. >> reporter: richard salman is wrapping up his overnight job as a parking ticket rider, ruining someone's morning with a dreaded ticket. >> a lot of people are trying to play a game. i get paid to play the game with you. that's my job, to catch, you know, violations. >> reporter: salman knows about violations. serious ones. the d.c. native spent five years in prison after being caught with two pounds of marijuana and a gun. >> i'm a christian so i asked the lord to basically work with me. >> reporter: religionally oriented his life, he earned his commerce license and helped him land a good-paying job with the city and now each day he can walk his 6-year-old daughter to school in southeast. and he sleeps while she's in classes at stanton elementary, a school that supports many single dads. >> we have a group where all the fathers are together. that's one of them over there. >> reporter: he's part of the d.c. government retraining effort that is going to be opened to help 5,000 others leaving incarceration returning citizens find jobs over the next five years. prison or jail, they will conn