Former drug dealer builds up Florida communities

Simmons was a young police officer and Hills was a teenage drug dealer. The way they saw it, they each had a job to do, and over the years, their trades caused them to cross paths several times.

“He feels like he owes the community a debt, and he has set out to repay that debt,” Simmons said. “I’m glad to be able to help him in any way that I can, and I’m just super proud of him.”Hills, 42, knows firsthand what it is to have an absentee parent. His mom suffered from addiction at the height of the 1980s crack epidemic when she and her children were still living in Camden, New Jersey. When she was arrested, Hills and his siblings were nearly separated from each other by the state.

“We had a lot of conversations. You have to understand, there were many times that we would interact when he wasn’t arrested,” Simmons said. “We stopped, and we talked to them. We kind of knew what he was up to, and they knew that we were doing our job. As long as you don’t mistreat people and you do the job for the right reason, then I think there’s a level of respect there, at least.

Hills never thought he would get out of prison. But he caught a break with what seemed to him like a series of incredibly “fortunate” events. Hills had big ideas about how he wanted to mentor young people but knew he needed guidance on how to accomplish it.“When I found out that had made sheriff, I had just came home,” Hills said. “I was saying to myself, ‘Well, this is what I want to do.’ Then I wondered if Sheriff Chip Simmons would talk to me?”

He started a “mentorship session” at the organization that takes place every Sunday from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Once a month, Hills spends an entire Saturday in DeFuniak Springs speaking with the teenagers in custody at the Academy of Growth and Development, a facility that houses a secure residential treatment program.

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