Grand Jury Sounds Alarm About Gangs : Bankruptcy: Report strongly urges schools and communities to work together to counteract the dilution of funds for county programs that deal with youths at risk. Prevention is seen as key.

Warning that the county’s bankruptcy threatens the war on gangs, the Orange County Grand Jury on Thursday called on schools and community groups to better coordinate their work, while trying to target prevention efforts at even younger children.

“There exists an even greater risk of increased gang activity with the shortage of funds available for public safety,” members of the grand jury wrote in a 15-page report, which was released after a year of study.

The grand jury called on the county’s Board of Supervisors to maintain funding for gang awareness and drug programs and urged incentives to encourage businesses to improve school and community programs.

The panel’s report said there were 18,872 youths in Orange County identified by law enforcement as gang members last year--more than double the number in 1988. Jurors blamed a host of reasons, ranging from weak parenting and too few after-school activities to television violence and truancy.

The report said programs aimed at preventing children from joining street gangs should be emphasized as much as law enforcement attempts to smash gangs.

“It is much more advantageous to spend $1 ‘up front’ on effective prevention programs than $10 plus on suppression and treatment after the problems have developed,” the report stated.

The report said the county’s Dec. 6 bankruptcy already has taken a toll on some gang efforts.

A gang program established by the Orange County Chiefs’ and Sheriff’s Assn. lost its funding after the bankruptcy, forcing it to close. An anti-gang alliance that was a key architect of the county’s anti-gang strategy also lost its funding after the bankruptcy.

The grand jury recommended rejuvenating the chiefs’ association program, called Project: No Gangs, and turning it into the umbrella organization for the county’s gang effort. An executive director was kept aboard to raise funds, the report said.

“The bankruptcy has affected public safety any way you want to cut it,” said Westminster Police Chief James Cook, who heads the anti-gang committee of the chiefs’ association.

Cook said a touted new effort by the chiefs’ group to tally gang crime was gutted by the bankruptcy. The gang survey eventually was salvaged using a grant from Pacific Mutual, an insurance firm, but the work was delayed for months, Cook said.

“The bankruptcy just turned us upside down,” Cook said.

The grand jury said gang- and drug-education programs should begin as early as kindergarten and not later than fifth grade. It also noted a shortage of after-school programs for children younger than 8 and for those older than 15.

Gang specialists agreed children are joining violent gangs at earlier ages.

“The 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds are trying to prove something to the older kids. So they’re getting worse,” said Max Madrid, who heads gang prevention efforts for the nonprofit Community Service Programs Inc. The group, which provides gang services for several Orange County cities, including San Clemente, Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano, was cited as a success by the grand jury.

The grand jury called for better coordination among a hodgepodge of community groups, schools and law enforcement programs targeting gangs around the county.

“We’re hoping this will open people’s eyes to the need for countywide cooperation,” said grand jury member Bob Linn, who oversaw the report.

Sheriff Brad Gates endorsed the panel’s recommendations. Citing the success of programs to combat drunk driving, Gates urged a policy of “no tolerance” toward gangs.

“With our combined resources we can wipe out this menace in our daily lives,” Gates said in a prepared statement.