Meet Gentlemen
- Peyton Silvius
- Feb 2
- 3 min read
Forming New Paths from a New Name
“My name is Gentlemen,” he says. Not as a nickname, but as a new name.
Changing his name marked a deeper shift in how he sees himself and the life he is building. “Changing my name also helped me change my way of thinking, my surroundings, which is why I’m at JUMPSTART.” he explains.
Gentlemen came to JUMPSTART SC in October after hearing about the program while incarcerated at Livesay Correctional Institution. He had just completed a 40-week journey, a season he describes as full of learning. “An abundance of learning about Christ throughout that time period,” he says. “Transitioning out, it opened my eyes to a lot of things. Mainly adulthood.”
He entered prison at 18 years old.
“I didn’t have a job. Didn’t have a license. Never driven a car. Never had a house,” he says plainly. “I was in the streets.”
When Gentlemen talks about his childhood, it centers on his parents and the sharp contrast between them. His mother struggled with alcoholism and lived in rotating abusive relationships. “I saw her assaulted several times,” he says. “She tried to take her own life in front of me and my little brother.” His father, by contrast, became his model for manhood.
“My dad was my superhero,” Gentlemen says. “He didn’t smoke. He didn’t drink. He didn’t curse. He had a house. He had a car.” He remembers admiring everything about him. “We just thought he was the greatest dad in the world. He knew how to cook. He knew how to keep the house up. He was just a man. He was the personification of what a man is supposed to be.”
That relationship remains central. “I call him every day,” Gentlemen says. “I don’t miss a beat.” After his younger brother passed away, that bond became even more significant. “So really, it’s just me and him,” he says quietly.
Gentlemen describes his teen years as driven by pride and anger. When asked what led to incarceration, he doesn’t hesitate. “Pride. Anger,” he says. “I justified the reason why I wanted to do what I wanted to do.”
College never felt like an option. Stability didn’t either. “I didn’t see myself doing anything but being in the streets,” he explains. “I was either waiting to die or go to jail.” He names what he now understands as arrested development and extended adolescence. “You have a grown individual who refuses to grow up. That’s how I was.” Looking back, he takes responsibility. “I should have listened to him,” he says of his father. “That’s on me.”
Gentlemen says he never stopped believing in God, even when his life didn’t reflect it. “It wasn’t in my heart to reject God,” he explains. His return to faith wasn’t dramatic. It was gradual. Sermons. Conversations. Wrestling with hard truths. Eventually, Bible studies and church attendance on the inside became part of his life again. “God did it for my good.” he says simply.
Leaving prison brought uncertainty. “I didn’t know how to adult,” Gentlemen admits. Still, he set goals early. Within three months, he opened a bank account, got his driver’s license, and found work. He began volunteering, attending classes, and building routines that reflected the life he wanted. “I went from trying to cause destruction to trying to cause peace,” he says.
For Gentlemen, mentorship became the bridge between intention and action. After years of navigating life on his own, Craig stepped into a role that offered something steady and unfamiliar: consistent guidance. Outside of his father, Craig became the first man to walk closely with him in everyday life, not just offering advice, but modeling it. Through regular check-ins, accountability, and presence, Craig helped Gentlemen begin to see adulthood as something to step into with confidence.
That relationship mattered because it met Gentlemen where he was. Partnered with our transitional team, he is learning how to “adult” for the first time: managing responsibilities, making decisions, and thinking beyond survival. Craig did not rush the process or lecture him through it. Instead, he provided a steady example of what responsibility and follow-through look like, lived out daily. For Gentlemen, that consistency reinforced the changes he was already choosing to make and gave him space to grow.
Mentorship, in this season, became more than guidance. It became reinforcement. With Craig walking alongside him, Gentlemen was no longer navigating transition alone. He was learning how to wait instead of reacting and how to build a future with intention. Their relationship reflects why mentorship matters so deeply in reentry: transformation takes root when someone is willing to stay, listen, and walk with you as you become who God desires you to be.
There are people looking for answers in prison. Will you join us in God's mission to chase rebels down? 👉 Learn more sharing the Gospel through JUMPSTART SC: https://www.jumpstartvision.org/get-involved-south-carolina
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