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(continued from page 2) Banks was making "good money" on the street, but the pressures got to him and a robbery by another hustler almost pushed him over the edge. He had a gun and was ready for revenge, but said "a higher power got a hold of me then and I just stopped." For the first time in his young life, Banks decided it was time to change. He picked up the paper the next morning and began to look for a job. A home security company gave him a sales position. Soon, he said, he was a successful salesman. Within two years he had been transferred to St. Louis, then to Cincinnati, then to Philadelphia. But when his job transferred him back to Baltimore, the old "mentality" started creeping back. He pulled together enough money to buy a block of heroin. "I guess I really wanted money. I thought the lifestyle would elevate me," he said. But Banks got arrested before he could begin selling the heroin and was convicted on drug and weapons charges. He said the 12 months in prison gave him time to take a long, honest look at his former life on the blocks of East Baltimore. "I've never done hard time, but I've done hard time on the streets," he said as he neared his release date. "I know that I am going places. I would never come back here.
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Photographs and special report banner and design by Adam Newman / Maryland Newsline Text by Sarah Schaffer / Capital News Service
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