"I was a dead man walking," said Jeff Osborne.

"My two older brothers were two of the baddest Bloods in LA. They used to get excited whenever they shot somebody and spilt their blood on the sidewalk.

"My brothers had the money, the cars and the women, everything, and growing up aged 14 and 15 I decided I wanted to be a Blood too.

"My two older brothers seemed successful in my eyes, but when you bang there's only two ways you end up in prison or dead."

Mr. Osborne, from Pomona, said: "I had a red (du) rag hanging out of my back pocket, and anyone wearing blue (a Crip) was a target in my eyes.

"Fresh out of high school I'm hanging out with some of my homies one day when the cops showed up and the next thing, I'm being charged with six counts of armed robbery.

"I go to court and I'm told, 'Mr. Osborne, we've got great news for you, the Judge is offering you 16 years'. Sixteen years? That didn't end up right.

"I joked about it but in my heart I was hurting. As I was walking into LA County Jail and you can survive any Level Four prison if you can survive LA County Jail, killers, murderers and rapists. These people were right next to me.

"As I'm there waiting for my court case, race riots kicked off. In the jail they started attacking each other, and in the corner of my eye I see a man coming at my neck with a razor blade.

"I said 'Jesus'. I was expected to get cut in my neck and be done. The next thing I feel a sharp slice and the dude was on the floor. No one was around me."

Mr. Osborne was eventually sentenced to a year in Chino State Prison.

He said he was jailed because his car was used in the robberies. "Some homies of mine took my car when I was somewhere else, but because I was affiliated with a gang, the courts pushed that even more," he said.

Now he can reflect and encourage young people not follow a similar path.

"People want to bang and think this life is glorified but there is nothing glorified about banging," he said.

"There were homies lost at 14, friends getting shot in the back and in their head, some with bullets larger than their heads so that when they chew you see the bullet coming out.

"Being in prison and surrounded by my enemies, the Crips, and feeling helpless, knowing at any moment they could open up, and seeing so much death and so many friends die before the age of 18, that won't ever leave my head.

"A change had to take place in me."

Mr. Osborne said: "All that stuff you see on TV, the gang thing, Weezy and Snoop (Dogg), half of all these rappers aren't even welcome back in their own hood they claim to come from.

"Rap stars paint this fake picture that everything is all glamorous, but they are 'studio-bangers'. Off-camera they don't even live with their gangs.

"The aftermath is the people who are dying every day. Out there in LA this is the biggest civil war being fought, and people don't know that."

Mr. Osborne, 22, told students: "Why would you have an ex-Crip and an ex-Blood out of the gang and telling you where to go?

"What's going to happen when you get shot? They will put your face on a T-shirt and when that T-shirt is washed a few times your face fades off and so does your memory. Meanwhile your mom's crying, there are sons without a father and your family is missing you."

He added: "And girls bang too. They're some of the coldest gangsters out there, so this isn't just a recky to the fellas.

"But we are here to tell you there is change. But it's a decision you must take now, that you are going to be above the norm.

"Normally when I see this guy (Crip Mr. Winters-Dixon) on the street, there's guns pulled out. We're sworn enemies, red and blue.

"But when you start changing your mind, you're not identified by colour but by character.

"You must reach for the stars."