DETROIT – A former Detroit gang leader who spent more than 40 years behind bars is using his second chance at life to help spread a positive message.
Larry Smith hadn’t seen his old friend, Debra Jones, in more than 41 years. Their lives went separate ways in the 1970s when Jones became a teenage mother and Smith joined a Detroit gang. Smith said he wasn’t just in the gang -- he was the leader.
“Having things to say and being a shot caller made me a dangerous person because I could say things to people and they would do it,” Smith said. “Not realizing I was seeing what was happening to people as far as them going to prison, ending up in wheel chairs, some even the graveyards, you know?”
Smith graduated from armed robbery to murder in 1975, and in 1978, when he was 25 years old, he was sentenced to life in prison.
“It wasn’t until I had 14 years in prison I realized and did a reassessment of myself -- what was missing was me,” Smith said. “I was missing.”
At age 40, Smith started helping other inmates. He would counsel them, often when they were about to be paroled.
“I didn’t have a purpose, but when I discovered my purpose, (it was) to help other people,” Smith said.
Soon afterward, prison administrators looked to Smith to speak to groups, even college students. He wanted to continue that work after his parole. Smith spent 41 years behind bars.
He said this is an opportunity to lead again, but in a positive way.
Smith dropped off donated clothing to Jones’ house for young mothers. She’s run “Sunshine Always Brighter With a Second Chance” since 2005. Jones takes in young mothers who have often been victims of domestic violence and gets them back on their feet with parenting classes and life skills. She said her reward is watching their success.
“It’s priceless,” Jones said. “You just -- there’s no amount of money that you could give me for the feeling. It happens so much. Unfortunately, you can’t save them all, but when you do -- that’s the greatest feeling in the world. Like, I’m about to cry now because it just feels so good to help. I just know the struggles."
Smith and Jones have similar missions to help people who might otherwise make the same mistakes they had made.
Jones helps the women without public funding and can’t solicit donations because it’s important for the women to remain hidden from their abusers.
Smith said he eventually wants to try to do what Jones is doing: Start a house with some property his family left him and help as many young people as possible.