Ex-Gang Member Dedicates His Life to Helping Youth

Willie Stokes, an ex-gangster from East Salinas, has re-dedicated his life to saving kids.
Stokes spent much of his childhood in and out of juvenile hall, according to an article by Joel Hersch in the Santa Cruz Good Times Weekly.
After 17 years in and out of the prison system, including 10 years at Pelican Bay, Stokes, now 43, asked himself, “Look at what you’re doing. Is it worth it?”
Stokes chose to become the executive director of the Salinas-based gang intervention nonprofit “Black Sheep Redemption Program,” (BSRP).
He said his decision to drop out of the gang life means there will always be a target on his back.
“I’m not afraid, but I’m not stupid either,” Stokes told Hersch. “I was willing to die for that stupidity, so why shouldn’t I be willing to die for something that can save kids?”
Stokes explained that having personally used powerful indoctrination tactics to rope kids into the gang mentality, he is now able to use the same methods to influence youth in positive ways.
Inspector Mario Sulay of the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s anti-crime team, which includes the gang and narcotics task forces, has worked with Stokes numerous times and is impressed with his work.
Sulay told GT Weekly, “I hold Willie Stokes in very high regard. I think he is somebody who can relate to some of these at-risk youth because he’s come from there.”