It needs to be acknowledged at some point that a SAFER KENTUCKY begins very early in childhood development and requires intensive human development oversight. Parenting is crucial, but is so lacking in availability and effectiveness that “surrogate parenting” in the COMMUNITY is needed.
First of all, nobody ever receives certifiable parenting instruction. Parents are left to figure it out for themselves, based on very limited, often unreliable – and sometimes wrong – experience. Parental vacuums are rampant, with increasing numbers of single parent families, drug addiction, and dual parents working multiple low–wage jobs. “Surrogate parenting” in such circumstances consists mainly of social media, video games, and “boob tube” and smart phone nannying.
Finally, role models for matriculation in civilization are not always the most reliable, particularly for youth at highest risk.
Pre-20th Century civilization relied a great deal on cultivation through community interaction – through civic organizations, churches, “company town” structures, neighborhood enclaves (ghettoes?), extended family connections, etc. But the great diaspora of people to the suburbs, the hollowing out of neighborhoods, and the escalating pressures on family structures left youth at the mercy of their own degenerative inclinations … seeing how much they could “get away with” and trying to be “Beat the System”.
Increasing numbers of parents looked toward public schools to “straighten their kids out”. But, having to do double-duty picking up the parenting gauntlet, the public school systems have increasingly struggling to fulfill their educational mission/mandate, so that neither the surrogate parenting nor public education systems are working! And when everything else goes predictably off track, the cry goes out “Lock ‘em up!”
Let’s be clear: A SAFER KENTUCKY is not well served by locking more people behind bars after they’ve gone off-track. A SAFER KENTUCKY is better accomplished by preemptive, front-end guiding intervention … keeping idle hands busy – with enlightened supervision – rather than putting them in handcuffs. “Idle Hands” and minds are THE great challenge of the 21st Century.
It is worth noting here that what “Made America Great” the first time around, — even in the wake of two World Wars and the Great Depression – was not its prison system but compulsory military service, the CCC and the WPA … not counting those given exemptions for bone spurs and such, of course.
Childhood labor has become a flashpoint concern – mainly for protection of youth against corporate abuse, even as immigrant and impoverished families strive to acquire “survival based” income by putting every available pair of hands into the marketplace.
However, putting idle hands to work in meaningful engagement early in development – learning marketable skills, ingraining a culture of usefulness and accountability, developing discipline, understanding teamwork, gaining satisfaction in positive results, etc. – would accrue both societal and individual benefits that are difficult … if EVER possible … to achieve otherwise. Think junior apprenticeships and internships. Think an extended workforce pipeline. Think “Cheap labor” for business and industry (with close monitoring from educational sources). Think planting seeds of aspiration and possibility. Think comprehensive human development. Think “Habililtation” rather than Re-Habilitation.
Take BABY SITTING, for example: “Families still need help caring for their kids. Teens still need money, and chances to practice responsibility. And neighbors could stand to trust one another more – to start building their village … Perhaps we’ll find a way to finally treat adolescents as just what they are: not children and not adults, not scary and not superhuman. Just young people who, with a bit of support [and guidance] can be capable of a great deal.” Faith Hill, THE ATLANTIC/THE WEEK April 12, 2024, pp. 36-37.
Imagine what might be possible if all the money proposed for new places of incarceration were plowed into expanded education and purposeful “Habilitation” programs!
Yes, it’s a harder row to hoe because we can’t simply hand acculturation off as somebody ELSE’S problem. But the paybacks from reduced crime to enhanced economic advancement to positive mental health benefits would be so much greater than the investment required.
NOTE: While Rugged Individualism and Survival of the Fittest are widely revered paradigms for the “American Way” – and while failure is disparagingly viewed as “your own damned fault” – the tools and trappings for “making it on your own” have grown much more complicated. We’re no longer a civilization of cowboys and Indians, guns are no longer the defining elements of Agency, and the demand for advanced skills and creative, collaborative engagement, together with enhanced social consciousness, has raised the stakes for both individual and collective success.
What’s even more sobering is the fact that most of us started out life in a “socialistic” setting – in families where all wealth is shared. We may have shared minor responsibilities, as well (cleaning up our rooms, emptying the dishwasher, etc.) In school, we got advanced a grade every year whether we were “proficient” or not … whether we got Cs, Ds or anything else above an F. And we ended up with a certificate of participation (“Diploma”) that says very little about our real capacity to contribute. And then we’re dumped into a highly competitive CAPITALISTIC system with no real skills, wrapped in nothing but a participation certificate to sink or swim.
Related efforts ARE being made in helping create a Safer Lexington, as evident in the establishment of One Lexington:
“In 2017, we created the ONE Lexington initiative to coordinate activities addressing violent crime – inside and outside city government. To do so effectively, it is crucial that we collaborate with public and private partners as we understand that the city cannot solve these problems alone. To make a difference, this work calls for our faith and non-profit communities, schools, and neighborhood leaders to join city government partners in wrapping our arms, hearts, and resources around these issues.” https://www.lexingtonky.gov/one-lexington
But these are only stop-gap measure and so much more needs to be done.
POST NOTE:
We would do well to learn from advanced “Socialist Democratic” states, such as Denmark and Sweden, about cultivating / “Habilitating” youth in protected but accountability-driven, “socialistic” system, providing preparation for both independent life and work.
REFLECTION: Residential “Reform Schools” were readily available “habilitation” alternatives in the 1950s. What if – in addition to REHABILITATION SCHOOLS, as a hedge against expansion of Juvenile Detention Centers – we created campuses for combined family and youth acculturation in place of additional incarceration facilities? Family members could help provide basic services and oversight while learning life management skills.
This opens the door (sic.) for considerations of combining AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMPLEXES with educational and habilitation services.
I’m remembering with great fondness the regional I.O.O.F “Odd Fellows Home” in Western PA where the residents helped run a more or less self-sufficient campus growing their own food, doing maintenance and custodial work, food preparation, etc. Places like Shaker Village also come to mind.
What is desperately needed throughout civilization in the 21st Century is more TOP-DOWN supervision [extended parenting, if you like], with a demonstration of “proficiency” required before being released “solo” into the universe. Individuals should have expanded personal choices in how and where they participate in civilization, but they should not have unlimited choice NOT TO PARTICIPATE or to participate on their own terms!
FINAL REFLECTION: It amazes me how quick folks are to complain about immigrants taking jobs from Americans when: 1) most jobs the immigrants are “taking” are not jobs any “self-respecting” American would take, and 2) so many Americans are refusing to take advantage of advanced job and career preparation offered on their own turf! Thus, both bottom and top-end jobs are being taken by immigrants while “fully enfranchised and entitled Americans” – primed mainly to “Beat the System” and see how much they can “get away with” – are simply taking left-over “Gig” jobs with lousy prospects and complaining the whole way to social media platforms and the ballot box!