Paying people not to shoot

 Charles Fain Lehman writes:

San Francisco has a new plan to stem a recent surge in deadly shootings: pay potential shooters. That’s the principle behind the city’s new Dream Keeper Fellowship, which will enroll 30 individuals deemed at high risk of shooting or being shot and pay them a $300 monthly stipend. They can collect an additional $200 per month for completing such milestones as taking job interviews, complying with probation, or meeting with the life coach assigned to them. We'll pay you not to shoot, Charles Fain Lehman, City Journal, 17 September

 Mr Lehman is unenthusiastic: 

[W]e shouldn’t pay people specifically for their willingness to refrain from deadly violence—any more than we should pay them for not selling drugs or abusing their children.

My position? I don't have one. Social Policy Bonds reward outcomes, whoever achieves them and, so long as the means are within the law, however they are achieved. If paying a small number of people not to inflict casualties on others is more cost-effective than heavy policing, and interventions by the justice and corrections departments, then why not do so? Careful crafting of Crime Prevention Bonds' redemption terms could minimise some of the risks, and allow resources to be diverted into preventing or punishing activities that currently seem to receive little attention, such as white-collar crime.

However, Social Policy Bonds are versatile. If the ethical or moral arguments against paying people not to commit crime are thought to outweigh those in favour, then the bonds' redemption terms could stipulate that such payments would invalidate the bonds. 

More likely, in my view, is that Crime Prevention Bonds targeting the sorts of violent crime committed by a small number of people in the long term might see such direct payments at first, but these would be replaced by or co-exist with other, less controversial but more long-lasting projects, such as subsidising employment in crime-ridden districts, setting up sports or youth facilities, and other more creative routes out of crime.