This is the seventh in a Sunday Observer series featuring stories told by inner-city men who have turned from a life of crime and are trying to steer young, at-risk males away from that destructive path.

DERRICK Jones, once a leading enforcer in the tough community of Southside in Parade Gardens, is adamant that not even the devil can get him to return to a life of crime.

Jones, also known as ‘Loyal’, is part of the nine-man Citizen Security and Justice Programme (CSJP)-sponsored Men With A Message that is now working to coerce young males to turn away from crime.

‘Loyal’ is adamant that no matter what obstacles or trials he may face, he has washed his hands of that destructive lifestyle.

“No matter who Lucifer send, it could be Beelzebub, I am focussed. I don’t see anything negative. I wouldn’t like the youths to come and grow up like me, so the elders have got to hold them and steer them. That’s why we are planting seeds in their heads from now,” Jones told the Sunday Observer.

Before Jones joined up with the CSJP and passed a stringent vetting process to become a member of Men With A Message, he was a major player in a bloody battle between dangerous gangs in Southside.

As is the case with most young men who sink into the dungeons of criminality, ‘Loyal’ never knew a father’s love and said it was an uncle whose negative lifestyle influenced him.

“I grew up without a father. He left when I was in ‘belly’,” he said. “A house without a man’s voice is not a house. I saw myself as one of the baddest men. So, we grew up under that influence and we started getting carried away by that image.”

As a youngster, Jones got involved in a series of petty crimes before he got dragged deeper into the underworld by the lure of the power of the gun.

“We started building ‘one-pop’ (a home-made firearm that fires a single round) and we became a disruptive influence in the community,” he said.

After several run-ins with the law and witnessing many of the persons with whom he grew up with in the community being killed, Jones’ life took an about-turn after a brush with the Grim Reaper.

The year was 2004 and the gang war in his community was at its peak.

Jones was sitting on a corner near Fleet Street, discussing a murder which had taken place hours earlier, when a gunman struck.

“I was looking in the next direction and the man came up and start shooting. The man who I was talking to was saying that if the man who was killed earlier could get killed, then anybody can dead. He ended up dying. I was shot too, and fell on my face. I thought I was going to die,” he said.

The bullet flew through his left arm in the region of the elbow, but although the pain was searing and he began to weaken, he still had to flee from the armed attacker.

“I run until I drop down. I realised I wasn’t dead and was very relieved,” Jones said.

Today, Jones said he harbours no ill will for his attacker and has never sought revenge.

“Let bygones be bygones. I am not bitter and don’t even think about revenge,” Jones said.

That incident spurred him to begin his long journey of rehabilitation, and as luck would have it, he met a representative of CSJP and enrolled in the programme.

“I started to read a lot of books, and after gaining knowledge I decided to change from that lifestyle,” he said.

But it was not easy. After being accepted to participate in a construction and electrical engineering class at the Jamaica Defence Force Up Park Camp headquarters, the classes were stopped after only two weeks.

Undeterred — his goal of becoming a productive member of society firmly in his mind — ‘Loyal’, kept broadening his knowledge base and started brokering peace in his community.

Eight months later, he reconnected with the CSJP and passed an entrance test at Operation Friendship, a vocational skills training programme run by HEART/NTA. He has since passed a Level I course in electrical installation and was made a class monitor due to his exemplary behaviour.

Since then, he has been carrying his message of hope and peace to young at-risk males in schools, on street corners and, most importantly, in his hometown, where he stands as a beacon of change and role model for many disillusioned young men.

“My influence in Southside is not normal, is knowledge we deal with. If I am at my yard the youths them come find me. We ever govern things through knowledge,” Jones said.

He prides himself on what he calls a great moment in his life, teaching a once-illiterate young man to read and write. He said it brings him joy to know he could have been of assistance since many young people in inner-city communities have education way down on their scale of importance and some are barely literate.

“If we can plant a good seed, then only positive things can happen. Parents alone can’t grow children; we have to be there to protect them. People have to start caring for the youths. You can do one positive thing to somebody and bring them up,” he said. “We have to reach the youth and show them they can live clean. No knife, no gun, no drugs.”

Jones is grateful to the CSJP for assisting him to turn his life around.

“It is through the rehabilitation of the CSJP why we are here now,” he said.

He plays an integral role in community meetings involving the Community Development Committee and the CSJP at the Gold Street Police Station every last Wednesday and said many of the once-irredeemable young males have shown a willingness to enter the programme.

Derrick Jones has been there and done crime. He has been locked up and knows what it means to fight in a turf war. As such, his message resonates with young men who don’t see him as a preacher trying to convert them, but as a man who can identify with their experiences.

He has a message for young males who might be enticed by the gangster lifestyle: “If we come from the bottom of the sea and tell you seh down there rough, you need to listen. Always plan to stay focussed, plan to stay ahead and most importantly, read.”