CINCINNATI — Ever since he was 11 years old, Aaron Yancey bathed his grandmother and gave her shots for multiple sclerosis. It wasn't the only thing about his childhood that seemed more appropriate for an adult, but it's one of the first things he mentions.
Yancey eventually moved to Houston, but because of his grandmother’s declining health, he moved back to Cincinnati. She died less than 24 hours after he arrived.
It was Christmas Eve.
“I thought I knew everything,” Yancey said. “But I didn’t realize I didn’t have a childhood.”
WATCH: Shooting victim leads gun class at Cincinnati correctional center
Yancey is talking to me from River City Correctional Center, an alternative to prison in Camp Washington. He’s part of a class there aimed at educating convicted felons — to try to keep them away from weapons and out of jail.
“I’ve been impacted by a lot of violence,” Yancey said. “I kind of thought it was normal.”
But he says the class has helped him realize it was anything but normal. Partly because of who’s running it.
A longtime gun safety and violence advocate, Rufus Johnson was shot in the face on his way to school at 17. He says it’s part of the reason he does what he does.
“I was a victim,” Johnson said. “You don’t take nothing for granted.”
So he works with students. He works with concealed-carry classes. He works with people who are incarcerated. He even takes a tour bus into neighborhoods and teaches gun safety.
And when Johnson steps onto that bus, he smiles.
“This is where it all started,” Johnson said. “I am where I’m supposed to be.”
At the correctional center, Executive Director Scott McVey laughs when talking about Johnson. He says judges in Hamilton County were concerned about gun violence. So they asked him: "What can you do?"
McVey told me officials looked around the country and couldn’t find any programs for people with felony convictions like this. Something for people with weapons charges that could keep them out of prison — and maybe change their thinking.
“Quite honestly, some of the residents even know Rufus from the streets," McVey said. "He’s got that connection."
Since 2024, the director said about 50 people have graduated from this program. And he says 80 percent have not been incarcerated since. Of the six people who have, the director said, only two were charged with something related to weapons.
“We’re making a difference,” McVey said.
