NCJ Number
73671
Date Published
Unknown
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Crime prevention activities of organized labor are discussed, with emphasis on those in California.
Abstract
Organized labor has broad concerns related to crime, because the membership includes millions of Americans affected by the problem, either as taxpayers, victims, or both. As expressions of these concerns, labor has established a number of programs for dealing with the crime problem. Within most California adult and youth correctional facilities, there are trade training programs aimed at providing inmates with employable skills. Wherever these programs exist, there is a Trades Advisory Council composed of representatives of craft and trade unions, employer groups, and officials. In addition, California is one of ten States in which the AFL-CIO Community Services Department is cooperating with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency in developing, on an experimental basis, a Crime Prevention Counselor program. The project's goal is to reduce criminal opportunities and help citizens protect themselves from crime through cooperation with the criminal justice system. Part of the project involves training volunteer counselors in local unions and councils to prepare them to furnish information to union members on how to protect themselves and their families from crime and to assist them in examining the criminal justice system in their communities. Another AFL-CIO program is its First Offender Program, which is designed to provide a diversionary system for first offenders charged with minor offenses. Clients are assisted in finding jobs or are placed in an apprenticeship program within the labor market. Labor's efforts to increase employment of citizens also has the byproduct of reducing circumstances that breed crime.