By Robert P. Constantino, Jr.

On Thanksgiving, a 17-year-old was shot in the head. He spent the holiday in critical condition and became the city's 66th homicide when he died five days later. Another 17-year old, shot and critically wounded the night before, called out for his mother as he bled on a Roxbury Street.

These homicides brought the city's killings to a 10-year high. More than 300 shootings have injured or killed people this year and exactly half of those killed were between the ages of 16 and 25. With so many young people getting shot and killed this year, city leaders recently convened to rethink crime prevention. Putting aside the fact that it look this long, there are a few things everyone involved should keep in mind going forward.

First, responding to crime after teens are shooting each other is too late to begin taking the problem seriously. When violence spirals out of control, increased police operations and prosecutions effectively round up offenders and make the streets safer. But they do little to insulate the younger generations from the violent street influences that wreaked havoc on earlier generations.

City officials tend to react when shootings make headlines &emdash; when it is too late to do anything but prosecute. If doctors treated sickness this way - waiting to treat deadly infections until it was too late &emdash; there would be universal outrage. Real prevention efforts, in addition to prosecuting the most violent, must target the younger generations before street influences can take hold.

Second, leaders at all levels must recognize that a real commitment to the younger generations will require financial and intellectual investment. When young people are dying, leaders must find resources and not make excuses about there being none.

With BC, BU, Harvard, MIT, UMASS, etc., Massachusetts is overflowing with intellectual resources. It is time to find the money to deploy them.

There are many ways to encourage the state's vast intellectual community to commit to the at-risk. How? Give them something. Create a government agency that approves community organizations. Mentors can then volunteer and receive modest hourly payment from the government towards tuition or student loans. How about more scholarships for students who commit to the at-risk?

An army of educated and driven role models could put hundreds, maybe thousands, of kids on the right track. Taxpayers spent $830 million on jails and prisons in 2004 and currently spend over $37 thousand dollars a year to incarcerate someone. A real investment now could save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars down the road.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, invest in values. The best way to keep kids out of jail is to teach them values from an early age. John Adams said right in the Massachusetts Constitution that public education must teach young people virtue. Train teachers to educate for character. Experiment with classroom formats that teach for virtue. When families fail to teach virtue, schools can help reach the at-risk before the streets hold sway.

If the at-risk were taught virtue from K-12 and had strong role-models committed to them, would taxpayers continue to spend $830 million a year on prisons? And this figure doesn't even include the added cost of more police, prosecutions, courthouses, etc.

Lastly, work with the legislature to make the investment now, when the public is outraged and there is a budget surplus. Residents in Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury, South Boston, and the South End are reeling from endless gunfire. Their frustration comes as the Massachusetts Taxpayer's Foundation reported a $450 million dollar surplus and a "rainy day" fund of $1.7 billion this year.

Two weeks ago, 5th graders in Dorchester were enjoying recess when a volley of gunfire sent them scattering for cover. Should we find the shooters and prosecute them? Of course &emdash; let's prosecute gun-runners, pimps, and drug dealers while we're at it. But let's not forget that every time we put a young man in jail and do nothing to eradicate the street influences that contributed to his fallen path, there are ranks of young people in his neighborhood still vulnerable to them.

Our leaders must stop asking what it will cost to invest in this younger generation and start asking what the cost will be if we don't. Boston recently lost two 17-year-olds in less than a week and saw gunfire rain on a group of 5th graders. One would expect the "rainy day" fund to apply when bullets are raining on fifth graders.

The writer is a former Suffolk County prosecutor at Roxbury District Court and founder of a weekly discussion seminar at the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans.