给你钱 别犯罪

LW: Now, an American city has chosen an unusual way to fight crime here, Brian, and we know that, the old aphorism is, that “crime doesn’t pay”. But it looks like it actually might in this case. BK: Right, it might there. There’s a plan in Washington DC, which has certainly a problem with violence, murder, homicide, et cetra, to actually pay residents, or pay potential criminals or actual criminals, to not commit violence, specifically to not shoot and kill each other. This is actually coming from a program in Richmond, California, which was, in 2007, the country’s sixth deadliest city per capita. In the 20 years prior to that, they had 740 who were killed by guns, and more than 5,000 people had been injured by bullets. They ended up getting this consultant who came up with this idea to give money to the worst of the worst, pretty much, and they’ve seen some results actually. LW: So, the idea is here, is that if these people don’t commit crimes, they get a certain amount of money, is that – like, very simply, and perhaps too simplistically, that’s the idea. [BK: That’s half of it] OK. BK: The other half is they’re part of this program which is why they get eligible to get this money. You go, and you get mentored pretty much. LW: Alright – Wu You, what do you make of this? WY: I think according to the description from Brian, it is not really like the subsidies or something; it’s just like an exchange. The requirement is like if they engaged for six months of different lessons, with the help of psychologists or some experts, and then they possibly will get the money. But a question is, what if they continue to use the money or get accumulated lots of money and buy another gun or something. BK: Yeah, and that, that is possible there, you know. And it could be for guns, it could be for drugs – they don’t know. WY: Is there any other alternative measure? Because all these kind of course is to help them better engage in life again. And what about to give them some vouchers or some shopping cards that can only be used in certain places, and also give them some cash, some money, and also helping them apply for jobs. BK: Yeah. And I – the program does actually some of that there. LW: I can step in here: for me, it’s very certain is – there’s certainly people who commit – do bad things because they are bad [BK: Mm-hmm]. But then there’s also definitely I think the majority of the time, at least in my time, is people who are desperate. Now, the other question is then, is that thousand dollars not collectively best served by addressing the root cause of why people would be desperate in the first place. BK: That’s a very fair point. You talk about economic issues [LW: Yeah], people not having jobs, and that’s, that’s something that I think does need to be addressed. WY: Actually, data can talk: so this is not the first time that America certain state has been doing this, right? And another state has also been doing this, and is it effective? BK: That is the thing there. With Richmond, with this program there, it admittedly is small, and they, they’ve had 88 who’ve gone through it. 84 of the 88, first of all, are still alive, which sounds like, well, of course they should be, but there was a feeling that, for a lot of them, they wouldn’t necessarily be. LW: But now, this other thing: this program, it doesn’t have any sort of close relationship with law enforcement. BK: That’s right. In Richmond, they do have the support of the police – they do think it’s innovative – but they don’t actually work with law enforcement, to kind of maintain their credibility, ‘cause the fear is that if these people know that you’re working with the police, they’re not gonna wanna be involved. LW: I’m looking at some of the notes here as well – it says here that they may have allowed suspected killers in the stipend program to evade responsibility for homicides. Is that, is that ethical? BK: I mean, that’s the thing. And on the other hands, after reaching a record low of 11 homicides a couple years ago, they’ve been on the rise in the past couple years, so there is that. If you’re one of those places like Richmond was about ten years ago, and things are just absolutely horrible, I think it’s worth giving it a try.