Last year, there were “The Lucky Seven.” Now, there are just two.

Out of 104 people arrested in the late 2006 drug sweep, only 7 boys and men were selected by the police to get a second chance, as part of a program to clean up the drug trade in the Lockwood neighborhood in Upper South Providence. The 7 were the only ones of the 104 without criminal records or violent pasts.

Although the seven were also caught by surveillance cameras dealing drugs, they were given a choice — go to school, get a job, stop dealing drugs, or end up in jail.

The seven agreed, and their arrest warrants remained unsigned.

Five have found trouble anyway.

The youngest, now 15, was arrested by the Pawtucket police in June over a probation issue and sent to the Training School, said Maj. Stephen Campbell of the Providence police.

Verlin R. Perry, 17, was arrested in September just two blocks south of the Lockwood neighborhood after he allegedly blew the cover of an undercover detective investigating street-level drug dealing. Perry was arrested at the time a new state law allowed 17-year-olds to be charged as adults. He faces charges of obstructing police and possessing a switchblade.

Anthony Woodard, 19, was shot in the buttocks in June when he and a friend were walking across Dudley Street in the neighborhood, according to the police.

In December 2006, Carlton Barboza, 20, struggled with a police officer who’d stopped the car he was riding in. The car had stolen plates. Barboza later turned himself in, and the court dismissed the simple assault charge and filed a charge of resisting arrest.

William O. Fletcher, 31, oldest of the Lucky Seven, was the only one to have his felony drug charge revived. The Urban League of Rhode Island had created a $22,000-a-year job as a peer counselor for Fletcher, who declared himself “done with the streets.”

But Urban League director Dennis Langley said Fletcher chafed at the 9-to-5 daily schedule, often floating in late and leaving early.

By August, Fletcher was gone from his job and back on the streets. Meanwhile, the police learned that Fletcher had a criminal record in Maryland that hadn’t turned up in a background criminal check in 2006. Both factors were enough for the police to have Fletcher’s arrest warrant signed this fall. Fletcher is due to be arraigned on the felony drug charge in two weeks.

The washout of most of the seven showed the complexities of offering a second chance. Some of the offenders didn’t have a supportive family network. Some were on the verge of homelessness. Some needed to be taught job skills. Some couldn’t extricate themselves from the streets.

“They don’t have that capacity within themselves to know how to change,” said Bill Bentley, director of Urban League programs. “They need ethical, moral instruction. They need to relearn how to live. … They never got the skills to know how to change.”

While the Urban League was responsible for coordinating the services to assist the seven, the agency was the only one providing assistance. SWAP (Stop Wasting Abandoned Property) and Lifespan also provided jobs.

“It has to be more than the Urban League,” Bentley said.

Even with the odds against them, two of the Lucky Seven have made the most of their second chance.

One is a 16-year-old boy, whose close-knit family has rallied to keep him in school and on the right path, said Lt. George Stamatakos.

The other is 21. He’s been provided a subsidized apartment through the Urban League, and works two jobs, including one at Lifespan that Police Chief Dean M. Esserman pushed for. He plans to attend the Community College of Rhode Island.

“He was given a second chance and he’s really run with it,” Esserman said.

One day this summer, as police officers were investigating a call of shots fired on Lockwood Street, the young man helped calm an angry crowd that was shouting obscenities at the officers. He told the crowd that the police were just doing their job, said Campbell.

The young man, who has a baby, is the kind of person that the initiative was designed to save.

If he’d been arrested instead, “who knows where he would have ended up,” said Luis Aponte, a city councilman and administrator at the Urban League. “He may have been one of the statistics. He may have been one of the kids who were killed this summer. It’s hard to measure what didn’t happen.”

amilkovi@projo.com