Reno, local crime fighters call for emphasis on prevention

Reno, local crime fighters call for emphasis on prevention

Yawu Miller

Edmar Gomes was 15 years old, unemployed and marginally interested in school. His attendance at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School was slipping, he began smoking and he was beginning to get into trouble with the police.

Playing basketball with his Sumner Street friends one afternoon, Gomes met Nuno Barros, a street worker employed by the Bird Street Youth Center in Upham's Corner.

"He asked me if I wanted to play ball for his team and get off the streets and I said `sure,'" Gomes recalls.

In the six months since he left the streets, Gomes has been getting better grades and keeping out of trouble.

"I've been trying to get an after-school job," he said. "The people here are helping me a lot."

Monday, Gomes and scores of other Dorchester youth served by the Bird Street Youth Center met with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to relate stories of their efforts at fighting youth crime.

Speaking before an audience of teenagers, elected officials, police brass and reporters, Reno said that Boston is a national model for successful crime prevention strategies.

"I have seen too many examples of young people who are in trouble and are not bad kids, who needed a program like Bird Street to give them something constructive to do in the afternoon," she said.

The meeting came on the heels of the fatal shooting of a Dorchester teen, Juan Perello Corporan, 16, on Hamilton St. Corporan was the second teen slain in Boston since December.

Reno's visit to the youth center also comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pushing for the passage of new anti-crime legislation. While conservatives favor get-tough measures including calls for mandatory adult sentences for juvenile offenders, Reno and others at the meeting Monday said prevention should be the focus of any new congressional initiatives.

"Bird Street is turning kids away every day because we've reached our capacity," said Mary Gunn, the youth center's executive director. "We need more resources."

The youth center currently serves 125 youth during the day and an additional 50 during evenings, according to Gunn.

State Sen. Stephen Lynch and Rep. Charlotte Golar Richie are heading efforts to secure funds for a new youth center in the area that they say would help meet the growing demand.

Joining Reno in the roundtable discussion were Mayor Thomas M. Menino, state Attorney General Scott Har shbarger and U.S. Attorney Donald Stern.

U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan, who also attended the meeting, said he felt confident that the push for anticrime bills that favor prevention will prevail in Congress.

"There are many members of Congress who are wedded to the rhetoric of the past rather than what's effective," he said. "But I'm confident that we're going to get the legislation passed."

Photo (Shona Hendrix, Thomas Menino, Janet Reno, Donald Stern, Jeff Barros)