Local criminal justice leaders showed their support recently for an early education initiative aimed at reducing crime and saving costs. Brad Hill, the chief of Evansville Police Department in Indiana, Eric Williams, the Vanderburgh County Sheriff and Stan Levco, the Vanderburgh County prosecutor, all spoke in favor of a bill that would fund early learning programs across the country at a news conference hosted by the group "Fight Crime: Invest in Kids."

Research shows that quality early education for children five years old and younger reduces the likelihood that at-risk youngsters will commit crimes later in life. One long-term study found that children who did not receive early education were 85 percent more likely to be sentenced to jail or prison by age 40 than those who did have it.

Officials more early childhood education programs could cut prison costs by a quarter or more, which could save  more than $150 million a year in Indiana. The group is supporting an "Early Learning Challenge Fund," which was included in a bill that cleared the U.S. House of Representatives education committee in July. If enacted into law, states could apply for funding for programs such as Head Start, Early Head Start and pre-kindergarten or quality child care.

"As law enforcement leaders, we're always concerned about public safety and locking up violent criminals," Chief Hill said. "But we're also all about crime prevention. This is kind of one of those obvious things: We recognize that getting kids early education is really important in reducing their likelihood to enter into criminal acts as they grow older."

Reducing the crime rate would create significant savings because of the high costs involved with housing a prisoner. In Indiana, it costs about $19,000 each year to house a prisoner - $3,000 more than the cost of a year of undergraduate tuition, housing and fees at Indiana University. "

Those are dollars that we would much rather spend somewhere else," Sheriff Williams said. "It seems to me that it would just make sense we spend those dollars on our kids, that we spend those dollars making sure they don't go to prison."

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