Among inmates at Brazilian prisons, about one-in-four are repeat offenders. That was true for a long-time drug dealer known as "Sagat". He was jailed three times before deciding to make a radical change to his life. Lucrecia Franco has his story of redemption from Rio de Janeiro.

This is Mangueira, one of Rio de Janeiro's oldest favelas. It is home to some 20 thousand people and like most poor neighborhoods here, it is controlled by drug traffickers. Forty-year-old Fabio da Hora, better known as Sagat, used to be one of them. He was arrested and sent to jail three times, spending a total of 12 years behind bars. After that, he vowed never to go back.

FABIO 'SAGAT' DA HORA FORMER DRUG TRAFFICKER "The phrase I always repeat is: the drug sold most in the favelas is not cocaine, crack or weed. It is the illusion of a better life."

He has physical reminders of his life of crime, which began at the age of 17. Two bullets lodged in his body: one in his left arm, the other near his heart. But he also acquired a skill while in prison: He learned how to cut hair.

FABIO 'SAGAT' DA HORA FORMER DRUG TRAFFICKER "It was this that changed my life, learning how to cut the hair of the other inmates."

Four years after being released from prison, he has his own barber shop and a YouTube channel called "Crime Doesn't Pay". Every other day, when he closes his salon, he records his videos for You Tube. This one questions why prisoners in Brazil that have a university degree don't have to share cells and enjoy better conditions than people like him who didn't finish high school. He defines himself not as a preacher but as a teacher. And that is why he has so many clients in the favela: 20 to 30 per day.

ANDREI MARTINS CLIENT "I got to know him because friends and their kids liked his videos, and then my son and I became clients."

Many people admire Sagat, a name he chose after a popular video game character who is a street fighter, and that includes the woman who cooks for him and his neighbors.

HELOISA ELENA COOK "Sagat deserves it, he is an example, a great boy that went through rough times and now is showing that what really matters is what he is doing, working every day to earn a living."

Barber, You-tuber and also rapper. Sagat composes high-energy raps with a group called "Cronus" – with lyrics inspired by his life.

MASSIMO GIOVANNI FOUNDER, 'CRONUS' "I wanted to be a football player. Him, a rock band drummer. Him there, a military officer. So we all have our frustrations, and he comes to say there is always an alternative."

Sagat says he is lucky to be alive because most criminals in Rio's favelas don't have many choices.

FABIO 'SAGAT' DA HORA FORMER DRUG TRAFFICKER "For drug trafficking, robbery, that kind of life here in the favela, there are only two paths: prison or death."

With his personal motto, "Crime doesn't pay", this man is making a difference in Rio's crime-ridden neighborhoods and with a third of his life so far spent inside a prison, he knows exactly what he is talking about. Lucrecia Franco, CGTN, Rio de Janeiro.