Introduction

Back in late 1991-early 1992 while I was working as a Deputy Sheriff for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, I was assigned to a unit called the Regimented Inmate Diversion (R.I.D.) Program.  Within that unit, we recruited individuals who were coming up for sentencing and gave them an option of serving 90 days in an intense “boot-camp” style training environment verses serving a regular sentence that might have involved a 1-2 year’ stint.

Amongst a body of trained professionals, I had the unique responsibility as one of the unit’s Drill Instructor Deputies to work with convicts (ranging from ages 18-29) who had been characterized as “at-risk” offenders.  They were at-risk, but there was still hope that they could be motivated to live a better life than that of a career criminal.

In my exchange with the participants of this program, I consistently pushed them to look within themselves to find

“The Man” that could benefit the world around them with the talents that had been given to them individually.  In one of my encounters I recall one of the younger participants approaching me one day and saying:

“Sir, no one ever told me how to be a real man.”

In short, he was saying to me, no one ever encouraged me to be all that I could be in my world.  So, it was then that the seed thought of encouraging others through written literature came to my mind and heart and took root.  As a result, my writing has become the outlet for inspiration and encouragement to the citizens of my world.  JLG III