Homicides Plummet Thanks to Ex-cons Patrolling Baltimore Streets

dirge Sat Dec 17, 2016 12:35 pm

The men locked up for drug dealing and crime don’t seem like the ideal candidates to prevent further violence in the community – but this outreach program says otherwise. Safe Streets is an organization in Baltimore that uses ex-cons to deescalate street conflict in five different neighborhoods. Since no one knows the heartbreak of gang violence better than the ones who were locked up for it in the first place, the program has had groundbreaking success in the community. There is a strict confidentiality policy concerning the details of the outreach work – this creates a vital trust that cannot be infringed upon by police involvement or the legal system.

In 2014 alone, outreach workers mediated 880 high-risk encounters that likely would have ended in shootings. Park Heights, one of the neighborhoods monitored by Safe Streets, only just experienced its first fatal shooting in over a year. I’m a true believer in this program,” Cheo Hurley, executive director of Park Heights Renaissance, told Freep. “Safe Streets is an outside-the-box violence prevention effort. You’ve got to try different ways to make change. This program changes lives. It changes the guys’ lives — they have a job. And they’re saving lives. That’s a double benefit of this program.”

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/homicides-plummet-thanks-ex-cons-patrolling-baltimore-streets/