Anne Cutler talks to Lelia Gowland about the YPA bill introduced by Senator Mary Landrieu & U.S. Senator James Inhofe from Oklahoma designed to help prevent juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity through prison reduction, opportunities, mentoring, intervention, support and education.

The Youth PROMISE Act would:

Create a new purpose area for the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Grant.

Fund, implement, and evaluate evidence-based, locally controlled youth and gang violence prevention and intervention practices.

Create a PROMISE Advisory Panel of state representatives to aid in assessing community needs and resources, developing and enforcing program evaluation standards and overseeing implementation.

Engage a wide range of community stakeholders to serve on local PROMISE Coordinating Councils, which will develop and implement custom PROMISE Plans for their communities.

Build on local strengths by partnering with colleges and universities as regional research partners, and establish a National Research Center for Proven Juvenile Justice Practices.

Create an average cost benefit of $5 for every $1 investment through the prevention and intervention of juvenile delinquency.

For more information regarding the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, just log on to: http://jjpl.org/