Sen. Taylor requests $20M to expand Memphis Allies violence-intervention program

Sen. Taylor requested a $20,000,000 nonrecurring appropriation to expand Memphis Allies, a violence-intervention program serving high-risk individuals in Memphis.

Taylor said Memphis Allies has a track record of serving roughly 1,500 high-risk participants and that “91 percent have not incurred another gun charge while receiving services.” He said a $20 million state investment would allow the program to expand to serve roughly 650 high-risk participants daily in the initial fiscal year and scale toward 800 per day in subsequent years, with the remainder of program funding coming from private and local sources.

He framed the amendment as an evidence-based expansion of an established model and pitched the request as a relatively targeted one-time investment to scale services that, he said, have demonstrably reduced subsequent gun charges among participants. Members did not ask substantive follow-up questions during the presentation and no vote was taken in this session.