WOULD you like an extra few hundred pounds a month? If you live in San Francisco, the money could be yours - if you promise not to shoot anyone.

 

What’s the deal?

San Francisco is offering to pay people $300 a month if they manage not to shoot anyone.

 

Paying people not to shoot other people?

That’s it. The initiative - to begin in October - is a pilot project focusing initially on 10 individuals regarded as being at high risk of shooting someone and as well as pairing them with life coaches, paying them $300 to act as “public safety ambassadors.”

 

They could get more?

The monthly sums could be boosted to $500 on gift cards if the individuals meet other targets, such as keeping their parole appointments or finding work.

  

What’s it all about?

The aim of the scheme is to tackle surging violent crime - gun crime in San Francisco is already up 100 per cent compared to 2020.

 

And who is footing the bill?

The scheme, being rolled out by the Human Rights Commission and Office of Economic and Workforce Development, is funded through the Dream Keeper Initiative; a San Francisco body working to redirect funding into the Black community.

 

Isn’t this just ‘cash for criminals’?

San Francisco’s Mayor, London Breed, says this is not true, telling a local TV network: “These folks do not have any sort of income and so part of what we’re trying to do is make sure that money is not a barrier to turning your life around.”

 

It’s also not new?

The programme is inspired by similar schemes, including one in Richmond, California, found to have reduced gun violence in the city by 55% in a 2019 study.

 

Hopes are high?

Sheryl Davis, executive director of the Human Rights Commission, told Newsweek magazine: “These small investments can transform the lives of individuals, but they can also transform communities.”

 

The scheme has its critics?

American political conservative commentator, David Freddoso, wrote in the Washington Examiner: “Violent criminals need jail. They do not need cash. People who shoot other people need to be walled off in prisons and kept away from the rest of us.”

 

However, the scheme is not the only one of its kind?

California’s Governor Gavin Newsom has asked the federal government for the right to use tax dollars to fund a programme that would see California become the first state to pay drug addicts a few hundred dollars to stay clean. The similar “contingency management” approach would see people earning small incentives or payments for every negative drug test over a period of time.

 

It can work?

Former meth addict, Tyrone Clifford, 53, enrolled in a private contingency management scheme in San Francisco 11 years ago, in the hope of earning $330 to get drugs with, but ultimately stayed sober, bought a computer and went back to school. He said: “You watch those dollar values go up, there is proof right there that I am doing this.”