A feeling of delightful gratification for a mentor typically comes about when seeing a mentee develop and realize success. Their reward is in victories the students achieve, which are often seen as a measure of the instructor’s own success, positive influence and guidance. Such is the story of Dr. Luis S. Garcia and the Education Based Incarceration program.
In May, 2017, Dr. Luis S. Garcia received his doctoral degree earned from Loyola Marymount University. This landmark life event was an especially proud and satisfying event, considering the metaphorically rocky terrain he travelled at the very beginning of his adulthood.
As a young man, Luis grew up in a law enforcement family with the advantages of public and private education, but he struggled to focus and found himself either dismissed or dropping out from school. Despite attending continuation and adult schools, and junior college, Luis found himself unsuccessful at following through with his education and without a high school diploma at 19 years old.
Without a complete education, Luis stumbled on a path of crime. Beginning at 18 years of age, he served numerous terms of incarceration within the Los Angeles County jail system and the California state prison system. He was emotionally lost, unable to maintain sobriety and felt unfulfilled with the dangerous, dead-end lifestyle he led; part of him felt shame from not living up to the hopes of his family, and he held a feeling of not being as advanced in life as his childhood contemporaries. Luis wanted better things for himself and decided to make a change.
The first step to altering his lifepath came in 1995 while Luis was in jail. He took advantage of educational opportunities and earned his high school diploma with the Education Based Incarceration program offered to inmates housed within the Los Angeles County jail system.
Although he continued to struggle in different aspects of his life, Luis remained determined; he sought higher education when possible and returned to a local community college to continue his scholarly journey. In the Fall season of 1998, Luis began undergraduate studies at Loyola Marymount University, which culminated in his earning a bachelor’s degree in 2001. Luis pressed forward on his path by completing a master’s degree in a social work program in 2007 at the University of Southern California.
Luis became Dr. Luis Garcia on May 7, 2017. The transformation was not just in title, receipt of knowledge or certificates, but in personal growth and insight which occurred over the course of over two decades of self-revision. Dr. Garcia reinvented himself because he recognized the need for change and improvement, and pushed himself to do it. Fortunately, he had the right opportunities and tools offered to him, which came at just the right time in his life.
Ironically, Dr. Garcia found hope during his 1995 jail term. He not only received education, but mentorship and encouragement; he took inspiration from Education Based Incarceration teachers and Sheriff’s Department members who became a source of motivation for his continued success.
Congratulations, Dr. Garcia!
Education Based Incarceration is a fully functional educational network within the Los Angeles County Jail System. It is comprised of sworn and non-sworn Sheriff’s Department personnel who work hand in hand with Charter High Schools, volunteer organizations and religious volunteers. This innovative program offers inmates within the Los Angeles jail systems educational opportunities, vocational and hands-on job training, and many other life-changing services.
The Education Based Incarceration Unit provides programs which can assist all interested incarcerated men and women to reach their full potential through education, empowerment, self-esteem, creativity, and self-respect, in order to make them better parents, spouses, and productive citizens in their communities.
Education Based Incarceration prides itself on educating and providing life skills to the incarcerated population which enables them to enhance their quality of life and become architects of their future by presenting opportunities for spiritual, educational and economic transformation.
For more information about Education Based Incarceration, visit them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EBILASD/ or Twitter at @EBILASD, or navigate their website at http://shq.lasdnews.net/pages/tgen1.aspx?id=EBU.
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32 Comments
Keep up the good work LASD! By continuing these programs those who truly want to change, will.
I’d really like this if it wasn’t on our dime, but good job not wasting our dollars on you kicking up your heels and getting 3 squares a day and calling it quits. ??
Incarceration is on the dime. Correctional Education in county jail systems is per Education Code. Choice to change one’s trajectory is a result of many…. and the individual learns.
I am so glad my taxes dollars paid for prisoners education while I am a law abiding citizen who can’t even afford to do this for my self
He only got his High School diploma in jail, he continued school when he got out. It helps reading the article and not just the headline.
Thats not what the title suggests though is it.
That is why you should try and read the full article and not comment based off a title.
I understand, however I’m sure we all know that all articles have to have a bait title
ncarceration is on the dime. Correctional Education in county jail systems is per Education Code. Choice to change one’s trajectory is a result of many…. and the individual learns. Any citizen qualifies for Financial Aid. Start at your community college.
I’m happy my tax dollars go to rehabilitation and education of jail inmates rather than warehousing them just to turn them loose again with no options except to turn back to crime to survive. I’ve lived in places that did the latter, I would not move back.
He got his high school diploma in jail. Continued his education AFTER he got out. Kudos to him
Yep, it helps to comment on the article not the headline.
Or they can make accurate headlines, “criminal changes life around”, “x-convice gets degree” ….
Definitely!
I’m so tired of the fake headlines.
Kudos to him.
No comment
Pretty sure you didn’t read the article then… Read before you comment.
Read the article, don’t just jump to conclusions. Smh
Matthew Long Shut the hell up
Trilce Eli You too
Lol!
Trilce Eli laugh all you want, you have no right to judge what anyone responds because you don’t know the reason, so go ahead and laugh all you want, moron
Yet, here you are responding to an article.
Joyce U Thomas myob
Sad ?
Miriam Bonilla What is sad it that you all are making judgement without knowing and that you have to comment in the first place…I wish you all would just get a life and stop worrying about what I said, OMG, give it up
Tf Chris Partida
The Title is misleading!!!! He earned his HS diploma while in the system and then put himself through school AFTER being released! He also is a mentor of many troubled kids/adults who also have dealt with addictions. Here is one that he mentors, a friend of ours. Great role model to others and shows that one can achieve great success even after a hard beginning!
Thank you.
??
Very misleading headline. Congratulations to this man for pushing through. Amazing. He got his EDUCATION FROM LOYOLA. Unbelievable SCVTV… come on. It’s disgusting to make this a tabloid story. Just change a few letters in the headline.
Thank you. I am thankful to the LASD for the opportunity to take advantage of Education programs. Period.