Are the inmates setting their sights beyond the asylum and running entire cities?
A new Washington program is asking jail inmates for advice on dealing with the city’s growing crime problem, according to The Washington Post.
The program, LEAD Up!, provides a way for inmates to communicate with city authorities on solutions to violence and shootings in the city.
Convicts and inmates awaiting trial on charges ranging from carjacking, gun possession and murder have deliberated on possible solutions to the city’s violent crime problem.
Their ideas are provided to D.C. Director of Gun Violence Prevention Linda K. Harllee Harper.
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Harper recently met with inmates at D.C.’s Correctional Treatment Facility.
Honored to visit DC Jail’s Lead Up! Program today to hear presentations from justice impacted men offering solutions to address gun violence in our city. Well researched, thoughtful and innovative ideas. It will take all of us to #endgunviolence ? #202ForPeace @OGVPDCGOV pic.twitter.com/r5oHA58yYc
— Linda K. Harllee Harper (@LHarlleeHarper) August 4, 2022
At a LEAD Up! presentation in the jail’s gymnasium, one correctional officer referred to the inmates as “subject matter experts” in the violence affecting the community.
Should they ask the criminals for help?
Homicides in the nation’s capital are up 11 percent relative to those last year.
Killings in 2022 are set to break a 19-year high if they continue at their current pace.
Some solutions suggested by inmates suggest a culture of callousness fuels D.C.’s gun violence problem.
One inmate suggested that further crimes could be prevented if the authorities provided music studio time for turning in weapons, as it could “steer the community away from music that glorifies guns and shootings.”
“They’re killing each other for sport, and it’s motivated by music,” Sylvester Jones said, held in custody since January on a gun possession charge.
Other inmates assigned to the program suggested that the city develop a gun safety program with the National Rifle Association to teach residents of poor communities how to safely handle and use firearms.
The nation’s capital incurred a massive 20 percent increase in homicides from 2019 to 2020, according to Fox News.
The highest levels of gun violence in America are situated in a handful of large, Democrat-governed cities.
The chairman of the D.C. Police Union said that the city’s far-left politics has interfered with criminal justice, and that juvenile offenders are unafraid to speak to police officers who won’t be able to charge them.
