SYLACAUGA One of the messages state Attorney General Bill Pryor stresses is that crimes against children must not be tolerated in Alabama.Pryor spoke Thursday at the 18th annual "Suffer the Children" Child Abuse Seminar at B.B. Comer High School Auditorium.
The seminar is sponsored by Cheaha Regional Mental Health/Mental Retardation Board Inc.
He also spoke about his mentoring initiative for youngsters Mentor Alabama.
Pryor said he has made it a priority of his office to work with law enforcement officers and prosecutors to ensure they are fully aware of the extent of Alabama's current laws that can be used to prosecute and convict those who harm children.
"Like many of you, I am concerned about the future of the young boys and girls in our state and society. Some of the worst crimes that I see as attorney general are those in which children are the victims. As parents, we face the tough decision of sheltering our children from the evils that may face them, or educating them that not all persons who look trustworthy can be trusted. Unfortunately, there are individuals in our society who target child victims because they know they are the most vulnerable," Pryor said.
In October of last year, Pryor's focus on his annual statewide Law Enforcement Summit was the investigation and prosecution of crimes involving children. In December, his office teamed with the District Attorneys Association and the Alabama Coalition Against Rape for training sessions on the protection of citizens against sex offenders.
This week-long effort to educate front-line officers and prosecutors focused on the Alabama Community Notification Act or Megan's Law and new updates to this act. The training sessions also focused on investigative strategies to strengthen the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators of sex crimes.
This year Pryor has proposed legislation that would strengthen Alabama's community notification act. This legislation would prohibit an adult criminal sex offender from establishing a private residence within 1,000 feet of another adult criminal sex offender. This legislation will help promote safety of neighborhoods and further protect children from child abusers and sex offenders.
"I have also drafted legislation, which has already passed the House of Representatives, to require that members of the clergy report suspected sexual abuse unless the information was specifically obtained in a confidential communication that would be privileged under current law. I am hopeful that this important legislation will be passed soon by the Alabama Senate," he said.
Pryor said another aspect of his job involves preventing young people from making bad decisions.
From 1985 to 1995, Alabama's juvenile arrest rate rose at the unconscionable rate of 144 percent, Pryor said.
He said that statistic concerned him when he became attorney general in 1997. Pryor helped lead the effort called Children First to provide better funding for juvenile justice programs. His office drafted legislation to give law enforcement and school officials more information and better tools to reduce juvenile crime and school violence.
"I believe tough love for troubled youths is our best hope for saving them from a life of crime. But all of these efforts concentrated on the back end of the juvenile justice system. I wanted to focus on a front end solution to build up our youth before they make bad decisions," he said.
Pryor spoke to these boys and girls in juvenile facilities. He found there was a lack of positive and consistent adult role models in their lives.
"Too many children in Alabama and the United States are growing up in single-parent households without the love and discipline that they need and deserve," he said.
In August 2000, Pryor began encouraging adults in Alabama to become mentors to at-risk youths through Mentor Alabama, an initiative of his office to reduce juvenile crime by involving appropriate adults in the lives of these at-risk children as mentors, tutors and role models.
The National Mentoring Partnership, Pryor said, "tells us that mentored teens are 46 percent less likely to use drugs, 59 percent more likely to make better grades, and 73 percent more likely to set higher goals."
His goal was to recruit 2,002 mentors by the end of last year. Today, the program has recruited more than 3,700 mentors in every region in the state.
One requirement of the volunteers of the program is they must consent to Pryor's office completing a criminal background check before they are added to the database or referred to any mentoring organization. The program has been implemented at no additional cost to the taxpayers of Alabama through the attorney general's existing staff.
Three years ago, Pryor became involved as a mentor by volunteering in Montgomery's public schools as a reader/tutor. He tutored a third grade boy who set a goal of reading 30 books. As a reward when he reached his goal, he wanted to play Monopoly with Pryor.
"We played the most memorable game of Monopoly in my life, but the story does not end there. By the beginning of the next school year, he was reading on grade level, and no longer needed a reading tutor. As a matter of fact, he let me know that he was an honor roll student that next year. This is but one of the blessings that God has shown me over the past three years I spent as a volunteer mentor," Pryor said.
He said it is his hope for other youth to be fortunate enough to share time with caring mentors and tutors.
Pryor is working with a coalition of public and private mentoring and faith-based organizations, including Prison Fellowship Ministries, to develop a new part of the mentor initiative in which mentors can be provided for children of prisoners.
"There are thousands upon thousands of children whose parent or parents are prisoners in Alabama correctional facilities. It is my hope this program will soon be a reality," he said.
Regardless of whether Pryor is attorney general or not, Mentor Alabama will be a permanent initiative of the office.
Another initiative of his office is the Alabama Safe Schools Initiative. Through this program, thousands of educators, administrators, law enforcement officers and first responders have been trained in the best practices of promoting a safe environment for children to learn.
Pryor encouraged the public to consider becoming mentors.
"I am reminded of the words of a great Alabamian, who overcame tremendous obstacles to achieve in ways so many had never imagined. I will close by sharing the words of Helen Keller: 'I am only one but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something that I can do,'" he said.
Also speaking at the seminar were Margaret Faulkner, special agent with the FBI on child pornography; Dr. Lyle Shook of Auburn University Montgomery on pedophilia; and Dr. Bert Pitts, family and child psychologist on scrambled minds and suffering children.
The seminar is co-chaired by Dr. S.D. Palmer and Margaret Morton.
