Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius said, “Poverty is the mother of crime.” Albany, GA’s crime rates, compared to the state and the nation, are relatively higher. Albany, GA’s crime rate is 2.6 times greater than the U.S. Average (Crime Rate in Albany, GA, 2023) and has a crime index of 2 out of 100 according to data published by Neighborhood Scout (Albany, GA Crime Analytics, 2023). This means that Albany, GA is only considered safer than 2% of all of U.S. cities. Furthermore, Albany’s crime rate exceeded the state average in five (robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, and auto thefts) of the eight categories for the past three years. And while Albany has experienced a slight decrease in the categories of burglaries, robberies, and theft from 2018 to 2020, the crime rates in these categories still fall well above the state average. A colleague recently said to me, “Every criminal is someone’s child who the system forgot or failed.” Those words struck me like a bolt of lightning. Wh...