Paying People Not To Be Violent

Terrence McCoy recently offered up an interesting solution to Baltimore’s homicide crisis in The Washington Post: A program like one in Richmond, California, that identifies residents with the most violent histories of criminal behavior and pays them to stay out of trouble. Under Richmond’s Office of Neighborhood Safety Initiative, participants receive monthly stipends up to $1,000 for refraining from violence and following a “life map” regimen of GED classes, job training, anger-management counseling and other forms of criminal-conversion therapy.

So far, the program appears effective. In less than eight years of existence, the number of killings per year there dropped from 47 in 2007 to just 11 last year. Of course, that drop can’t be credited totally to the program. As pointed out in Mother Jones last year, the declines have also coincided with the arrival of a new police chief who has dramatically reformed policing practices in Richmond. Still, McCoy reports that some in California believe that the Richmond model could have a positive impact in Baltimore, which just suffered its most murderous month in 40 years.