New London — It was around Christmas in 2014 when, as people around the world were gearing up for festivities, Joseph LaDuke sat by himself in a jail cell with nothing but a Bible to keep him company.

“I sat there and read it, and read it, and read it,” the 32-year-old New London resident said. “It didn’t make sense — nothing makes sense to me in the Bible. But I started praying about some things to change.”

Already a 10-time convict, the self-described former “menace to the community” had just committed his fourth crime of 2014.

He’d spend most of 2015 in jail paying for them.

“The whole time, I was thinking how I don’t want to be in prison no more,” he said. “I don’t want to live my life like this. I want a family and to be happy and to have a job. At that point I made a decision: I was going to do whatever it took to stay clean and make a better life for myself.”

Now, LaDuke, equipped with a newly earned GED, four months of employment and almost 19 months of sobriety, wants to show others it’s possible to break the cycle of addiction.

From noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, he’s hosting a family day at the Huntington Street Baptist Church featuring a performance by Inner Light, a Christian hip-hip duo from West Palm Beach, Fla.

There also will be speeches from other recovering addicts.

“We have an excellent message of change,” LaDuke said. “The youth coming up now, that’s our future. If we can’t instill hope and change in them, we’re in trouble.”

Growing up, LaDuke bounced around the county, sometimes with his grandparents, other times in foster homes.

“I was always around addiction,” he said, explaining that his mother used drugs and drank. His dad was never in the picture.

It wasn’t long before LaDuke got into using and selling marijuana and ecstasy, he said, but “life wasn’t that out of control.”

When his son was born in 2003, he kicked those habits and got a job.

But then his son’s mother broke up with him, taking primary custody of their son.

LaDuke was 24 when he started using heroin.

“My criminal record is insane,” he said, checking off the crimes like boxes on a to-do list: guns, drugs, larcenies, probation violations — you name it.

Along the way, he said, he unsuccessfully went through probably 22 rehabilitation stints and even more detoxifications.

“It was the desire to want to stop, and the fear of the unknown,” LaDuke said. “It’s easy to live a life of going to jail and using drugs because you know what you’re gonna get. Jail doesn’t scare me. Death doesn’t scare me. But what scares me now is being stuck in that life.”

Since getting out of jail late last November, LaDuke has surrounded himself with a network of positive people.

He goes to meetings. He goes to church. He reads. He writes.

“It’s not that life gets easy,” he said, explaining that thoughts of using still cross his mind from time to time. “It’s what you do afterward that matters. Life shows up — you just learn how to deal with it when it comes.”

Just more than two months ago, it showed up in the worst of ways when LaDuke learned his mother had died of a suspected overdose. She was 52.

“The day my mom died, about a half hour before I heard about it, I was sitting in a car talking to my friends about this concert,” he said. “I said, ‘Wow, if I really go through with this, my mom will be so proud of me.’ Now she doesn’t get to see it.”

LaDuke knows firsthand that advice from the outside world doesn’t often change an addict’s mind.

That’s part of why his concert is targeting youth.

“I hope that just one kid changes his life and doesn’t use drugs,” he said. “I don’t care if we get 250 kids (at the concert). If at least just one gets the message that it doesn’t matter how many felony convictions you have or what kind of lifestyle you grew up in, you can change. It’ll be worth it.”

LaDuke isn’t stopping with this concert, though. He’s planned two more for later in the year at different venues.

In training to move up to a managerial position at his job with MetroPCS in Waterford, LaDuke said maybe one day he’ll try to get into youth counseling — he has a background, after all, that could make them pay attention.

As for when, he said, that’s in God’s hands.

“When you rob and steal from the community for so long and do so much wrong to it, you might as well try to give back and help a little,” LaDuke said. “I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to be able to do that.”

l.boyle@theday.com

IF YOU GO

Who: Inner Light with Drew God's Son, Vell P and more

What: Family day with food, a prize raffle, face painting, a bounce house, music and guest speakers

When: Noon to 6 p.m. Saturday

Where: Huntington Street Baptist Church, 29 Huntington St., New London

For tickets or more information: Contact Joseph LaDuke at (203) 592-9043 or at jladuke49@gmail.com.