COMBAT THE CAUSES

Al Singer's piece on your April 13 Op-ed page was a voice crying in the
wilderness. Juvenile delinquency continues to be ignored while we pour
billions of dollars into "fighting crime" and the "war on drugs." Somehow
it is more politically popular to build prisons than it to try to do
something about the breeding grounds of criminality. It this state we are
steering toward a policy of deinstitutionalizing populations in need of
care and treatment under the guise of offering better options through
community services and programs. What we do, though, is take the money and
run to the nearest pork-barrel boondoggle, reserving a mite of the spoils
to fund some new state plan or study commission. Community-based
intervention, whether in mental health or juvenile delinquency, is almost
always preferable to institutional care, but such services cost money too
and require strong community and political support.

Along with our appreciation and admiration for their struggle, Singer and
those on the front lines of community service deserve more support and
better funding. Unfortunately, they probably won't get it -- unless they
propose a new, expensive high-rise prison for delinquents in an area that
needs a quick fix for a foundering economy.

Don Taylor

Raleigh