D’vondre Woodard, graduate of the ONS program. Still image from the documentary A Confused War, courtesy of Mariel Carr and Rachel Waldholz.

This podcast episode is about what it takes to get people to change. We focus on a group of people that might be the hardest to change… or at least they’ve had the most money thrown at them in hopes of change: Criminals.

Back in 2006, Richmond, CA was named the ninth most dangerous city in the country, with 42 murders for a population of about 100,000. Then they brought in a new police chief and started doing all kinds of things differently. And it worked. Homicides are now a third of what they were. Crime has dropped in a way that is dramatic and impressive. And police say that one of the things that helped is a program called the Office of Neighborhood Safety, or ONS. That’s a bland name for what is actually a very unusual program with one particular tactic that you do not hear about people trying very often: paying criminals to not commit crimes. Sounds crazy, but the even crazier part is…it works. 

This story originally aired on This American Life, in the episode, The Incredible Rarity of Changing Your Mind. Thanks to Ira Glass and the entire staff of This American Life for their help on this story.

Radio Diaries is part of Radiotopia from PRX.