Za’Darius Smith was only 13 years old when he first found himself handcuffed in a locked jail cell.



Smith didn’t have many friends in his small hometown of Greenville, Ala., so he hung around kids three, four and five years older. His friends occasionally were in jail, Smith said, while he stayed out of legal trouble.



Smith attended Sunday school as a kid. His mom Sharon was the youth director at their local church. She taught her youngest son to treat others how he wanted to be treated, so she didn’t like visiting with his teachers to talk about why he was acting up in school.



She certainly didn’t like him spending time with older kids who ended up behind bars. She prayed for him every night so that he wouldn’t stumble across the same fate as they did.



One day, Sharon drove Za’Darius to nearby Butler County Correctional Facility, where she worked as a deputy administrator for 22 years. Some of his friends were...