B.C.
Cotton dropped out of high school to pursue a life of drug dealing. However, he
wasn’t making the “fast cash” he was promised. Cotton said it wasn’t until he was in
his mid 20s that dealing became lucrative. “It turned out not to be the green road
that I thought it was going to be. I was trying to be a man but was never taught how
to be one,” he explained.
Then, just as Cotton thought he had established himself in “the game,” he sold
cocaine to a police informant in 2007. He was arrested on a Class B charge of dealing
cocaine and spent 20 months in prison. “At that point I didn’t care about who I was
or who I hurt,” he admitted. It wasn’t until he was in prison, he says, that he realized
God had been trying to steer him away from the way he was leading his life. Cotton
admits it seems cliché that he found religion behind bars, but that’s what it took for
him to start turning his life around. “Money, it means nothing at all once they arrest
you. Salvation is the only thing,” he said. “Do I feel the judicial system cares about
me? No, but no one put the gun in my hands,” he said.
Now, Cotton is trying to prevent his children from repeating the
mistakes he made. He even introduced the detective who arrested him, Jake
Brookes, to them. Next year, Cotton’s son is set to graduate from Anderson High
School. “On that day,” he projects, “I will be so happy for him, ’cause he accomplished
something his father never did.”
Resources for “Men in Transition”
& families being compiled!
& families being compiled!