It’s easy to fall back into a life surrounded by gangs, drugs and violence in the streets of Chicago after being released from prison, Juan Romero wrote in an essay from the four walls of his cell as he tried to understand how he landed there and how he could find his way out.

       “It’s the only way of life we know,” said Romero, 36, now a free man.

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       He was in his early teens when first arrested. It was also then when he held a gun. At 19, he pulled the trigger and at 21, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for attempted murder.

       For a long time, Romero didn’t think there was a way out, especially after being convicted. Growing up in Pilsen in the ’90s meant that most of his friends, even his family, were intertwined in it. His older brother had been killed on 18th Street.