Sterling B. Scott II, walked away from a middle-class upbringing to dwell in the dubious embrace of San Francisco’s infamous underworld.  A former drug dealer convicted of second degree murder, he is the author of the book, The Weeds of Society, and the subject of the featured length editorial, The Road to Redemption, published July 3, 2005, in the San Francisco Chronicle.  One of a few “term-to-life” inmates paroled from the California prison system in the last twenty years, he can accurately be described as a good boy gone bad, and a bad man turned good.
 
While serving more than twenty-three years in various California prisons Sterling distinguished him as an icon for rehabilitation.  During his incarceration, he developed and participated in an array of rehabilitative programs.  Combining the knowledge and skills that he obtained through educational and self-improvement endeavors he spent the last ten years of his incarceration developing self-improvement projects, restorative justice projects, and male accountability programs designed to sensitize offenders by breaking down rationalization, denial, and displacement issues used to avoid accepting responsibility for their crimes.  He is a founding member of Project IMPACT and was instrumental in the development of the project and its curriculum.  He currently teaches the program’s concepts and principles in the California Youth Authority, and at local high schools and juvenile facilities.

On February 16, 2005, Sterling emerged from prison a program developer, facilitator, and human activist.  In April and July of 2005, at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Management and Leadership Conference, he encouraged administrators to recognize and collaborate with rehabilitated offenders to develop comprehensive self-improvement programs.  In October of the same year, he conducted a restorative justice seminar at the Stanford Law School.  He has provided consultation to the prestigious San Francisco law firm, Morrison & Forester LLP, the Richmond Improvement Association, and is a consultant to the Insight Prison Project, which was instrumental in the development of San Quentin’s Success Program.