Four years ago, Darren Farmer's day started at noon and ended at 3 a.m. on a drug-riddled street corner.
The 16-year-old had walked away from Frederick Douglass High School, one of nearly 3,000 city students to drop out that year, because he "just felt as though I had no need for school if I couldn't make money." Dealing drugs filled his pockets with cash.
Soon, Farmer was arrested on drug and handgun charges and was incarcerated for two years. But this fall, he re-entered the city school system and is on his way to obtaining a high school diploma — a face behind the encouraging statistics that many say show that Baltimore is moving in the right direction.
The dropout rate for city students has plummeted this year, along with the rates for juvenile-involved crime and arrests, according to figures provided by the city school system and law enforcement agencies.
The encouraging development, officials say, is due in large part to close cooperation between the leaders of the city school system, the Police Department and the state juvenile corrections agency. City officials and others are expressing hope that Baltimore may have begun to break a cycle that some call the school-to-prison pipeline.
Since 2006, the number of children killed in the city has plunged by 80 percent, and the number of juveniles suspected in killings has dropped by about the same percentage.
The numbers come on the heels of the city recently celebrating a historically low dropout rate of 4 percent, and a record 66 percent graduation rate that the Baltimore school system said is driven primarily by achievements of black males.
No one is claiming an eradication of the ills fueled by poverty, drug abuse, lack of economic opportunity and fractured family structures. But those involved in youth issues say the crime and school statistics demonstrate significant movement in the right direction.
Baltimore's progress "really is phenomenal," said Jane Sundius, director for the Education and Youth Development Program for the Open Society Institute, an advocacy group that has researched the effect of dropouts and school suspensions on juvenile justice trends in the city.
"I have no doubt that these are related. If they're in school, they're not going to be involved in criminal activity," she said.
Breaking down barriers
Three new leaders took their posts in 2007 and were quickly confronted with long-standing frustrations over Baltimore's failure to keep its children in school and safe on the streets. Responding to a sense of urgency, they sought to create a philosophy for preventing juvenile crime and preparing youth for a better future.
For city schools CEO Andrés Alonso, it was instilling his belief that "kids come as is" and that the school system must rise to meet their challenges.
For Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, it was the idea that "we have to invest at a young age before temptation to go to the dark side is far too great," spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
And as state Secretary of Juvenile Services Donald W. DeVore put it: "We were looking at files and realized that there were many missed opportunities to intervene in their lives."
"These [agencies] have all come together to break down barriers that have existed in the past to really implement significant programs," said Sheryl Goldstein, director of the mayor's office of criminal justice. "And now we're seeing the dividends."
In the year before the three leaders' took their posts, 10 percent of the city's high school students — about 3,000 — had dropped out of schools. The double-digit rate had held steady during the previous decade.
That year — 2006 — also saw more than 10,000 youths arrested by Baltimore police and processed through the Department of Juvenile Services, mirroring previous years. The city also saw double-digit numbers of juvenile homicides and nonfatal shootings that year.
Alonso said that in the first discussions he had with city leaders, everyone came to a consensus that "if we keep the kids in school, everyone's job would be easier."
But "it wasn't simply about keeping kids in school, or graduating kids from school; it's about the health of the city," Alonso said.
A study by the city's Health Department would confirm Alonso's belief that the school system plays an integral role in transforming the trajectory of the city's youths.
The study, which looked at youths involved in violent crime from 2002 to 2007, found that many spent a significant amount of time away from school. Of the Baltimore youths who were involved in crimes, 92 percent had a history of chronic truancy and 62 percent had been suspended or expelled, according to the study.
Sundius of the Open Society Institute said the recent statistics prove that officials realized that the way the city had dealt with its youth in the past — with zero-tolerance policies on the streets and in the schools — was often counterproductive.
For example, five years ago, city schools suspended a record 26,000 students. About 9,700 students were suspended during the 2009-2010 school year.
"I think what we're seeing on a greater level is recognizing the consequences of those policies," Sundius said. "We have realized that they have profound impact on the outcomes for kids in the city."
The Police Department also took note.
In response to increasing juvenile violence, the department launched a division in 2007 devoted to youth services. The division is designed to "tie the law enforcement to the school enforcement," said Lt. Col. Rick Hite, who headed the department's youth services division before retiring in 2009.
"I saw a shift where, quite frankly, the truancy rate was talked about weekly," Hite said. "We knew for a fact that truancy is a gateway into a future crime, so we preached accountability to all."
After about a year, the functions of the youth division were assumed by district community service units that engaged in more youth-targeted programs, Guglielmi said. The department now asks that officers interact with children by coaching middle school sports teams or incorporating youth activities into their daily beats.
With the introduction of the Violence Prevention Initiative, a program created by Gov. Martin O'Malley in January 2008, the Department of Juvenile Services and city agencies were charged with intensifying levels of supervision and services for youths who are at highest risk of being victims or perpetrators of violence.
Officials increased monitoring and data collection of at-risk children, and offered support services for families after juveniles have brushes with the law.
Through the heightened supervision, DeVore said, the department learned that "if you have a kid that's kind of gone off track and you continue to let that situation go unattended, you're going to have a serious problem later on."
The coordinated efforts have been lauded by youth advocacy organizations, who say they hope the momentum continues so that problems that are still plaguing the city's youth are addressed.
For one thing, overcoming truancy and improving dropout rates is only part of the picture for schools. A report released last week by the Council of Great City Schools — an organization comprising leaders of large, urban school districts, including Baltimore — found that only 11 percent of black male students in large central cities were proficient in fourth-grade reading.
Another study released last month by Baltimore-based Advocates for Children and Youth, found that though juvenile arrest rates in the state are down overall, black juveniles in Maryland were still being arrested at nearly three times the rate of their white counterparts.
"I think [the agencies] all have the capability, but they all have to roll up their sleeves, because it's complicated work," said Jessica Shiller, education policy director for Advocates for Children and Youth. "But we should continue because this is a great trend, and this is the first time that Baltimore is on the front end of something like this."
The organization has advocated in favor of efforts such as requiring "culturally responsive" training for school and city police officers, and similarly themed curriculums in city schools. Shiller says the state could divert resources to help even more.
The $100 million budgeted for a 230-bed detention facility in Baltimore for juveniles facing adult criminal charges would be better spent by "diverting the funds to the school system to support kids rather than locking them up," she said.
Signals of success
In 2008, the second year of his tenure, Alonso made a contentious decision to offer the city's most difficult kids a place in the heart of the school system.
The Success Academy, a school for students who have been expelled, suspended long-term or have left school, is located at one of the entrances to city school headquarters on North Avenue.
While many believed that the most disruptive and dangerous students should not be allowed in a school setting, let alone at city school headquarters, city officials say that the controversy over the school's opening has subsided with its results.
The Success Academy has provided an opportunity for more than 400 of the city's most at-risk youths to complete their education. College acceptance letters and invitations to college graduations adorn the walls of the school.
Kevin Brooks, principal of the Success Academy, celebrates those successes but realizes there's more work to be done. This month, Brooks was mourning the deaths of three young men, including a current student and a former student.
He uses the deaths as reminders to his students of their options. But the recent statistics, he said, show that "we're starting to connect the dots."
City officials quickly came to understand the value of the Success Academy, realizing that it could serve as a symbol of second chances.
The school has helped the Department of Juvenile Services give youths a smoother transition into life after juvenile crime, DeVore said.
Before the Success Academy, "when our staff brought kids back to school, nobody was smiling at them walking up the steps," and now students see they have an alternative, he said.
The school system initiatives have extended to law enforcement, as the idea of "community supervision" of Baltimore's youth has spurred full-time watch command and curfew centers, which have been some of the most successful ways to target at-risk youths.
The Success Academy served as the city's summer curfew center this year, taking in youths picked up by police between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. on weeknights and from midnight to 4 a.m. on weekends.
More than 1,000 children were brought in by police over the summer. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who has been a proponent of the curfew center since she took office this year, said that one night of observing the intakes left her speechless.
"When you see 6- and 7-year-olds who are out at 1 in the morning, getting out of the truck, being carted in, it really underscores the need for us to be there to establish what the standards [should] be," she said.
'I do know they're alive'
Now, Farmer's weekdays begin at 7:30 a.m. By noon, he's halfway through his classes at W.E.B. Dubois High School. He has not had a brush with the law since re-enrolling in school, where he describes himself "as more dedicated and focused." He received B's and C's on his latest report card and expects to earn his diploma in the spring.
He hopes to attend college and become a physical therapist. But for now, he says, "it just feels good to be back to finish what I started."
Farmer, 20, is estranged from his biological family, but has a support system that includes a surrogate family who took him in with the understanding that he would have to get a job or go to school. Caroline Weiss, a family friend who teaches at W.E.B. Dubois, helped guide him through the process of re-enrolling.
"He was always a bright person; he just got caught up with the wrong people," said Christine Leach, a Dubois graduate whose family took Farmer in. "I just knew that if he hadn't decided to go back to school, he probably would have ended up in jail or dead."
Delores Berry-Binder, principal of W.E.B. Dubois, breaks down in tears when she talks about Farmer and the 15 to 20 students that she welcomes back to the school system every year.
"We have lots of success stories, but to me it's about the lives we impact," she said. "When you bring people back, you take hits in other areas. It doesn't help my test scores, it doesn't help my attendance rates. It's about saving people and giving them a second chance."
City leaders agree, maintaining they are not declaring victory. But they hope that next year's juvenile statistics will continue to reflect a changing profile of the city's children.
"I know I take a lot of flak for not showing emotion, but one thing that gets me emotional is when I think about the lives that we're saving," Rawlings-Blake said. "I don't know what those young people will become, I don't know what they'll do, but I do know that they're alive to do it."
Baltimore Sun reporters Justin Fenton and Liz Bowie contributed to this article.