Damon West has his first book, “The Change Agent,” already on sale on Simon & Schuster’s website. But the former Thomas Jefferson and North Texas quarterback has another story that has gone national.

On New Year’s Eve, CBSSports.com released a story authored by Dennis Dodd on Georgia linebacker Natrez Patrick going from “scared straight” to Tuesday night’s Sugar Bowl, one year after the team suspended him from the College Football Playoff for his third marijuana-related offense while with the program. (Those charges were dropped as Patrick was not considered a person of interest, West said.)

West, now a paralegal for Beaumont’s Provost Umphrey Law Firm who does motivational speeches to major-college programs and other groups, got Georgia coach Kirby Smart, along with the support of Bulldogs trainer Ron Courson and Texas state Sen. John Whitmire (chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee) to allow Patrick to visit the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Michael Unit, a prison located 18 miles west of Palestine in northeast Texas. The visit took place Oct. 14, 2017, the day Georgia hosted Missouri in a 53-28 victory, while Patrick was on his second suspension.

“Whenever I picked him up from the airport, and I took him to the prison, I told him, ‘I want you to pay attention how many African-Americans you’re going to see in prison,’” West said. “’You’re going to have a disproportionate number of African-Americans in this prison. This system, if you get into it, it’s hard to get out of it.’”

West asked each prisoner whose criminal career began with a dope charge to show his hand. Seeing that a majority of them raised their hands “kind of got to” Patrick, West said.

West then included highlights of Patrick’s play into a presentation he was making without Patrick knowing. Once West told the prisoners Patrick was in the room with them, many of them went to talk with Patrick about the decisions he made.

“That had an effect on Natrez,” West said.

Patrick went to rehab after his latest suspension, West said, but came back to the program and played in all 14 games this season.

The 6-foot-3, 242-pound senior from Atlanta made a season-high seven tackles in a 28-21 loss to Georgia in Tuesday’s Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Georgia finished 11-3 and was SEC runner-up to Alabama, which will play Clemson on Monday for the national championship.

Patrick totaled 44 tackles on the season, with 4.5 for losses, and had three quarterback hurries. He played in 44 career games with a total of 160 tackles (14 for losses).