Coffey County prosecutor lobbies Roberts
Special to The Gazette
Monday, July 28, 2008
Coffey County Attorney Doug Witteman was one of three Kansas law enforcement leaders who met last week with U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts to discuss Roberts’ “Education Begins at Home” act.
Witteman, Pawnee County Attorney John Settle and Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass are encouraging Roberts to move the bill forward through Congress.
Roberts’ bill, among other things, would support voluntary, quality home-visiting programs, in which trained professionals would be able to help at-risk parents learn about the health and nutritional needs of young children and advise them how to raise safe and healthy families, according to a news release from the Fight Crime: Invest in Kids organization.
The group is made up of about 4,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, law enforcement leaders and survivors of violence.
“As a co-sponsor and important member of the Senate committee handling the bill, Sen. Roberts can be a leader in helping to advance this legislation,” Witteman said. “Investing a single dollar in high-quality home visiting programs can return five dollars in savings to taxpayers and crime victims. We can’t afford to not have voluntary home visiting.”
Kansas currently has four of the six main models of home visiting: Healthy Families America, Parents as Teachers, Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters and Early Head Start.
A news release stated that abused and/or neglected children are almost 30 percent more likely to be arrested for violent crimes when they become adults. They also are one-third less likely to find employment or maintain stable marriages later in life, in comparison with peers who have not been abused.
Among at-risk families, Settle noted that families that participated in voluntary home visiting had a 60 percent reduction in arrests later.