Washington D.C. Wants To Pay Residents To Not Commit Crimes


This also doesn’t take into account the time and resources it will take to set up and run the city council’s program. Already, city officials are estimating that millions of dollars will be needed to maintain the stipend program. Irregardless, the council is convinced that the program is not only feasible, but necessary as well.

“Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, a Democrat who wrote the legislation, said it was part of a comprehensive approach to reducing violent crime in the city, which experienced a 54 percent increase in homicides last year.

Homicides and violent crime are still down significantly since the 2000s, and even more so since the early 1990s when the District was dubbed the nation’s ‘murder capital.’

McDuffie argued that spending $9,000 a year in stipends ‘pales in comparison’ to the cost of someone being victimized, along with the costs of incarcerating the offender.

‘I want to prevent violent crime — particularly gun violence — by addressing the root causes and creating opportunities for people, particularly those individuals who are at the highest risks of offending,’ McDuffie, a former prosecutor, said in a letter to constituents last week.

Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser has not committed to funding the program, which would cost $4.9 million over four years, including $460,000 a year in stipend payments, according to the District’s independent chief financial officer.

Without the mayor’s support, it would be up to the Council to find money for it through new taxes or cuts to existing programs.”

Source: WREG



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