East Baltimore seems to me to be the worst area of the city in terms of crime and violence. A quick look at the homicide stats shows that 85 of this year’s 189 homicides have taken place in the Eastern, Northeastern and Southeastern districts.

Residents obviously recognise this and yesterday I spent time with two groups who are working to reduce the violence.

Living Classrooms is an organisation which takes teenagers from East Baltimore who have been convicted of crimes and so are known to the Department of Juvenile Services. The programme then trains the children in certain practical skills (woodwork, electrical engineering, hairdressing etc…) to help them get a job at the end of a 10 month course.

Every child graduates with a job and I’m told that the current success rate is that 71 per cent of the kids are still in employment three years after graduation. I spoke with two of the newest recruits. They asked me not to name them.

One, who was 19, told me how, previously, he was selling marijuana to help raise his daughter. He explained that drug dealing put money in his pocket daily and instantly whereas in a job he would only receive a pay cheque once a month, fortnight or week. He said that he joined the Living Classrooms because: “I realised I needed to become a father for my daughter to look up to”.

The other said that he had previously had “problems” and said that his neighbourhood contained: “A lot of killing and violence. You can get trouble even if you don’t want it.” He said he wanted a “fresh start”.

The effort the boys were putting in to changing their lives around really impressed me. As did the work of the Safe Streets programme. They are a group of reformed criminals who include in their number men who have served prison sentences for murder and former drug dealers. They now mediate in disputes between rival gangs in the area in an effort to reduce murders and violence.

The aspect of their work that most intrigued me, however, was the fact that they do not share any of the information they receive with the police. The reason is understandable, I suppose. They feel that if they were to co-operate with the police it would damage their credibility and effectiveness.

I can’t help but wonder how homicide detectives feel about the situation whereby an anti-violence group may have valuable information about a murder but refuses to reveal it.