This credible messenger program is based on the idea of pairing formerly bad kids who have done through the criminal justice system and managed to turn their lives around. Now that they're wonderful. they get paired up with at-risk youth and act as mentors. The people who came up with this idea apparently never read Oliver Twist and are blissfully unaware that many formerly bad kids become bad adults like Fagin.
"Fagin will make something of you, though, or you'll be the first he ever had that turned out unprofitable."
The nonprofits who benefit from these programs will tell you they are 98% effective at reducing recidivism, which is obvious horseshit. The only credible and independent evidence I can find about these programs appeared in a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story. Milwaukee has had a credible messenger program since 2021. Of 65 teens enrolled, 15 of them have already re-offended, with four having done so twice. This is very much an unproven program. A better use could have been made of that one-time grant.
Blogger Michael Molovinsky suggests that money could have been used to pay or a few more cops. While I'd agree that more police officers are the best way to reduce gun violence, I believe it would be a mistake to use one-time revenue to pay for recurring expenses. A better use of the money would be the purchase of police, firefighting or EMS equipment. Northampton County gave $600,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds in public safety grants to its municipalities.
46 comments:
His name is Dr. Batts. Damnit. Not a joke. By the way, please use spell checker or grammar check. But great article none the less.
OK but your bestie McClure spends untold millions forever on a redundant medical system and that is great? You are a strange bird with your love and hate lists.
https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-2008-08-21-4172679-story.html
Allentown deserves what it votes for...
Nice payoff for Bates, it does pay to be anti-police in Allentown.
Please Bernie da Boomer you have never been in the streets and don’t realIze how suss it is when old honkies try to instruct the BipOcs on how to do best practices when it comes to keeping black bodies out of harms way. More pigs? Please homie we need street preachers on every corner uplifting the youth, participate don’t player hate!
Justan Credible
Allentown won't get better because it doesn't want to get better.
Or... we could decriminalize or legalize the drug trade and actually treat substance abuse as the disease it is which would decrease criminal activity incredibly. But, naah, let's keep the course we've been on for over 50 years since its been working so well. It definitely helps keep the prison unions and gun manufacturers happy among others.
I don't think you fact checked this....its a total different organization that is receiving the funds
@8:04 - "Or... we could decriminalize or legalize the drug trade and actually treat substance abuse as the disease it is which would decrease criminal activity incredibly." Give everyone access to highly addictive drugs and then treat that addiction as a disease? How could that go wrong.
Have you looked for evidence that having more police reduces crime or, more broadly, community harm? If you're going by gut feelings on this one, you might be surprised by what the evidence shows.
The money is not earmarked for Promise. We also presented and can prove our community impact. We have been doing it with limited resources and collaboration. There are Certified Credible Messengers in the Valley, we are just not funded
You and I both know that Promise is getting most of the money
Best idea would be to take the money, buy drugs and distribute it for free to the residents. Let them chill out forever.
what else will a politician do.
Just waiting for the OP-ED in the Morning Call from a local college student objecting to the word "Fagin."
Boy, do they need Ray back.
Bernie only in Allentown PA has it become fashionable to teach America's impressionable youth sorcery. This all made possible by a jailhouse purchased Dr degree funded by local grant specialists.
It's important to remember that PhD stand for Phony Doctor. If you can't write me an Rx for perks, you're not a doctor and should stop calling yourself one.
who are they, why aren't they funded? where did they get their credentials from. why wouldn't Y'ALL already be working with a program if you are credible messengers.
Haha more hate jealousy and spewing from your foul mouth, your mother would be proud. You seem to be huge fan of Dr. Batts, what happened he wouldn't give you the time of day, he brushed you off, awww your temper tantrum shows your privileged entitlement. Back off and kick rocks...Bernie
Really, more cops?
Bernie and M Molovinsky - you guys are dinosaurs in your thinking. It has been 10 years since Sandy Hook, elementary kids getting slaughtered by military weapons. We need to tighten the gun laws in this country and work together to help stop the violence. Forget about policing, it hasn’t worked in over the last 40 years, it just places the poorest people in jail. You need to focus your energy to find unconventional methods that worked in other civilized countries. Check out what Sweden, Australia would do to stop recidivism and teenagers committing crime in the first place.
Who is we? Why are you not funded? What’s your name?
Who is certified credible messengers, please elaborate more I have never heard of such a organization or chapter
Every time Bernie mentions Batts name his liberal supporters donate more funds
Well, they better donate a lot more bc its expenses have exceeded revenue the past few years.
The 2020 '990 shows a net loss of $19,400. The 2019 '990 shows a net loss of $103,000. So it will want to latch onto every penny it can grab.
https://www.guidestar.org/profile/46-4977927
why wouldn't they get the money? who else is doing the work? I see this organization out in the community on a regular. they have a beautiful wellness center that distributes food in the community. they are at the schools deterring bullying & interacting with the youths. let's not forget the work they do with the families of gunshot victims. there's is alot of discrediting an organization that is only helping their community. I guess Bernie out here donating money to the cause and helping people of color & gunshot victims.
If Promise were so successful, Allentown's crime rate would be going down, not up. There would be fewer shootings and more kids would stay in school. Sorry.
Wow, you ought to go into standup comedy. 😆
You’re measuring the success of Promise based on the crime rate? Does that same logic work for the police?
If the police were so successful, Allentown's crime rate would be going down, not up. Sorry.
Bernie you need to fact check before going on a rant. Your rant is and sounds like it is a personal attack on someone you just dislike. Spreading mis information is dangerous especially if it’s based on your hurt feelings. Be a journalists not a whiny child. You can do better. Also, the worst part of the last council meeting was the fact that they all voted to table the ARPA funds until 2023 again. This money that is supposed to help our city is still sitting there unused because council and the mayor are to scared of there political backlash. Other cities across the country have already used there ARPA funds. Even the neighbors in Bethlehem have. There are real issues that can be addressed at this time. Issues such as homelessness. This is a HUGE issue in Allentown. The Mayor just ignores it as people freeze to death on his streets. The shelters are all filled. Family shelters have a 3-6 month wait list. If a family with children becomes homeless tonight there is literally no where for them to go. Bethlehem is knee deep in making sure that doesn’t happen in their city. The All year shelter is happening there. Allentown still can’t agree if they are going to fund one. ARPA funds could make that happen. Never less council and the mayor of will continue to wait until more people go homeless or die as a result of there hesitation to use the money. I give you one example. There are many more that you ignored to report on from that meeting. My point stop being a whiny child and go back to being an actual journalist to your blog. Dig deeper for the stories that matter.
"You’re measuring the success of Promise based on the crime rate? Does that same logic work for the police?"
If Allentown had a high number of police officers and the crime rate went up, I'd agree they are ineffective. But Allentown is constantly losing officers, and has far fewer than they should have. If you really give a shit about gun crime, hire a few more officers. But this is all about taking care of our nonprofits, not the people.
With all the money over the past ten years thrown at different organizations to help these "misguided youth" it seems that a new way is always being offered as the "real" solution. I wonder if we would just give the money directly to the parents of these brats contingent on such brat going to school and staying out of trouble if we might be ahead in the game. This would cut out the middleman, i.e., Batts and others. Or if we could just find that "wrong crowd" the parents and others keep citing as leading the kid astray and ship these wrong crowd folks out of town maybe our problems would be solved.
They change peoples lives https://muhlenbergweekly.com/news/from-prison-to-berg-the-story-of-jose-rivera/
https://youtube.com/@passimpson2030
"They change peoples lives https://muhlenbergweekly.com/news/from-prison-to-berg-the-story-of-jose-rivera/"
Actually, they don't. If Jose Rivera has turned his life around, and I hope he has, I give him and not Promise all the credit. I suspect that his experience in prison probably helped him more than Promise. That's probably where he was able to get his GED.
I have a very vivid memory of Batts and one of his Promise flunkies, another ex-con, parading the streets of Allentown one summer ago, chanting "Fuck the police!" based on a total misunderstanding. My response is "Fuck Hasshan Batts, bitch!" This nonprofit has done nothing to deter violent crime. Things have deteriorated even more.
"https://youtube.com/@passimpson2030"
Not updated in over a year.
After reading the comments on ur blog Bernie its sounds as if fed eds chum has send his bullies to extort monies out of council for there mismanaged profiteering multi million dollar commercial land holdings. If in fact this said human services tenticle would be doing such a great job the statistics would show facts not archaic vids on YouTube or local college faked sheep's wool.
Anyone can buy a fake degree to hang on a wall these days as long as the money goes to the right person.
Hey Bernie, you left some important information out from that Milwaulkee Journal Sentinel story:
"Of 65 teens who participated, 50 did not re-offend and also avoided being a victim of assault or a shooting, he said. Eleven re-offended once and four re-offended twice.
Participants also reported growth in academic success, stable relationships, life skills, sense of dignity and economic stability, he said. In an interview on Monday, [Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Director David] Muhammad said more communication among schools, government agencies and neighborhoods would help keep young people safe."
It seems important that these kids are just generally doing better in their lives. We also don't have a comparison group to evaluate whether the re-offense rate is higher or lower than would otherwise be expected.
There are also academic studies evaluating these types of programs, you just didn't bother to look for them.
BernieOHare to 10:35, I linked to the story and referred to the most important detail -recidivism. A 23% recidivism rate over one year is very bad. You point to growth in other areas but there is no quantitative measure of that growth. That makes it meaningless. Give us independently obtained data. For example, I’d a very high percentage went on to graduate from high school and advance in college or a trade school, that would be a plus. But we don’t have that. I’d love to see all children do well but am extremely leery of exposing them to modern Fagins.
Apparently the good Dr. Batts writes books about Credible Messengers too.
“Message to Credible Messengers”
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538164372/Beyond-Equity-and-Inclusion-in-Conflict-Resolution-Recentering-the-Profession
$120 for a book?
4:19 - it is an academic book. Academic publishers (not the authors) set high prices to cover costs of production with very low sale volumes. 120 isn’t even all that high in the context of academic publishing.
And Bernie, the recidivism rate is meaningless without a comparison (or if you like, control) group. 23% might seem high, but it might be lower than comparable kids outside such a program. Indeed, the article presents these numbers in a way that suggests that is the case.
They are not doing anything for our community (kids) ppl are dying on these st everyday n promise shows up after everything is over n help who do what ...STOP BELIEVING WHAT YOU DONT KNOW These foundation n organizations here are all for themselves n yes they get a this money to do what
Some of you are so ignorant. A jail house degree, come on now. Dr Batts finished his prison sentence Sept or Oct of 2011. He obtained his doctrine 2017 I believe. You guys love to discredit anyone of color that can do the job or us doing the job by spewing lies and making the public think white is right. Sorry you guys have had a long enough run in center city and you'll race police mayor's have done nothing for this community but take , lock up our youth & use scare tactics to scare the community away from voting for what is best for them.
We are definitely doing for the community! Again a clueless person talking out of hate. Are u 1 of the members of the community that got fired for not doing their job or are you 1 of those organizations that couldn't stay afloat and got caught stealing. Non the less we are here helping the community with the resources we have. Maybe you can provide us with some help. And you are right we do show up after tragedy strikes , we show up to let the community know they are not alone & to let them know of the services we offer. Therapist for families to talk to , resources that are available to everyone ( we pride ourselves on going out & finding out about every possible service available to community members so that we can refer them ) YOU obviously have been provided with wrong info , please feel free to come in to our new BIG office and learn what we are about. You might leave with a job
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