Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney David Fein and Connecticut
Governor Dannel Malloy joined members of law enforcement, public
officials, social service providers, community leaders and researchers
in New Haven today to launch “Project Longevity,” a comprehensive
initiative to reduce gun violence in Connecticut’s major cities.
Project Longevity uses a strategy that has shown violence can be reduced
dramatically when community members and law enforcement join together
to directly engage with these groups and clearly communicate a
community message against violence, a law enforcement message
about the consequences of further violence and an offer of help for
those who want it. To accomplish this, law enforcement, social service
providers and community members are recruited, assembled and trained to
engage in a sustained relationship with violent groups.
“Project Longevity will send a powerful message to those who would
commit violent crimes targeting their fellow citizens that such acts
will not be tolerated and that help is available for all those who wish
to break the cycle of violence and gang activity,” said Attorney General
Holder. “Today’s announcement underscores our commitment to working
together – across levels of government and jurisdictional boundaries –
to protect the American people from the crime that threatens too many
neighborhoods and claims far too many innocent lives.”
Project Longevity is based on a model that has been successful in
reducing gun violence in multiple neighborhoods across the country and
represents the first time the strategy is being implemented statewide.
“On the state level, I have directed my administration to focus our
criminal justice resources on urban violence,” Governor Malloy said.
“We agree that no strategy will be effective without the support of the
community. This means parents, clergy, neighborhood leaders,
grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles – everyone working toward one
goal. We are working to regain the trust of the African American and
Latino communities. We need their help. The lives of these young
people are too valuable not to act.”
Funded by federal, state and local sources, Project Longevity is being
launched initially in three Connecticut cities – New Haven, Hartford and
Bridgeport.
“After more than a year of hard work and preparation by so many public
and private partners, I am pleased to announce Project Longevity, our
statewide anti-violence initiative,” said U.S. Attorney Fein. “Many
dedicated people and organizations have come together to support this
proven strategy to reduce gang and gun violence through focused
deterrence.”
A critical component of the Project Longevity strategy is the
“call-in,” a face-to-face meeting where partners engage group members
and deliver certain key messages. First, that group members are part of
a community, that gun violence is unacceptable and that the community
needs it to end. Second, that help is available to all who will accept
it in order to transition out of the gang lifestyle, and that social
service providers are standing by to assist with educational,
employment, housing, medical, mental health and other needs. Third,
that any future violence will be met with clear and certain
consequences. The next time a homicide is traced to any member of a
violent group, all members of that group will receive increased and
comprehensive law enforcement attention to any and all crimes any of its
members are committing.
Yesterday, the first call-ins of two groups were convened in New
Haven. At the call-ins, approximately 25 individuals heard the Project
Longevity message from senior leadership of the New Haven Police
Department, federal and state prosecutors, outreach workers and other
members of the New Haven community. One Project Longevity participant,
Adult Education Director for the New Haven Board of Education Alicia
Caraballo, spoke about losing her 24-year-old son when he was shot and
killed in New Haven in April 2008.
Project Longevity is based on the Group Violence Reduction Strategy
developed by the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay
College of Criminal
Justice in New York. The
research behind the strategy, which was first implemented in Boston as
“Operation Ceasefire” in the mid-1990s, has found that violence in
troubled neighborhoods is caused predominantly by a small number of
people who are members of street gangs, drug crews and other identified
groups. These groups, whose members typically constitute less than 0.5
percent of a city’s population, often have little organization,
hierarchy or common purpose, and commit violent acts primarily for
personal reasons, not to achieve any economic gain or other advantage.
The Group Violence Reduction Strategy, which also has been deployed in
areas of Chicago, Cincinnati, Providence, R.I., and elsewhere, has
resulted in a 40 to 60 percent reduction in group-related homicides in
certain neighborhoods. After Project Longevity is established in
Hartford and Bridgeport, the program may be deployed in other
Connecticut cities if research and data analysis of a city’s homicide
rate determine that the model offers an appropriate solution to gun
violence .
The Rev. William Mathis has been appointed as Project Longevity’s New
Haven Program Manager. The Rev. Mathis is also the Pastor of Springs of
Life-Giving Water Church in New Haven, an attorney, a former prosecutor
and an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University and the University of
New Haven. As program manager, the Rev. Mathis is responsible for
developing effective and sustainable working relationships between law
enforcement, service providers and community members to insure Project
Longevity’s success.
The organizational structure of Project Longevity in New Haven includes a
Governing Board, Strategy and Implementation Team, Research Team, Law
Enforcement Team, Community Service Provider Team and Community
Engagement Team, all of which meet regularly. Project Longevity’s
Governing Board includes: U.S. Attorney Fein, Governor Malloy, State
Senator Toni Harp, State Representative Toni Walker, New Haven Mayor
John DeStefano, New Haven Alderperson Jorge Perez, New Haven State’s
Attorney Michael Dearington, Court Support Services Executive Director
William Carbone, Connecticut Department of Correction Commissioner Leo
Arnone, Director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John
Jay College of Criminal Justice David Kennedy, and Yale University’s
Vice President for New Haven and State Affairs and Campus Development
Bruce Alexander.
The Strategy and Implementation Team is co-chaired by New Haven Police
Chief Dean Esserman and New Haven businessman Howard Hill, and includes
members of law enforcement, service providers, researchers and the
community. Chief Esserman has previously partnered with the Center for
Crime Prevention and Control to implement a similar strategy when he
served as police chief in Providence. Several community and business
leaders in New Haven, as well as members of the New Haven Clergy
Association, are also actively involved in Project Longevity. In order
to assist identified individual transition from a destructive gang
lifestyle, Project Longevity has engaged nine service providers in the
New Haven area, including Children’s Community Program of Connecticut,
Community Service Administration for the City of New Haven, Consultation
Center (Yale), Gateway Community College, Elm City Communities, New
Haven Family Alliance, Project Model Offender Reintegration Experience
(M.O.R.E.), Workforce Alliance/CT Works and United Way of Greater New
Haven. The University of New Haven, Yale University and the University
of Cincinnati are working with law enforcement to collect and analyze
crime data and provide research support to identify the groups and
individuals that will be contacted through Project Longevity. Many of
these individuals are already known to law enforcement and/or are under
the supervision of probation or parole officers.
Other participating Justice Department agencies in Project Longevity
include: the FBI; Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the U.S. Marshals Service.