Richard M. Daley Quotes

Studies have shown that inmate participation in education, vocational and job training, prison work skills development, drug abuse, mental health and other treatment programs, all reduce recidivism, significantly.

I wish that every community from which individuals go to prison might have an organization which would be notified when they are returned to society. It would then be this organization's responsibility to find these individuals a job, suited to their capacities and training, which would bring them a decent living.

Public welfare … must be directed increasingly toward prevention and rehabilitation—on reducing not only the long range costs in budgetary terms but the long range costs in human terms as well.

I think police officers can work with social workers and public health nurses to do so much in terms of addressing the problem of American families, of children in American families as a whole, and giving them an opportunity to get off to a fresh start, to become self-sufficient, to lead safe, constructive lives.

The criminal justice system is not the right place - or it shouldn't be the place of first resort to provide addiction or mental health services. It should happen elsewhere with no police and no judges and no juries and no jails.

I went through quite a few establishments that maybe weren't great for myself - security units, youth-offender places. I guess that was going to the lions' den. Social services said, 'You've got to go to some sort of school.'

People end up on the street for many different reasons - leaving care or hospital, problems with debt, unemployment, mental health, family breakup - and so the help they need is varied, too.

The Brian Ortega Foundation will cater to all people who have all kinds of problems.

The increased calls on law enforcement to respond to substance abuse and mental health issues in their communities have added pressure on law enforcement and highlight the need to also invest in our health system and social services.

I was very clear that we'd invest much more in shelter space to get people off the streets, out of doorways, out from overpasses and get them connected with services - whatever services they need, whether it's mental health whether its addiction or economic resources.

Most of my job life has had to do with welfare, first helping people find work and then as an administrator. The earlier experience was more direct and satisfying, and I enjoy thinking that a bunch of people somewhere are doing better today than they might have done if not for me.

Previously people were treated anonymously particular on a drugs situation which is obviously highly emotive. They have been treated anonymously even after the verdict had been reached.

I think it's very important to support the program in your area, as each part of the country has its own challenges coping with AIDS. It can be very different from state to state and city to city. Wherever you live, there is surely someone who could use your help.

So what really works? Treatments in jail do some good, but it's mostly too late: finding a family and a job or just growing older make most prisoners eventually give up crime.

There are more old drunkards than old physicians.

We want to continue the efforts against domestic violence and spread the drug courts, and develop real effective means of providing treatment for drug abusers without having to have them arrested.

It touches on drug use. I got caught up in that for almost two years.

People down on their luck deserve the best: beautiful surroundings and well-paid professional staff to help them out of their difficulties. Why not train thousands more social workers and let them sit in on claimants' interviews?

Homeboy Bakery is an alternative to kids who have found themselves, regrettably, in gangs and want to redirect their lives.

I spent nearly two decades as a social worker and an educator with kids. So, my whole life has been about helping middle-class families. So it's just kind of a hollow argument to say I'm not a family person.

Some people recovering from drugs or alcohol stay with the programs indefinitely, making the recovery program their family, a long-term source of attention rewards.

We have to create jobs but also make sure that those who are looking for work aren't just left without any assistance whatsoever.

I have a friend who lives in the South Side of Chicago. I helped out at a church charity there where they try to give a bit of cohesion to a desperate area. Everyone was very welcoming.

City and state governments did little or nothing to orient the new migrants, help them find jobs, master complex bus and trolley systems to get to where the jobs were, and to make landlords repair decayed rooms—all measures requiring money invested at the start but saving billions in later welfare, crime, and compacted bitter racial and ethnic tensions.

We spend ninety-five cents of every dollar for prisons on pure custody; iron bars and stone walls; and they dehumanize. We spend five cents on hope—health mental health, education, vocational training, employment services, family guidance, community services. Most of these inmates have never been to a dentist. Psychoses and neuroses—a major cause of crime—are immense.