Smart on Crime in North Carolina

A few years ago, the West End neighborhood of High Point, North Carolina, had a serious crime problem. Drug dealers controlled entire blocks, gun shots rang out at night. But now the streets are safer. Violence is down. And locals say a targeted, community-based approach to drugs and crime brought the change they needed.

A great story last week in the Economist checks in on High Point and finds solid evidence that the 'smart-on-crime' approach works.

High Point Police Chief Jim Fealy tells the Economist that his department did the normal thing for years, where officers would “come rolling in like an occupying army" and descend upon West End's rough blocks. It didn't work.

John Jay Professor David Kennedy -- whose thoughtful crime prevention techniques are gaining momentum across the country -- came to High Point and recommended a new approach. Police determined that just 16 drug dealers controlled most of the traffic in the neighborhood, and only three were regularly violent. They stepped up investigation on the violent suspects and arrested them when caught in the act. The rest were called into a meeting.

Their grandmothers, their neighbors -- and the local cops -- told these drug dealers that they could change their ways and they wouldn't be prosecuted. Community support was offered for education and jobs. It worked. Most of the dealers and criminals changed their ways. Crime in the city is down significantly since 2003. Drugs and violence aren't gone, but the streets are safer.

The Economist points to another tactic that works in situations like this -- short, sure sentences. I've written before about this hypothesis offered by UCLA Professor Mark AR Kleiman in his book "When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment." Kleiman has been making the rounds in the media lately (including a great three-post series on Volokh Conspiracy this week), and I'm happy to see his perspective gaining some traction -- he says it isn't the threat of a 30-year sentence that deters crime. It's the threat of a real sentence.

He points to the example of Judge Steven Alm in Hawaii, who sparked significant reform by handing out instant, short sentences for parole violations. Instead of a five-year sentence that may or may not happen after months of continuances and delays, violators got a sure-thing week in jail. This was enough to stop them from violating parole, and this is at the heart of Kleiman's thinking, too. For most felons, a sentence past a few years is a waste of our tax dollars. A sure sentence is more effective than a long sentence.

Busting up street corners only stops crime in the short term. Community policing and alternatives to incarceration will bring about real change in the system, and these models are finally getting a chance in some communities.