Onyx White, an aspiring rapper, is attempting to launch a music career and build his life in Boston. And he is simultaneously attempting something that may prove even more difficult: avoiding the parole violations that land many returning citizens back in jail.

“The scary thing about parole is I don’t have to do a crime to go back to jail — being around the wrong people, or they can think I’m around the wrong person,” 30-year-old White said. “You violate, you’re going to the maximum security.”

Indeed, one-third of returning citizens his age return to prison within three years, according to state data.

White has a curfew and is monitored around the clock via an electronic ankle bracelet. As he put it, “on one side I’m attached to chains, on the other side I’m reaching and trying to get to this goal.”