Putting More People in Jail Won’t Reduce Crime in Dallas. Will Violence Interrupters?
If the city wants to reduce violent crime, it needs to try alternatives to mass incarceration. We talked to the head of a nonprofit bringing 'violence interruption' to Dallas.
By
Alex Macon
Published in
FrontBurner
April 20, 2021
12:30 pm
Policy makers can’t always agree on the best approach to reducing violent crime. But in Dallas, city leaders increasingly seem to understand that we do know what
doesn’t work: putting more people in jail. What’s needed instead is investment in what advocates call a community-based continuum of care. “This is a big pendulum shift. This is not how things have historically been done in Dallas,” says Gary Ivory, president of the national nonprofit Youth Advocate Programs. “We’re finally turning the tide on the mass incarceration that has happened in this country the last 50 to 60 years.”