"We spend $80,000 a year to incarcerate individuals who are convicted crimes," writes Shana Williams in an op-ed in the Royal Gazette of Bermuda.
"Everyone should be thinking that."
She's referring to the island's gang problem, which she and Dr.Nicola Paugh write is "horrific and saddening" and "should not be surprising given the socio-economic conditions long existing in our community, exacerbated by the pandemic."
poverty, undiagnosed mental health problems, drug availability, lack of parental supervision, academic problems and child abuse, and many other factors.
"When these aren't buffered with sufficient supports, services, interventions, and healthy adult relationships that build resilience, the outcomes are far more likely to involve paths of crime, including violent crime," they write.
The country's police services say there are 200 people currently involved in gangs, and Williams and Paugh suggest "something more transformative needs to be done" like investing in job training and employment programs.
"The incredible opportunity that Bermuda faces is that it small and it is wealthy as a country, even if it that wealth is inequitably distributed and even if the government itself may be in dire financial states," they write.
"Any real solution will require
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