(Continued from page 4)

"Stay home, man," Paige shouted as his young relative turned to walk out of the penitentiary gate.

"I'll write to you, dog," Banks yelled back, as he turned one last time to look at his cousin and the prison yard that caged him for over a year.

After his release, Banks was back on a Baltimore street corner -- but this time he wasn't hustling, he was waiting for a ride to the detox center.

After a mandatory month-long stay at a drug treatment center, Banks will live for eight months in the shelter, where he will have to hold a job, pay rent and attend daily drug treatment and therapy sessions.

As he waited for his ride, Banks met Archie Hill, an ex-offender who directs the Barnabas Ministry, a weekly support group for prisoners. Hill smiled as he saw Banks in an oversized prison-issue T-shirt. Together, at the gates of the prison yard, they joined hands and prayed, asking God to bless them both and give them strength to succeed in life.

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