NORTH LITTLE ROCK — There are second acts in American lives. How else do you explain Leifel Jackson?

Jackson is executive director of the North Little Rock-based Reaching Our Children and Neighborhoods, an after-school program for at-risk children. From 3-6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday during the school year and Monday through Thursday during the summer months, Jackson and a team of volunteers mentor, tutor, comfort, feed and educate approximately 60 children ages 6 to 18. It's a precarious slot of time in a child's day, out of school but not under parental supervision. A free time for curiosity to result in experimentation; experimentation to result in troublemaking.

"We give them an opportunity to just be kids," Jackson said. "To be kids and be around other kids.

"We deal with academics, but we deal with behavior as well. A lot of kids are not able to be kids today. They have to grow up so fast. ROCAN plays a part in giving them a chance to be a kid long-term. It gives them a safe place to be a kid."

The 47-year-old and his group of volunteers begin their day at the old Argenta Train Station in the Sherman Park community by preparing for the influx of children soon to arrive: arranging the snacks children will be greeted with and starting on the children's dinner to be served later that evening.

By 3 p.m. the children - from communities throughout central Arkansas but mainly from the North Little Rock neighborhood - begin arriving. The program averages anywhere from 25 to 55 children a day. The children sign in, are served snacks and then divided into homework and non-homework groups. The children without homework are allowed to work on the center's computers or PlayStations under adult supervision, while others assist Jackson in cooking their dinner.

"I used to be a professional chef so I teach the children the little things they need to know in the kitchen - how to cook noodles and such," Jackson said.

The children serve each other dinner around 5 p.m. followed by a cleanup period. By 6 p.m. the children are safely on their way home, where parents arriving from work greet them. Parents or relatives are required to volunteer one hour a week as a form of payment.

In the seven years Jackson has fulfilled the role of mentor, community activist and youth advocate - first with the government-funded Our Club and with the private-donation funded ROCAN since 2005 - approximately 200 children have been a part of the program.

"We're making a difference," he said. "This past year we had kids go to college - one joined the Army, three went to college here in state and one went out of state. A lot of people might measure success in having a lot of money. I have a different outlook on success now. I'm paid everyday. It's just been great to be around these kids."

The last stage of the first act of Jackson's life was filled with the success that comes from money. The first act stars Jackson as leader of Little Rock's Original Gangster Crips and infamous star of the documentary Gang War: Bangin' In Little Rock, which first aired on HBO in 1994.

Born and raised in Little Rock, Jackson was introduced to gangs in the late '80s in Los Angeles, a city he traveled to with his then wife in order to escape a life of cocaine and sherm in Little Rock.

He moved into Imperial Courts (the public housing complex where scenes from Training Day were filmed) with his brother Dewitt Jackson, but his California dreams of escape were quickly dashed.

"I remember looking at it and thinking, 'This is not what I've seen in the movies,'" he said. "There was just as much drugs there as there was here, and cheaper."

After watching two Crips embrace and declare their brotherly love following a disagreement, Jackson yearned for that same tenderness.

"My dad raised us that men should never hug each other like that," he said.

Soon, Jackson was making a name for himself in South Los Angeles, forcing his return to Little Rock after a Los Angeles Police Department officer told him to leave town or else.

He started running the Original Gangster Crips, a powerful gang based in an area around Central High School. But even as the leader of a gang, earning thousands of dollars as a drug trafficker, Jackson attempted to give back to his community. He created safe zones for children in the Original Gangster Crips territory and encouraged other gangs to do the same. He also took neighborhood children roller skating and bought them new shoes. But the good deeds were overshadowed by his gang lifestyle.

"I actually believe I was at a spot where I wanted to make a change [before going to prison]," Jackson said. "Even then I was trying to give back to the community.

"But there was a downside. I might have been helping out the kids, but I was selling crack to their dad. It took me going to prison to see that. That whatever I did for the kids was wiped out by the gang-related stuff."

Jackson was arrested in December 1993 and spent eight years in federal prison where he begin working with troubled youth.

"When I was sitting in prison I would say that I would love to go out and make a difference in the community," he said. "I prepared myself when I was in there."

Since his release, Jackson has avoided backsliding into his old lifestyle, beginning to work with Our Club, becoming a motivational speaker (He recently returned from a speaking engagement in Maryland.), and being awarded the state's 2002 Juvenile Justice Worker of the Year Award and the Martin Luther King Jr. 2005 Salute To Greatness Josetta Wilkins Award for Courage.

"Go and do positive things," he said. "I'm an example. I'm a beacon to a lot of kids who don't want to do the banging anymore and get out of the gang lifestyle that you can be a respected citizen and member of society. I have accomplished the things I wanted to do and made a difference in the community.

"The hardest thing I've ever done is not going to prison for eight years or being a gang leader, but raising a little girl," he said of his 7-year-old daughter Nadia.

But it hasn't been easy. A felon carries a stigma, a permanent tattoo that prevents Jackson from driving a bus to collect children for ROCAN, from voting and from owning a gun for hunting purposes, a boyhood pursuit he would love to relive. He only just recently become an assistant Boy Scout leader for a local troop.

Jackson understands his past actions have branded him, but he wants to show people it's possible to be reborn here on earth. It's possible to start a second act midway through life.

"If you want to change things and make it better you sometimes have to do it yourself."

The 3rd Degree

with Leifel Jackson

Who would you choose to play you in a movie about your life?

Can I say two? I would say Ice Cube and Denzel Washington. I would say Ice Cube because he comes from the environment I came from. And Denzel is just a phenomenal actor.

What is the most played song on your iPod?

Anthony Hamilton's "Ain't Nobody Worryin'." It talks about the kids and the inner city. We need prayer. It's really touching.

If you could have any super power, what would it be?

Able to control and move things with my mind. There are things not right today that if I had the power to change it just with my mind I would change it.

What was your favorite TV show as a kid?

Thundercats. I still watch cartoons today.

If you could witness any event in history, what would it be?

I'd like to be around Jesus at the time of the Last Supper. There's a lot of things I'm missing out of that picture.