Ex-Gangster Disciples ‘governor’ now distributing food boxes, not crack cocaine – By Frank Main (Chicago Sun-Times) / Oct 23 2020
James Yates once helped run one of Chicago’s most notorious gangs. Now free after 20 years in prison, he says he’s trying to ‘fix some of the stuff that we played a part in messing up.’
James Yates was sentenced two decades ago to life in prison after a jury found that he was a “governor” of the Gangster Disciples in charge of distributing drugs for the street gang in Chicago’s south suburbs.
Today, he’s distributing a different kind of commodity in those same suburbs: food.
Yates, 51, was freed in April under the federal First Step Act, which allows imprisoned drug criminals like him to seek a reduction in their sentences because of changes imposed after they were sent to prison in the penalties for distributing crack cocaine.
He and seven other high-ranking members of the Gangster Disciples have been released from prison under the 2018 law, signed by President Donald Trump with bipartisan support, intended to promote rehabilitation and cut the costs of incarceration.
Yates says he spent a lot of time in prison thinking about how to give back to a community he knows he damaged through drug dealing and violence.
Continue to article: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/10/23/21525588/gangster-disciples-james-yates-first-step-act-food-boxes-crack-cocaine-robbins-chicago-street-gangs
