ROOSEVELT — When James Gardner was 22 years old he killed a man.

The two were at a drinking party when, Gardner says, the other man made a sexual advance and he fractured his skull. Less than a month later, Gardner pleaded guilty and was sent to prison.

Eighteen years later, in 2003, the state Board of Pardons and Parole gave Gardner his first chance at freedom. He was out for five months before being arrested again and convicted of DUI. Two more years passed, and in 2005, Gardner was released on parole. This time has been different, so far.

"One thing with James is he'll tell it like it is. He doesn't mince words, he's pretty direct. I think that's what makes him successful," says Brad Draper, the Adult Probation and Parole agent assigned to supervise Gardner.

Gardner sits across from Draper in the agent's Roosevelt office, his work shirt covering most of the prison tattoos that adorn his torso and arms. There's an air of confidence about him, instilled in part from the countless confrontations he took part in during his time behind bars.

"I fought a lot in prison," Gardner says without apology.

The fighting, he says, was mostly in defense of "kids" who were at risk of being victimized by stronger inmates. He says there were also verbal battles, some waged against members of the parole board during many hearings. But in the end — like an estimated 90 percent of inmates nationwide — Gardner earned his release from prison.

Now the 43-year-old married father of a 6-month-old boy is working to stay out of prison permanently. It's a process, he says, that began while he was locked up.

"I woke up every day in that prison, and I looked in the mirror and I made myself hate that place," Gardner says. "I hated it with every particle of my body. I never, ever allowed myself to get comfortable, because the first time you get comfortable in that place you get institutionalized."

Raised by a father who told him, "If you step in s--t, you clean your own boots off," Gardner says he's taken full responsibility for what he did as a young man. He continues to pay for his crime — subjecting himself to random drug testing, field visits from Draper and other AP&P agents, and knowing that one mistake could put him back behind bars for years.

"You don't forget that you're on parole because that's impossible," Gardner says, "But it's nice to get up every day and not think about prison."

The secret to his success so far this time?

"I don't have friends out here. The only thing that's important to me is my family."

Gardner says he learned who was truly important during his second stint in prison after the DUI arrest. He says while he was away, none of the people who claimed to be his friends bothered to help his wife. The couple's trailer was without air conditioning during the sweltering summer months, and his wife's only possessions were her clothes and a mattress.