Stemming Violence in Chicago Requires Closing the Pipeline of Future and Repeat Offenders
With the right programs, Chicago can avoid having to contend with new and repeat criminals
Across the City of Chicago, there are tens of thousands of young adults in — ages 16 and older — on the streets with no high school diploma, no marketable skills, and little hope for a rewarding career. Many are older individuals entangled in some phase of the criminal justice system, scarred for life and locked out of opportunity, often for prior nonviolent, frequent drug-related offenses. If we hope to reverse Chicago’s public safety crisis and make every neighborhood safe, we must address the needs of this population.
Chicago was an outlier during both the COVID-era crime surge and its subsequent decline. When the pandemic struck in 2020, homicides across the country increased nearly 30 percent, while Chicago’s surged by well over 50 percent — one of the largest jumps in the nation. In addition to the increase to homicides, Chicago also experienced a similar upswing across all crime categories in the COVID era. Until last year, Chicago’s decline in murders lagged far behind the national pace, as did reductions in other violent crimes.
Only after Eileen O’Neill Burke was sworn in as Cook County State’s Attorney in 2025 did murders and overall violent crime recede to pre-COVID levels. However, this represents only a return to roughly the violent crime levels of the Daley administration, not a historic low. Contrary to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s rote claims that murders and shootings are at their lowest levels since the 1960s, both per capita and in absolute numbers they are closer to the levels seen during Daley’s final decade in office. Chicago still ranks among the nation’s leaders in shootings, homicides, shootings of school-age youth, and mass shootings.
While the decline in crime is welcome news, the return to Daley-era violent crime levels still leaves Chicago a national leader in shootings and homicides, youth shootings, and mass shootings. The fact Chicago remains among cities with higher crime rates is due in large part to the absence of a serious strategy to keep Chicago’s youth in school, reclaim those who have dropped out, and provide the education and occupational training needed for those who have entered the criminal justice system.
The absence of such services is a major reason for Chicago’s status as one of the country’s violent crime capitals and is reflected in the number of street gang members. Estimates have ranged from about 100,000 to over 117,000 gang members, according to law enforcement and city officials, spread across approximately 70 to 75 major gangs and subsets or “cliques” that often conflict internally and with rivals. Chicago has repeatedly been described by federal and law-enforcement agencies as having one of the largest gang populations in the United States.
There is no substitute for a public safety policy that provides police resources and judicial supports to remove and keep violent and habitual felons off the street. However, it will take much more than arrests and incarceration to dramatically reduce the number of future and repeat offenders. This requires the following components.
Reengage high school students through paid work-study
Thousands of Chicago’s high school-age youth are in school but receive little education, while many others have dropped out altogether. Since the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) forced prolonged pandemic school closures that kept schools shut for 17 consecutive months, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) enrollment has fallen by tens of thousands of students, and system enrollment is down by more than 37,000 from pre-pandemic levels. In the same period, violence involving school-age youth has soared, and murders of children 17 and younger have increased sharply, with the overwhelming majority of victims not enrolled in school.
We must incentivize students to stay enrolled, reclaim those who have dropped out, and concentrate efforts on those who are at risk of withdrawing. An optimal method to prevent students from abandoning school is to connect high school directly to work. Paid work-study programs can allow students to learn while earning an income, linking classroom education with job experience and service learning, and placing teens in safe environments surrounded by positive role models — hard working men and women.
Work-study programs expose students to opportunities beyond their immediate neighborhoods, teach workplace readiness, build confidence, and provide spending money and sometimes critical income for poor families. A small paycheck can help steer them away from a gang life offering quick cash, while also introducing them to the best role models in the community.
A proven model is Cristo Rey Jesuit High School’s Corporate Work Study Program, founded in Chicago in 1996, which employs every student in a part-time professional job and has since grown into a national network of 35 schools. The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) once ran one of the nation’s largest work-study programs in the 1990s, employing nearly 10,000 students annually and even contracting with dozens of student-run businesses.
City agencies and government institutions — employing nearly 100,000 workers — could readily reserve thousands of positions for CPS work-study participants. Labor unions could be invited to establish paid pre-apprenticeships, with members serving as mentors and trainers. Vendors could be required or strongly incentivized to offer student jobs as a condition of city contracts. Private employers could also be recruited to participate or help students launch new small businesses.
If Chicago is to remain “The City That Works,” its young people must be introduced to the world of work from high school onward — and the entrepreneurial spirit must be nurtured early.
Provide at-risk and disenfranchised young adults with education and occupational training
Too many young Chicagoans are chronically unemployed, underemployed, or involved in the justice system. Their education and job training demand urgent attention.
According to a study published by the Chicago Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, 90,000 16 to 19-year-olds in Chicago are jobless. CPS and its alternative high schools, along with City Colleges, can immediately begin implementing paid work-study programs. These could replace certain elective courses, with savings redirected to subsidize student wages.
A similar analysis commissioned by the Blue Foundation and funded by the Chicago Community Trust inventoried existing adult education and training programs capable of serving this very population. A strong example is Youth Connection Charter School (YCCS), which operates 17 campuses citywide for young adults who previously dropped out — many with criminal justice involvement — and has awarded more than 24,000 diplomas since its founding in 1998.
The YCCS model inspired state authorization for “adult high schools,” but Chicago Public Schools has yet to open one. Recent legislation proposed allowing universities to run alternative or recovery high schools — an idea blocked by the Chicago Teachers Union, which continues to oppose any new charter schools, even charter schools that serve dropouts or young adults who have been expelled or incarcerated.
Education and occupational training alternatives to incarceration
Today in Cook County, judges are known to suspend sentences following a defendant successfully completing drug or alcohol treatment. They should have similar authority to divert non-violent, first-time offenders into education and job training programs rather than handing them a prison sentence. This would reduce the generational trauma of incarceration while giving individuals real second chances. With incarceration costs estimated at four to seven times higher than education and training, such programs would also save taxpayers money, aid career prospects, and boost social cohesion.
Cook County should create a comprehensive database of adult education, training, and support services accessible to the Sheriff, State’s Attorney, and courts. Judicial officers could use it during pre-sentencing to recommend viable alternatives to incarceration, building on well-established drug rehabilitation diversion models. Early release could also be tied to completion of a verified education and training plan leading to a professional certification.
There are a myriad of programs and community-based organizations that can more effectively serve this population with proper coordination and access to a common database. Additional funding can be secured through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which offers occupational training grants for high school dropouts and other at-risk populations, and the federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which is available to companies that hire people who face barriers to employment.
Removing obstacles to successful reentry
In Illinois, nearly 53,000 people are incarcerated in state prisons, county jails, and other detention facilities. While many of those held in custody come from Chicago and Cook County, statewide data show that less than half of people admitted to state prison originate from Cook County in a given year. So, the claim that 97 percent are from Chicago is not entirely accurate. What is clear is that tens of thousands of incarcerated individuals will eventually return to their communities, many of them to Chicago’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Nationally, over one-quarter of former inmates are unemployed and have a jobless rate several times that of the general population. Studies show a majority — often 60–75 percent — remain unemployed one year after release. Successfully reentering society requires more than job training — it also involves stable housing, mental health care, and family counseling. The city must also revisit its hiring restrictions to allow certain formerly incarcerated individuals to qualify for municipal or contract employment where appropriate. Contractors could be incentivized to adopt similar policies.
The city should expand entrepreneurship supports like the Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives’ Certified Entrepreneurial Training (CET) program, which equips returning residents to obtain small business loans and launch viable enterprises. Chicago’s business assistance agencies should be fully leveraged to back these efforts. A coordinated system is needed to link education, occupational training, and employment for those incarcerated while removing barriers to reintegration.
In a very different setting, recall in 2006 that General David Petraeus, then the commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command–Iraq, oversaw the creation of the “Sons of Iraq,” which eventually employed 100,000 young Sunni men, many between the ages of 20 and 30, some of whom had previously sworn loyalty to Saddam Hussein. By mobilizing them into paid security and reconstruction roles, Petraeus and his partners forged a coalition of former Iraqi military personnel and Sunni leaders who began cooperating with U.S. forces and helped turn the tide of the war in the allies favor.
There are no insurmountable financial obstacles to providing the education and occupational training programs and support services needed to significantly reduce the number of new criminals and repeat offenders. It simply requires resetting priorities, taking full advantage of existing programs and resources, and facilitating effective coordination and cooperation among government institutions. It also requires that we remove obstacles to economic reintegration for those previously incarcerated. These are actions long overdue.
