$3 million spent on crime prevention since 2010

Monica Cobis doesn't mince words when she warns sixth-graders in the Muscogee County School District about the risks associated with early sexual activity.

"I'm going to tell you some stuff today and you're not going to feel very comfortable, and that's OK because that's my job," she told students at Double Churches Middle School last week.

"There are 27 sexually transmitted diseases out there," she said. "And we know that one in three girls will be pregnant by the age of 20. Boys, that means you're a daddy at 20."

Cobis presented the information as part of an abstinence program called W.A.I.T. (Why Am I Tempted?), which is associated with the Right from the Start initiative at the Pastoral Institute. The program is one of 21 that have received funding through the Columbus Crime Prevention Program to help the city fight crime. In all, a total of $3 million has been allocated to local programs over the past four years. And WAIT received $40,000.

Seth Brown, the city's director of crime prevention, said the programs funded so far have saved taxpayers about $2.5 million by reducing recidivism rates at the local county jail and steering people away from criminal activity. He said programs such as W.A.I.T., which stress strong family values, are part of a long-term strategy that will make the community safer over time.

Applications for the next round of grants are due March 31, and Brown hopes to allocate a little over $700,000.

"The term crime prevention, when people think about it, they think of active crime prevention, right now, and a lot of our stuff we're not going to see results for three to five years," he said. "We have targeted the middle school more than we've ever done in the past because we're seeing that that's where we can start to make a change before they start making those decisions that impact them for the rest of their lives."

But there's debate within the community about how funds designated for crime prevention should be spent. Some grassroots leaders say too much of the money is going to local law enforcement agencies, colleges and large nonprofits, and not enough to smaller community-based organizations on the frontlines of the fight against crime.

The largest chunk of the money went to the Columbus Police Department's DARE to be GREAT programs, which received 12 percent of the funds. The next most funded programs were the Literacy Alliance and F.A.S.T. (Family And Schools Together), which each received 10 percent.

Columbus Technical College and Columbus State University received 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively, of the grant money over the past four years. Columbus Tech received $267,000 for a program called Giving the Deserving Another Chance, which helps former inmates find employment. CSU received $164,505 for Empowering Youth of Columbus, a program that collaborates with other organizations to provide at-risk youth with a wide range of out-of-school learning experiences.

At the same time, crime continues to increase. The number of Part I crimes in Columbus rose by 7 percent from 2013 to 2014, jumping from 13,454 to 14,413, according to statistics released by the Columbus Consolidated Government. The numbers increased in every Part I crime category except murder, which remained the same as in 2013. While the 2014 rate of Part I crimes was the fourth lowest since 2005 when the population had 20,000 fewer people, it was the second consecutive year of increase since 2012.

J. Aleem Hud, founder and executive director of Project Rebound, says he has been working with at-risk youths in Columbus for 25 years, using Afrocentric principles as a rite of passage into adulthood. Many of his clients are former gang members trying to turn their lives around and positively influence their peers.

Yet Hud hasn't been able to get a crime prevention grant from the city.

"The whole crime prevention office is not structured in any way that can be effective," he said in a recent interview. "It has become too politicized and it will never be effective because it's used to reward and punish people who happen to have a different view as to how the problem needs to be approached.

"What they are doing is creating a competition among those of us who do this work," he said. "And the result of that is turf wars instead of a concerted coalition to address the problem."

The Rev. Willie Phillips of Winterfield on the Move Against Drugs said he hasn't applied for a crime prevention grant because he believes the people allocating the money are far removed from crime-ridden neighborhoods, and he doesn't think they would give him one.

"The money doesn't go to people who really know what's going on in the community," he said. "I believe when crime prevention starts working with the grassroots leaders who really know what's going on, it will bring a lot of the crime down."

But Brown said the funds are helping reduce crime in many neighborhoods.

"I think the numbers we presented to (Columbus Council) and the programs that we have funded are showing a dramatic impact, much greater than we ever anticipated," he said. "The GED program in the jail, we fund 100 percent of it and recidivism has been reduced by about 40 percent for people who participate in that. We opened Boxwood (recreational center), which wouldn't have been opened without our office. That was a pretty rough neighborhood at that time and we've seen a 10 percent reduction in crime.

"Even though we've seen an increase in crime in some areas, I wonder where we would've been without some of the programs that we've created or funded through this," he added. "There were programs that existed before but because of the dramatic cuts in federal and state funding, they would have had to significantly scale back their operations, or shut down in some cases, without funding from us."

Brown said programs that go before council are chosen by a seven-member board, four of the members selected by the mayor and three by councilors. The board includes representatives from public safety, educational institutions and Fort Benning. It is currently chaired by LaRae D. Moore, an attorney with the law firm Hatcher, Stubbs, Land, Hollis & Rothschild, who was appointed to the position in January.

Brown said programs that receive grants have to fit into what he calls "five spokes" -- education, community policing, drug and alcohol prevention, recreation and employment. To qualify, applicants must have 501(c)(3) status, a functioning board, a budget and a plan to measure results.

"If it meets those qualifications, it doesn't matter what I think," Brown said. "It goes to the board and they vote. I literally have no say so on what this office approves and what it doesn't approve."

Brown said when programs at larger institutions such as CSU, Columbus Tech and the Pastoral Institute are funded, the dollars can go further because the city doesn't have to pay for overhead.

He said Project Rebound hasn't received funds in the past because "the board felt like there were some issues there that didn't put it in the right frame for us to fund."

He said Dr. Robert Wright, a former board chairman, talked to Hud about revamping his program and Hud hasn't returned for funding since.

"I don't think there was anything wrong with Dr. Hud's program or there was anything fishy or anything," Brown said. "I just think there were some areas where they didn't think it quite fit into the mold of what the board felt like it needed to be funded from.

"What we always say is the organization that we did not fund, it was not a bad idea," he said. "It just did not fit completely inside of the parameters of who we are and what our mission is."

Alva James-Johnson, 706-571-8521. Reach her on Facebook at AlvaJamesJohnsonLedger.

CRIME PREVENTION FUND ALLOCATIONS 2010-2014

Juvenile Drug Court: $205,270, 7 percent

Mental Health Court: $175,000, 6 percent

Families and Schools Together: $302,000, 10 percent

Marshall Movers: $79,332, 3 percent

Columbus State University: $164,505, 5 percent

Columbus Technical College: $267,000, 8 percent

Adult Drug Court: $210,122, 7 percent

Teen Advisors: $128,100, 4 percent

DARE to be GREAT: $382,777, 12 percent

Chattahoochee Jail Ministry: $125,824.30, 4 percent

Copper Theft Task Force: $10,843.87, 0.34 percent

Drama Kids: $30,150, 1 percent

Neighborhoods Focused on African American Youth: $112,210, 4 percent

Boxwood Parks and Rec: $145,000, 5 percent

Junior Marshal Program: $152,708, 5 percent

Literacy Alliance: $311,177.25, 10 percent

Georgia Appleseed: $204,500, 6 percent

TIP: $35,000, 1 percent

Education is the Answer.: $45,000.00, 1 percent

Right from the Start: $40,000, 1 percent

Big Brothers/Big Sisters: $20,000, 1 percent

TOTALS: $3,146,519.12

This story was originally published March 24, 2015 at 11:12 PM with the headline "$3 million spent on crime prevention since 2010."