experts think it will take a month or two to repair the 3300-year-old mask. that's it for this edition of world nis. "america tonight" is next. see you in the next hour. it's the city is down. i'd like the health to get better. >> i'm working, surviving without being to be street. >> deconstructing. >> we're giving individuals reasons not to commit this act. >> since april 22nd, took the opportunity to show the bad side. but the young people that i'm seeing they want a chance to turn that around.

>> baltimore is my adopted home. i moved here more than a decade ago, i quickly fell in love with its neighborhoods and its rich history. i'm adam may. as a reporter that covered the death of freddy gray, the rioting that broke out afterwards and the bloodshed and murder it struck me that too many stories are going untold. stories of people trying to solve root problems, problems like poverty, joblessness and drug addiction. tonight we highlight the inspiring stories, the innovative ideas of those who are trying to save baltimore. >> i love it, it was challenging, something i had never done.

>> bernadette buxon celebrated her first anniversary working in deconstruction. tearing down some of baltimore's vast stretches of abandoned row houses. >> just the drill, it is not as easy as some people think. to drill a door is sway ask a some ways a door, to take out a drill, it looks easy but it's not. a lot of other tools now. >> the 52-year-old woman from east baltimore didn't plan on working in deconstruction. she was a teacher's smint until thteacher's assistantuntil the s evils to make quick cash ruined her life. >> how did you become unemployable? >> i had worked in the school system and had left to take care of somebody and i got into selling drugs again and didn't go back to work and then i started using. >> what kind of

drugs? >> heroin? >> heroin. >> yes. what did heroin do to your life? >> tore my life apart. family wise everything. i lost custody of my kids. >> how old were your kids when you lost custody of them? >> seven and eight. six and five. >> at rock bottom, she decided to go clean. but like tens of thousands of other ex-felons in baltimore she found herself hampered with a criminal record. it took her years to land this job. part of a social program called details, sponsored by humana. >> you waited a decade for this job. >> i had to fill out so many applications, because of my background.

>> nobody would hire you. >> no. >> how does that feel in your heart when you can't support yourself? >> i was little bit broken. because i didn't want to go back to the streets. to make money that way. >> buxon leaves her house early to make it to work by 7:30, walking through streets ravaged by drugs and joblessness. lined with abandoned homes, some of the 16,000 empty properties in baltimore. >> deconstruction is the means but the end is to create jobs, that's what we're after. >> until last year max pollack worked in a cubicle. seeing a city in need of radical urban renewal. nearly a quarter of baltimore's population lives below the port

poverty align. unemployment in this area is running 30%. >> if you have these dual issues of high unemployment and drug abuse. >> you see block after block of vacant homes. how is this solving that issue? >> the vacant houses that you see in baltimore are less you know they're less a -- the problem itself and there may be more of a symptom of problems that have existed in baltimore for the past 50 years. >> they're what we see. >> yeah, right. >> what do they symbolize? >> they symbolize the loss of industry. they symbolize the loss of jobs. you know institutional neglect. disinvestment. >> generational poverty? >> poverty that is embedded within certain neighborhoods. >> removing empty homes just part of the mission. so is rebuilding broken lives.

like bernadette buxon, 70% of detail's staffers have a conviction on their record. what does the city get out of you guys hiring felons? >> the city gets a number of things. one, it creates way more jobs. these are people that otherwise may not be working and we pay them a living wage with benefits. with the city awarding us the contract it's putting the jobs back in the community. >> johnny washington said he spent years looking for work, held back by two stints in prison racked up by years of dealing drugs. >> what happened when you applied? >> my background, my felonies on my record. >> did they call you back, do you not hear anything? >> i don't hear anything at all. they call me back and they tell me my background didn't go through. >> how do you think that's

impacting their record, the fact that they don't find jobs, how does that affect folks? >> they go back out on the streets and do what they have to do to feed their family. >> johnny has worked his way up to crew leader. he recently completed work on this site, tearing down ten row houses on bradford street just a few blocks from where he said he used to sell heroin. >> do these house he you tear down look like these? >> yes, two story row houses. >> what kind of stuff do you find in these houses? >> jut about everything, drugs, needles, you have to be careful when you go in the basements of houses. >> esthetics aren't the only reason to tear down baltimore's urban rot.

it provides a haven for the epidemic washington used to be a part of. >> do you get pate? >> more than i would have without a job. >> not as much as drug dealing. >> no, but cashing your paycheck, getting a pay stub feels good to me. >> our first project we hired we created 24 to 26 jobs i think. so that's people bringing home a paycheck every day. people going to the corner store to spend money on lunch there. you can think of it as a microinvestment strategy in certain neighborhoods. >> what kind of work have you done in here then already? >> in this one we've basically gutted the building leaving a shell essentially. >> deconstruction. the pains take salvaging of wood and bricks is more expensive than simply bulldozing the homes. so to help pay for program, details came up with another innovative solution. reselling the materials.

they're biggest money-maker: old bricks. >> most people would see a nondescript wall in an alley in baltimore. for enough of these bricks, if you have enough of them that's an hour of work we can pay somebody. >> from what i used to be, what i used to do, look at me now, i'm surviving. selling drugs, hanging on corners, getting high. i don't -- i'm at -- when i say look at me, it's a different look, that people look at me now. they see somebody that's achieved something. >> do you see people looking add you different now? >> yes, i get a lver

one brick at a time. details is now expanding. but with 16,000 abandoned buildings across this city, there is a long way to go. whether we come back: one doctor trying to cure baltimore's many ailments, finding unique allies, and later: why was a glass building right in the middle of april's riots left virtually untouched?

this is the city's new commissioner. bringing fresh ideas to the city's stub urn problems. at a league cook out. dr lena gathers with some city workers, on a mission to stop the onslaught you have murders. since becoming the health commissioner. dr when has faced two crisis, an epidemic of heroin use and a spike in homosides. dr wen may be new to baltimore,

but no stranger to the urban realities of drugs and soils. >> i grew up in rough neighbourhoods. we experienced gun violence nearliry every day. growing up i felt unsafe walking on to the streets. my family suffered drug addiction, homelessness, and i saw every day the same problems that our community in baltimore faces. >> the big story that always makes stories out of baltimore is violence. how does the homicide rate connect with problems facing the city. >> we see violence as a public health issue, meaning that there's a way to prevent it. there's a way to intervene and treat it, and there's a way for us to not must see a person as a perpetrator, but we are all

victims of drama. >> one way dr wen's office is trying to address the trauma is through the safe streets programme. >> safe streets. >> where veterans of urban life try to convince the baltimore youth not to escalate conflict into violence. craig run's safe streets outreach, near the scene of rioting after freddy gray's death in april. >> we are mediating conflict. we give reasons why they shouldn't commit the act. when people take a life, they are taking theirs also, their's is never the same. >> what gives you street cred? >> i lived the life. i robbed, broken house, i shot, i've been shot. >> you know the motto. >> safe streets is a small programme, limited to only four

locations and some 20 outreach workers in this city of 620,000. a baltimore that has seen more than 200 murders this year. according to this man, the programme is having a big impact. and some of baltimore's roughest neighbourhoods. >> how effective has the programme been, we hear about the record homosides. >> in july, 40 year record. there was one. >> only one murder in the area you guys work in during baltimore's worse month in 40 years. >> one murder. >> why not expand this? >> that's my question. >> there are so many issues that didn't just start overnight. drug addiction, mental health and mass incarceration and housing discrimination. these are not new issues. they are public policy failures. >> reporter: the route to many

problems is drug addiction. baltimore has been called the heroin capital of america. >> there are 19,000 people here in our city who are addicted or using heroin. >> how is that affecting the city? >> there's not one issue that is not affected by heroin. i talked to 8-year-olds on the street, telling me they don't see the purpose of going to school. why should they wake up in the morning when no one in the family wakes up, because they are addicted to heroin. it's not just an individual disease, it affects the entire family, the community, and is engrained in our cities. >> the dr 's efforts to address the drug epidemic are not just focused on prevention, but also rapid response. >> there is one overriding reason for us to be here, which is to save lives. >> he's put in place a health initiative, a plan to provide every resident of baltimore, not

just addicts, with naloxone, a drug that can reverse a heroin overdose. >> dr wen showed me how easy it is to administer. simply lean back and inhale like a naisel spray. >> this is equivalent to defibrillators that, we have in airports, office buildings - overdose rates reached epidemic proportions. more are dying in the city from overdose than we do from homicide. >> for the doctor, saving lives is saving baltimore, perhaps the most challenging city in america to practice public health. >> when we come back, a return to unrest. a safe haven in the midst of chaos. the only way to get better is to challenge yourself,

and that's what we're doing at xfinity. we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around.

welcome back, it was a terrible day on answer 27th in baltimore, when frustration boiled over after the death of freddie gray, and rioting broke out on streets across the city. amid the chaos, we found a glimmer of hope. a glass building that didn't shatter. filled with children, working for a better future. . >> this man has to walk through dangerous streets of america to reach a place where he finds safety and security. a library in west baltimore.

>> someone was shot the other day. when there's shoot igements, that's why i stay here. i feel safer here than out there. >> the library is at the corner of peninsula and north avenues, the epicentre of unrest in april. >> that's when protests turned to riots after the death of freddie gray. killed after police gave them a rough ride in a van. rioters looted and destroyed dozens of villages. ever since, violence engulfed baltimore. june and july have been the most violent months in decades. the the city recording its 200th murder in august. >> i'm scared. sometimes in certain neighbourhoods i stand out. i don't even go out at night.

it's not that shooting will happen. >> the sense of fear eases inside the library. where this 11-year-old can play video games. >> eat a free lunch, and see other worlds open up before hip. >> it's like when you read books, you learn new things every day, i want to keep my mind ready for the next grade. over the summer kids forget. he spends every summer day at the library. his father sells used movies down the block. this area here, infamous the last couple of months. and your kid is down here and is a firearm. >> you could keep your child away from bad elements. you can't keep him away

completely, but you can tell him what not to do and instill in him a sense of purpose in life. poverty, joblessness and drug addiction weighed heavily on the neighbourhood. >> one thing we heard again and again as we reported the story was the violence and unrest do not tell the full story of the community, at the heart of which lies the library. >> this is branch manager. >> we see the real side of the community. we see the side that says this needs to remain in this neighbourhood. this library is servicing young people. servicing adults, beam that don't have jobs can come in and get on the computer and apply for jobs. >> the reality is you walk down there and you can buy heroin. >> right.

>> you can go that way and get shot? >> you can go there, change your future. change your future. change your life. you were inside that building on the day of the riot. tell me what you saw out here. how did you describe it. it was mass chaos. >> what was in your hearts when you saw this. >> i was there, therefore the young people - i felt that they thought it was the best way of getting their voice heard at the seconding. they had another way to make it known that they were tired and frustrated. but feeling like there had to be another way. >> on that day the doors of the library were locked and kept the patrons inside. >> people on the inside did not

want to go out. they felt more comfortable being inside the library. >> despite the big class windows, the library suffered little damage in the riot. >> it was amazing to see it was untouched. we were grateful for that. you opened up a day after the riots. kids come in. they were reading books. >> what do you think brought the kids back in here? >> at the end of the day they felt this was a place that cares for them. buts them first. the community saw it's in the just about being a library. >> when everything was going crazy outside. it was still here and open. >> jacqueline brings her son here 2-3 times a week.

>> when we walk in the door, it's like coming home. >> regardless of what you see, how many you see, it means something to the people here. >> the national media saw an image of this neighbourhood on television for the last few months. >> that's right. >> and it's an image of poverty, drug use, an image of violence. >> yes, all of those things exist. they don't just exist here. but many places. >> there's also love here, there's all of this. my family and families like ours, and there's a library. this is where we come to see the other side of all of the other things that may be happening. >> for the first time this summer, the library has also offered free lunches to children. >> the library saw the need to join other places that are

offering summer meals to children. they are children to don't have. >> reporter: how is this programme helping your children. >> they are getting help reading the process. >> the young people on april 22nd showed the bad side. the loot, cause fires. the young people i see they want a jans to turn that around. >> there's a whole other side of the baltimore trying to save it. it's a moved to make a difference, to make changes, a renewal, a way of making what we want to come to reality. the young people want a place in that. they deserve a place that that.

>> when i get older i plan on helping communities like baltimore. >> reporter: what do you want to do? >> other a doctor, because i like helping people. i like to help the si. if the city is down, i'd like to help it get better. >> achieving this will be a long journey. down a road of danger and temptation. at least there's one place, the corner library offering hope. that is our special report "saving baltimore", i'm adam may. be sure to join us next time for more "america tonight".

i'm ali velshi, on target. pills and profit. why a wave of drug price hikes is a prescription for trouble as patient, hospitals and doctors all get squeezed. plus, fighting back against the real problem of fake online reviews. the political fewer ror raging in america over prescription drugs is