​Gabe Morales’ criminal justice career runs over the course of 30 plus years, most recently retiring as a Lieutenant at a Tacoma Immigration Processing facility for ICE. Gabe was born in Yakima, Washington, and raised in Seattle, where he witnessed first-hand the activity of all sorts of criminal activity, gangs, pimps, and drugs, in the late 1970s to early 80s. He served in the Marine Corps for 4 years in the 1980s working at Tactical Air Command Centers. He then worked at Folsom State Prison in California for six years as a Corrections Officer, as well as working with youth in Greater Los Angeles area group homes. ​​Gabe then returned to his home state and worked as a C/O at the King Co. Jail in Seattle, WA, for just over a year before being promoted to the Classification Section and worked there for over 20 years interviewing and documenting criminal background information on thousands of inmates, including female sex trafficking workers, helping them get into such program as drug treatment and life skills classes. He later became a Classification Unit Supervisor in the Inmate Management Unit there. ​Gabe was an instructor for 20 years at the WA State Academy for police agencies and corrections staff. He has given numerous presentations on gangs all over the U.S. He was the founder of the Int’l Latino Gang Investigators Assoc. (ILGIA) and is also the author of numerous criminal justice articles as well as being a frequent college and national lecturer. Gabe has written over a dozen books about crime and gang violence and mentors at-risk youth.

​Luis J. Rodriguez has over fifty years working with gang and troubled youth--turning their lives around by providing resources, connections, and tools to live purposeful and healthy lives. A former gang member and drug-and-alcohol addict, he's now thirty-two years sober. He's the author of seventeen multi-genre books, including the bestselling memoir "Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A." and its sequel, "It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing." He has over forty years doing writing workshops, poetry readings, talks, and healing circles in prisons, juvenile lockups, and jails throughout the United States as well as in Mexico, Central and South America, and Europe. He's cofounder of Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, and founder of its "Trauma to Transformation" program that sends artists, poets, drummers, and theater people to prisons, juvenile facilities, and parolee housing. ​