New Program To Fight Juvenile Crime

Another new move to fight juvenile crime in Mobile County is getting ready to start.
Mobile County Juvenile Court Judge Edmond Naman was the guest speaker at the city of Prichard's National Night Out Against Crime campaign Tuesday.
Judge Naman said he's going to kick off a new program in the next few weeks called the Youth Advocate Program.
Naman said it involves "paid mentors that are dealing with our kids that are most at risk. We want to keep them in the community: those kids that have not committed any serious crimes, but seem to be on the path to doing it. And we have paid mentors watching them 24 hours a day, keeping up and giving me real time information about their progress."
Members of Prichard Area Community Watch groups were also on hand for the program.
The Whitley Community Neighborhood Watch group has kept eyes out for copper thefts at Whitley Elementary School among other incidents.
Virginia Lockhart said members have spotted some other criminal activity in their neighborhood recently.
Lockhart said there's "eighty new homes by Whitley School and somebody broke into an SUV. They've been doing a lot of that, but since they've got more police over there and they're patrolling, they're kind of scared now. They quieted that down.
Mazie Lee Knight with the Montgomery Avenue Community Watch group said she needs more members and that they play an important role in the neighborhood.
Knight said group members take care of "even the sick people in our neighborhood, like on holidays. I love to cook. I love to bake, and I bake a big dinner and I take them, the shut-ins, a dinner, or I send it by my son. We don't only just watch for crime, we help our neighbors too."