222 Corridor Anti-Gang Initiative

 

Office of U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan, Eastern Pennsylvania District

 

In the Spring of 2006, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania applied for a U.S. Department of Justice $2.5 million grant to attack gang violence along the 222 Corridor in Southeastern Pennsylvania.  In June of 2006, the USAO learned that it had been named as one of six ("super-six”) sites to receive anti-gang funding.  The 222 Corridor Super Six-Site grant has sparked the most comprehensive anti-gang effort in the history of this region.  Since it was awarded, more than 100 public officials and community leaders in the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania have participated in an unprecedented collaboration in each of the three areas of focus: law enforcement, prevention, and re-entry.   Through the intensive early planning, the partners in the 222 Corridor Initiative have developed a plan, which is expected  to produce a substantial reduction in gang crime, gang violence, and gang membership and to provide positive alternatives for former gang members returning to society.  

The "222 Corridor" is so named because Pennsylvania Route 222 (as well as Interstate-78) bisects seven cities - Easton. Bethlehem, Allentown, Reading, Lancaster, York, and Harrisburg - located in six southeastern and central Pennsylvania counties - Northampton, Lehigh, Berks, Lancaster, York, and Dauphin.  The area has a diverse population of approximately 1,500,000 people and extends from Easton on the border of New Jersey to Harrisburg, about 87 miles to the west.  The 222 Corridor is uniquely situated within close proximity to three major cities: It is directly linked to New York City, approximately 70 miles away, via 1-78, which runs through northern New Jersey right into the 222 Corridor; to Philadelphia. 60 miles to the southeast, via multiple interstates and to Baltimore, less than 90 miles from Lancaster and York via 1-83.  The proximity of the 222 Corridor to these major cities has made it a primary destination fo violent gang members and drug traffickers, who set up shop in the smaller urban areas selling primarily cocaine, crack cocaine, and heroin, and who use the corridor as a major source of firearms for their sister gangs in the New York metropolitan area.

Gang violence along the 222 Corridor, primarily involving drug trafficking and armed robberies, dates back more than a decade and has been a chronic problem infecting each of the cities along the corridor.  Having weathered the storm of losing their industrial bases, the 222 Corridor cities' efforts to revitalize their urban centers have been frustrated by gang violence and drug trafficking. The roadways designed to increase commerce between the 222 Corridor and the major cities on the east coast have ironically become alleyways of poison.  More recently, increasing numbers of gang members have traveled from New York City and settled in the 222 Corridor because of its numerous, lucrative drug markets and easy access to and from New York. Statistics for 2005 reveal that many of the 50 homicides, 1,119 aggravated assaults, 1,163 robberies, 2,667 burglaries, and 2,594 narcotics offenses committed in the 222 Corridor were related to gang activity.  Because of the proximity of the seven cities in the 222 Corridor, combined with easy access by major thoroughfares to New York, Philadelphia, Newark, and Baltimore, gang members easily move from one city in the corridor to another buying and selling primarily heroin, cocaine, and crack cocaine.  This is not a one-way street.  Due to Pennsylvania's gun laws, gang members often purchase or straw purchase guns from Pennsylvania gun dealers and transport them back to New York and New Jersey, where they are often sold to drug dealers, felons, and gang members.  In many cases, the firearms sold to gang members and other criminals are used for protection and intimidation.  The 222 Corridor has been victimized by local, regional, and national gangs.  Each of the cities: in the 222 Corridor has a number of home-grown violent hangs, most of which are involved in drug trafficking. These gangs, such as "2ND" in Allentown, the 10th Street Gang in Reading, and numerous others usually operate in relatively small areas of their respective cities and use violence to control and defend their drug trafficking operations.  While these gangs generally do not use symbols or dress similarly to identify themselves, they often are as violent as their national counterparts.  Many gang members are illegal aliens who migrate to the 222 Corridor from southwest and New York City and join existing gangs.  Since the late I990s, the presence of national gang members has increased throughout the 222 Corridor and now include the Bloods, Cash Money Boys, Crips, Gangster Disciples, Hells Angels, Latin Kings, NETA, Outlaws, Pagans, and Sur 13, to name only some.  

Law Enforcement

Since the initiation of this project, the law enforcement component combines the resources of federal, state, and local law enforcement throughout the 222 Corridor.  In addition to original partners, the partnership has expanded and now includes representatives from the Middle District of Pennsylvania, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office, five federal agencies, the Pennsylvania State Police, six district attorneys, and seven mayors and their police chiefs.  In addition, a 222 Corridor Coordinating Committee brings together representatives of each of these agencies each month to evaluate, and disseminate, intelligence information about gangs and gang members and to provide strategies to prosecute them.  

A critical component of the 222 Corridor Anti-Gang law enforcement effort is intelligence collection and sharing along the 222 Corridor.   Since 2001, with the inception of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a DOJ program designed to prosecute convicted felons for illegal possession of firearms and other violations of federal firearms law, the USAO in the Eastern District along with the District Attorneys for Northampton, Lehigh, Berks, and Lancaster Counties established four 222 PSN Task Forces to share intelligence among federal, state, and local law enforcement representatives.  Second, since 2003, the USAO has created an easy-to-use Web-based mapping and intelligence computer program to allow state and local law enforcement officials to communicate with each other across county lines and to map crime throughout the Eastern District.  This is the first federal effort to integrate local police department data into a federal warehouse.  As a result, the police departments are able to communicate electronically with their counterparts in other cities and counties using a pointer-index system to gain intelligence on suspects.  Now in the seventh phase of this project, the USAO is planning to expand this program to other districts including: New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Middle District of Pennsylvania.   Third, each month members of federal, state, and law enforcement agencies across the 222 Corridor meet as part of the 222 Corridor Coordinating Committee to review ongoing investigations, to share intelligence, and to target gang members and other criminals for federal prosecution.

Prevention

Under the leadership of the mayors of Easton, Bethlehem, Allentown, Reading, and Lancaster in the Eastern District and the mayor of York in the Middle District, a separate anti-gang prevention task force has been established in each of their cities.  These task forces are utilizing their existing local resources, supplemented by this initiative’s $1,000,000 in prevention funding, to enhance existing efforts to prevent gang activity among youths and young adults through the combined forces of government, community and faith-based organizations.  Prevention Coordinator Jim Tice meets with each of the task forces regularly to monitor their programs, to provide resources and technical assistance where needed, and to share successful programs implemented by other task forces.  Quarterly, representatives of each task force meet to discuss their progress.  Each of the six cities has run or will be running a series of anti-gang community awareness meetings to outline the specific city problem, describe prevention task force efforts and to provide practical strategies for community involvement and individual participation.

Reentry

Reentry activity is underway in each of the four counties in the Eastern District – Northampton, Lehigh, Berks, and Lancaster –  focusing primarily on inmates returning from the each of the four country prisons.  Overseeing this effort is Reentry Coordinator Maureen Barden.  A unique structure has been implemented to provide effective organization and oversight of the prisoners returning to society.  Two case managers are at work, one handling the reentry effort in the eastern half of the region in Northampton and Lehigh Counties; and the other in Berks and Lancaster Counties.  As of June 30, 2007, there were 24 people (17 males and 7 females) in the program: Northampton - 7; Lehigh - 5; Berks - 11; Lancaster -1.  Of these, nine individuals are still in county jails; 7 are females.