steps to address the development of a comprehensive action plan for the community by the creating the Community Justice 2000 Work Group. This group, consisting of community members and representatives from governmental entities, is charged with developing an action plan, as well as developing and implementing community justice pilot projects and engaging neighborhoods and schools throughout Travis County in community justice planning.

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