Over a 6-month period an estimated 9 percent of students ages 12-19 were crime victims in or around their schools. Only 9 percent of public school students and 36 percent of private school students reported it impossible to obtain drugs at school, while about 30 percent of the students interviewed in the first half of 1989 believed that marijuana was easy to obtain at school. The majority of today's adults were incarcerated as children. Children are growing up in a world where drug dealing, mugging, rape, and extortion are normal parts of their lives. Lack of juvenile justice reform will ensure a future generation of criminals. In addition, the criminal justice system's emphasis on retribution produces no positive change in either the offender or the offender's situation in the community. However, the Presbyterian church and Christian principles suggest that the most important things we can do to reduce crime are the steps we can take to build and fortify a strong, inclusive community. Christians recognize that they are in solidarity with those who are prisoners and must undo a penal system that enslaves everyone and represses the movement of humanity from bondage to freedom.