Gender, Youth and Crime

(5/20/2008)

Statistics do not support the rosy belief that America’s current crime wave will simply run its course. The increasing rate of crime among women and juveniles assures us that the problem will only get worse. In Colorado, the incarceration rate of women has grown faster than the incarceration
rate for men. Between 1993 and 2003, the women’s prison population grew by 233.3% while the male prison population grew by 106%. The women’s prison population is projected to grow another 71% by 2011 from just over 2,100 to over 3,500. The men’s prison population is projected to grow by 41% by 2011.
The statistics for youth are even worse - since both boys and girls are committing serious crimes at ever younger ages.

Consider this for a moment: When families have a father in jail, over half of the children raised in that home eventually run afoul of the law. When both mom and dad are in jail, nearly all of their children slip into criminal lifestyles. We can be sure that the Corrections Industry will continue as a high-growth sector into the next century.

The youth problem has yet to be addressed on a scale deserving of its enormity. Shekinah volunteers now work in the Platte Valley Youth Correctional Facility at Greeley. But there are at least ten others that we should be servicing. These are maximum security jails and house inmates as young as 10-years-old. Many of these kids don't want to return home when they get out; but there aren't enough foster homes to begin to meet the need, so most are dutifully returned to the environment that produced them in the first place.

Shekinah Christian Ministries also desires to help fund a promising new program called "Reality Tours," which takes high-risk youths on day trips to jails and prisons to hear convicts tell about the futility, darkness and destruction of crime and drugs in their lives.

Selected brothers and sisters in our jail and prison programs will then be scheduled to counsel the youth on the road they are traveling - and convince them that they need to change their ways. For those who slip through the Reality Tour safety net, it is generally agreed that Shekinah Ministries needs to place particular emphasis on long-term shepherding and mentoring needs of those who are incarcerated. Little is being done in the way of follow-up for adults -- youthful offenders are getting even less attention at this time.

All such efforts require money, and it is critically important that Shekinah Supporters join us in fund-raising efforts to help keep children from becoming career criminals. We will be seeking additional grants to fund the programs, but we can’t do it alone. Please help. Just listen to the Lord and do what he tells you to do.