Gangs: Research, Trends
and Interventions
On April 22, 2014,
the NJ Chapter of the American Correctional
Association hosted a one-day forum entitled
Gangs: Research, Trends and
Interventions. Over 200 corrections
professionals attended the forum, which featured a
Plenary Session entitled Gangs: Myths
“Mostly,” Reality, Getting Real Work Done”
presented by Dr. David Kennedy, Director of the
Center for Crime Prevention and Control at the
John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Dr. Kennedy provided an evocative
discussion regarding ongoing efforts at combating
gang violence, popular myths and misconceptions
regarding all facets of gang activities. Dr.
Kennedy indicated the term “group” was a more
appropriate vernacular to use to describe the
numerous loose criminal associations individuals
have formed with one another vs. the over-used
“gang” terminology which provides an incorrect
connotation of an integrated criminal network or
enterprise that is rarely the case. Dr.
Kennedy also provided an excellent overview of
efforts to both research and combat security
threat group activities throughout the country,
with an emphasis on law and justice efforts to
combat criminal group activities in Boston,
Chicago and Los Angeles.
Following
Dr. Kennedy’s presentation, three breakout
sessions were held to further explore the issue of
security threat group involvement:
Ed
Torres of the NJ Gang Investigators Association
and Dean Baratta of the NJ Office of Homeland
Security and Preparedness provided separate
overviews of security threat groups found in
correctional settings and discussed security
threat group identifiers, prevalence, and
successful law enforcement responses to the
security threat groups.
Rob Meador of
the Phoenix/New Freedom Programs provided an
overview of the New Freedom Programs, which
challenge clients with pro-criminal attitudes to
motivate them toward change.
The very
successful event culminated with a luncheon and
Annual NJACA Meeting that provided attendees with
an opportunity to network and exchange ideas and
best practices regarding offender supervision and
programming. Daniel Lombardo and Kevin
McHugh were honored with awards for over 25 years
of membership in
NJACA.
Submitted by: David
Wolfsgruber, CPM, First Vice
President
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