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Violent crime is a big problem in Chicago, but it is sharply down this year, as it is in many U.S. cities. That decline hasn't stopped President Trump from describing Chicago as a, quote, "hell hole" and deploying the National Guard. Violence prevention groups already play a role in driving down crime in the city. From member station WBEZ, Anna Savchenko has the story of how one violence interrupter turned her own life around.
ANNA SAVCHENKO, BYLINE: When LaToya Baines was incarcerated over a decade ago, everyone in prison thought she was crazy. She just stayed in her cell and didn't talk to anyone.
LATOYA BAINES: I'm an emotional person. So when I went to prison, you couldn't really have emotions, you know what I'm saying? Like, you have other people dictating your life. You're on a schedule. So it made me shut down.
SAVCHENKO: She didn't know what to do. Until she met Crystal Handy. She was also serving time. Baines calls her TT.
BAINES: And my TT was like, she's not crazy. She just needs somebody to listen.
SAVCHENKO: One day, Crystal pulled her out of her cell and just talked to her. And Baines opened up.
BAINES: Everybody was so shocked. But she had this confidence, she had this peace that I didn't have that I needed.
SAVCHENKO: The peace she needed to make it through her 9 1/2 year sentence. Baines found it hard to rebuild her relationships once she got out, like with her son and daughter, who'd gotten used to their mom's phone calls from prison.
BAINES: So in the midst of trying to rebuild yourself, you also have to try to rebuild those relationships with your kids too. That's difficult because sometimes you're going to get rejected. Yeah, you're Mom, but where you been?
SAVCHENKO: Her children are teens now. Baines has a picture of the three of them together printed on her mouse pad at work.
BAINES: This is, like, one of the most recent pictures of us together.
SAVCHENKO: Baines' office is on the West Side of Chicago, where she works for the Alliance of Local Service Organizations. It's one of several groups in Chicago that hire people with criminal records to help drive down violent crime. Overall, violent crime is near the lowest it's been in more than 40 years. These groups create pathways for people like Baines, whose records make it harder for them to get a job anywhere else.
BAINES: I knew I had a dream to help people, but I never knew that this was where it would lead me.
SAVCHENKO: Christa Hamilton leads the Chicago social services agency UCAN. And she says the lived experience of violence interrupters aids them in their work.
CHRISTA HAMILTON: When you've experienced harm, when you've experienced a loss of a loved one, you can't train someone to have that level of commitment. So they show up in a way that I think we absolutely need them to be in this work.
SAVCHENKO: Now, Baines relies on her own experience to help others who are at their lowest points as they adjust to life after incarceration or learn how to rebuild their own relationships with their kids. She connects them to services like trauma treatments, education, job training. The idea is that by helping people who live in crime hotspots, they can reduce desperation and therefore reduce crime and violence.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
SAVCHENKO: On a recent afternoon, Baines' team was giving out free food at a local school. That's where she ran into Orlando Vasquez. She's been helping him find housing.
BAINES: So I found you a connection for your housing. So I'm going get - I need you to come in the office tomorrow...
ORLANDO VASQUEZ: OK.
BAINES: ...Probably about 11.
VASQUEZ: OK, yeah.
BAINES: Then we'll try to see...
VASQUEZ: Thank you. I will be there.
SAVCHENKO: Vasquez is in a program that's teaching him how to become a professional violence interrupter. Baines says he's an example of how her team helps people on the fringes to break the cycle of violence. That's why she says that Chicago doesn't need federal intervention. What she and others are doing, she says, is working.
For NPR News, I'm Anna Savchenko in Chicago.
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