Introduction
Baltimore is said to be the largest city in Maryland, with a population of approximately 700,000 people. However, at least 22% of the population, which is 154,200 people, live in poverty. The city is strategically located, which allows it to have significant economic, physical, and cultural resources, which in return makes it one of the best cities to live in as cited by the Money’s survey (Roth, Kelling, BOTEC Analysis Corporation, & United States of America. 2004). Despite all this, the city has been lagging due to the issues of crime, drug addicts and dealers, and problems of guns, which were categorized at a crisis level. For instance, the Boyd Booth area has had the largest open-air market for drugs, and the area alone had the largest account for homicides committed in the city.
The accelerated crime rate was attributed to Baltimore's community housing and organizing, which consisted of abandoned old houses, the existence of “back houses,” and warren-like paths between the majority of the houses. These were said to be the drug dealers' places and other people to organize for crime. To deal with the crime rate in Baltimore, the Comprehensive Communities Program (CCP) was to be enhanced through the help of Community Law Center (CLC), and the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA) (Roth, Kelling, BOTEC Analysis Corporation, & United States of America. 2004). CCP is a Federal program aiming to implement strategies in the communities that would deal with crime control and prevention. CLC is an organization in Maryland that aims at revitalizing communities. CPHA is an organization in Baltimore that aims at supporting and training leadership in the community. The three organizations were to work together with the local residents to address the issue surrounding the neighborhood. The following paper intends to explore the collaborative efforts by the organizations and their impacts in Baltimore.
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The positive aspects resulting from the collaborative initiative.
Crime control and prevention in Baltimore. The main objective of the CCP initiative and the collaborations was to combat crime in Baltimore. This was effectively done through various strategies. First, there were local police patrols funded by CCP, which aimed at identifying malicious activities as well as bond with the community. The communities around, who stood to benefit from the patrols, were collaborative with the police, who willingly gave out the hideout places of the criminal activities. The idea of community policing can be attributed to a great portion of the collaborative initiative's effectiveness in combating crime, for people would report any suspicious activities to the police with no fear (Miller, 2012). Second, each organization played its role in ensuring that crime is fought with. For instance, CLC was on its toes to ensure that house owners were responsible for their houses, and in case one is moving out, they were to perform the cleanups, block ups or board-ups, and also, they were to file a receivership file which would indicate the new ownership of the house. This effectively reduced the number of abandoned old houses that would host the criminal activities.
Third, the establishment of activities to be performed by young people effectively facilitated crime reduction in Baltimore. The young people were enrolled in apprenticeship programs and clubs like the boys and girls clubs, which occupied their time, allowing them to do creative activities instead of idling around, which would appropriate for criminal activities (Roth, Kelling, BOTEC Analysis Corporation, & United States of America. 2004). Such prevention activities are said to be slow in preventing crime, yet, they are said to have long-term effects (Shifter, 2012). Finally, street outreach, especially of the people who were previously involved in crime was effective in identifying the crime hotspots and the active-offenders. Inconsequent crime was deterred in Baltimore, which facilitated a better living in the community.
The other positive outcome of the collaboration was skills and recreation development among the youths. The establishment of the apprenticeship programs and other youth programs such as the boys and girls clubs and the use of alternatives ways to punish crime among the youth brought about another aspect of not only preventing crime but also involving the youth in ways they can benefit themselves (Shifter, 2012). For instance, by 1997, the collaboration is said to have established 37 apprenticeship communities. Among other things, the programs trained the youth strategies that can be used to fight crime in the community. The fact that the leadership behind CPHA and CLC believed in building the interests of the community facilitated the successful development of the recreation and skills development programs in Baltimore.
Finally, the collaborative initiative yielded a clean Baltimore, with clean paths, less dumped trash in the city, and less abandoned houses, which were better taken care of. This was achieved through the use of alternative punishment methods of assigning the offenders responsibilities of cleaning the city and receiving payments after the work is done, use of CLC to ensure that people take care of their houses, and when abandoning them, the necessary procedures were followed.
The partner who was less essential to the initiative.
From the case study, the partner who can be considered as less essential was the Baltimore drug court. Although the court would have been a crucial partner in combating crime by controlling drug usage and other activities related to drug use, its presence was not compulsory. The organizations were more effective in combating crime in its absence for the majority of the activities required collaborations from the community, and the programs implemented by the initiatives such as the apprenticeship programs occupied a majority of the youths giving the court less work to do and hence reducing its significance.
The criminal justice entity that would have overseen the initiative succeed.
The community policing that was led by the Baltimore police department can be attributed to the success of the initiative. However, I still feel that if they had not participated, their absence could have been detrimental to the success of the initiative. The Baltimore police department participated in the local patrols in the city, and they collaborated with the community to identify, eradicate and fight crime in the city (Roth, Kelling, BOTEC Analysis Corporation, & United States of America. 2004). Police departments are crucial when it comes to deterring crime in any state. They also collaborated with the CPHA, MCCCJ, and CLC, among other institutions to ensure that Baltimore was a safe place to live in again. During the patrols, the police came one on one with the public, which brought them an understanding of the community compared to any other body in the criminal justice system.
The non-criminal justice body that would have enhanced the success of the initiative.
Boyd Booth is said to be a neighborhood that consisted at least 525 houses, and it is a community association that keeps the community safe. The association reports any malicious activities even before they become dangerous, which helps keep Baltimore safe. The association began even before the CCP was to be launched, and its role in the initiative's success is magnificent. As a result, if the association were not available in the initiative, the results would not have been the same.
In conclusion, the initiative of CCP, CLC, and CPHA, among other agencies and organizations, successfully brought Baltimore back to social order by implementing various strategies. Some of the strategies included community policing, alternate methods of punishing offenders, ensuring that the abandoned homes were better taken care of, and establishing programs such as apprentice programs and boys and girls clubs to deter crime. Additionally, some organizations such as the Baltimore Department of police and Boyd Booth task force were crucial for the success of the initiative.
References
Miller, W. R. (2012). The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: A-De (Vol. 1). Sage.
Roth, J. A., Kelling, G. L., BOTEC Analysis Corporation, & United States of America. (2004). Baltimore's Comprehensive Communities Program: A Case Study. Report prepared for National institute of Justice. NCJRS document , 204627 .
Shifter, M. (2012). Countering criminal violence in Central America (No. 64). Council on Foreign Relations.
