"I was always high every day … always in fights, always getting shot at or shooting at somebody," Jon Kelly says. "I for sure did not think I would make it past 16."
Growing up in north Philadelphia with a single mother and a little sister, Jon was the epitome of a disrespectful, troubled teen. He grew up in a rough neighborhood. Multiple schools—including a disciplinary school he says was "like prison, but you get to go home"—couldn't keep him out of trouble. He dropped out by ninth grade.
Jon began selling crack cocaine when he was only 12 years old, but in his teens, he decided it was more lucrative to rob drug dealers. "I thought it was a good thing," he says. After all, "I wasn't bothering law-abiding citizens."
