Inside Circle Q1 2026 Inmate Newsletter

MARCH 2026 | NEWSLETTER

Outside Circle S.F.

IC COMMUNITY PRACTITIONER‌

FIRE KEEPERS CORNER

FALLEN‌ ‌ BROTHERS

See page 2‌‌ Meet Niambi Jaha-Echols

See page 4 The Torch Is Lit

See page 5‌ Remembering Kea “Kells” Kelly

OUTSIDE CIRCLE: SAN FRANCISCO The Outside Circle held this past month in San Francisco was a resounding success, reflecting a community that continues to grow both locally and globally, with participants joining from across oceans and engaging deeply in the work. We are especially encouraged to see more released, formerly incarcerated community members stepping into leadership—most notably Shamel, who staffed his first event. This work is strengthened by the steady presence of our community partners, including Jorge, who leads our juvenile work in Sonoma County. Together, these moments‌point to a community that is not only expanding, but‌ deepening in responsibility, trust, and shared leadership.‌ Outside Circl‌e remains a vital part of the broader community entry and re-entry network we are building—‌ bringing together like-minded individuals committed to doing their work and applying it in their lives to help‌ create healthier communities. At its core, this practice feeds a living cycle of amends, both direct and‌ indirect, serving as an integral pathway for healing, accountability, and repair. Through this work, people‌ from diverse communities and geographies come together willing to sit in the fire, heal their hearts, and take‌ responsibility for the impact they have in the world.

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YJC IMMERSION: EXPANDING A RESTORATIVE VISION IN NJ I‌n January, we convened a senior leadership immersion with the New Jersey Youth Justice Commission, bringing together senior leaders, social workers, youth workers, and mental health professionals to advance a restorative, community-centered model we have been developing together for the past six years. The immersion focused on expanding mission, scope, and institutional alignment as YJC continues its shift toward a deeper restorative framework that supports accountability, healing, and young adult empowerment across its system.

As part of this evolution, YJC has begun construction on three new, more centrally located residential facilities, alongside a commitment to embed circle practice on-site as a regular part of daily operations. Circles are already integrated into onboarding and transition processes, and this next phase will expand the work beyond a single institution into a broader, system-wide approach. Over the past year, this growth has also included the launch of Young Women’s Circles in New Jersey, ensuring restorative support reaches all populations. Together, these efforts mark a significant step in a long-standing partnership moving toward a more integrated, community-rooted model of youth justice.

IC Community Practitioner Partner Meet Niambi Jaha-Echols, a respected elder, senior facilitator, and trusted community and thought partner working with us at a national level. She brings a grounded, healing-centered leadership presence rooted in circle-based practice, prioritizing safety, truth-telling, and shared responsibility in complex institutional and community settings. Beyond formal engagements, Niambi serves as a mentor and guide— invested in people and organizations over time.

Through spiritually grounded practice and sacred shadow work, she helps communities remember who they

are

beneath

survival,

fostering

emotional

integrity, accountability, and a culture of care that endures.

MARCH 2026

Niambi Jaha-Echols

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FREE DRAGONS FINDING THEIR WAY HOME My name is Edwin Lee, born and raised in San Francisco as a proud f irst-generation Chinese American. I paroled on 11/12/2025—a date etched into me af ter 15 years of w h a t f e l t l i k e i s o l a t i o n a n d s e l f - i m p o s e d p u r g a t o r y. I w e n t in at 19 as an active gang member consumed by addiction and unable to hear anyone; I came out at 34 unsure how to exist as a law-abiding man in a world I barely recognized. Sponsored into Inside Circle with 14 months left on my sentence, I sat down without expectations and broke open. In that space of safety and brotherhood, the pain I ’d armored myself against since childhood f inally surfaced. I realized I was ready—spiritually and physically — t o d o t h e r e a l w o r k . I c h o s e t o s t a y, t o f e e l , t o f a c e myself, even when I was afraid. Without Circle and my brothers inside, that commitment would not have fully taken root.

Freedom was beautiful at f irst—full of gratitude and awe— b u t r e a l i t y c a m e f a s t . R e s p o n s i b i l i t y, f a m i l y, r e l a t i o n s h i p s , and the loss of imposed structure left me questioning who I was and where I belonged. Then I attended an Outside Circle event in San Francisco, guarded and judgmental, convinced I didn’t f i t. Instead, I was seen. I mat tered. A four-year-old part of me that had longed for my mother’s care was held, and in that moment, something ancient s o f t e n e d . A w e e k l a t e r, I ’ m s t i l l i n t e g r a t i n g t h e d e p t h o f t h a t e x p e r i e n c e . I f e e l l i g h t e r, m o r e p e a c e f u l , c o n n e c t e d to love—and for the first time in a long while, I can look at myself in the mirror a little longer and love the man staring back. With that, I ’m out.

Edwin Lee

HEALING HOME UPDATE: BUILDING A TRUE PLACE TO LAND A s s h a r e d i n o u r l a s t n e w s l e t t e r, I n s i d e C i r c l e h a s p u r c h a s e d a f a c i l i t y i n S a c r a m e n t o w h e r e w e p l a n t o t e n t a t i v e l y l a u n c h o u r H e a l i n g H o m e i n S e p t e m b e r. T h i s r e e n t r y h o m e is being designed specif ically for Inside Circle participants returning from long-term i n c a r c e r a t i o n — o f t e n a f t e r t w o , t h r e e , o r e v e n f o u r d e c a d e s i n s i d e . We r e c o g n i z e t h a t traditional reentry pathways, including limited family or system-based placements, are not always the most stable or supportive environments for meaning ful transition. The Healing Home is intended to be a place to land—one that offers structure, life skills, emotional grounding, and a living community capable of holding the complexity of reentry with dignity and care.

The Healing Home is an extension of the work that beg ins on the inside: circle continues, deep truths are spoken, and healing remains active and alive. Our aim is not simply to reduce recidivism—while we know this work contributes to that—but to redef ine the m e a s u r e o f s u c c e s s a l t o g e t h e r. N o t r e t u r n i n g t o p r i s o n w i t h i n t h r e e y e a r s i s n o t t h e b a r.

Q u a l i t y o f l i f e i s . S t a b i l i t y, p u r p o s e , c o n n e c t i o n , a n d t h e a b i l i t y t o l i v e w i t h s e l f - r e s p e c t and responsi bili ty are what matter most. The Healing Home is our effort to provide the missing link in reentry—supporting not just survival, but a life worth living.

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firekeepers corner

Eldra, Manny, Rick, and Aaron want to name this clearly: what you are part of now is a legacy, and what we are building is an inheritance. We are no longer only the organization that gathered 15 or 30 men on a yard, with an intensive once or twice a year—though that chapter matters deeply, because it is the root from which everything else has grown. Today, we are national practitioners in community violence reduction and emotional healing across the country, carrying a prison-born lineage of circle into communities, institutions, and systems that are asking for this work.

What began inside has become something that can be carried forward, passed on, and lived out.‌ From the outside, this season may look like budgets, grants, contracts, travel, or politics—but beneath that surface, we are building a home and a future you can inherit. The Healing Home, the doors opening across the country, the invitations to lead and to serve—these are signs that the legacy is taking form. Whether you are inside or outside, facilitating, staffing, or simply sitting in circle for your own healing, you are a bearer of this inheritance. This work carries your fingerprints. You are part of how it moves forward. Know that you belong to something larger than a moment—something enduring, something meant to be carried.‌‌

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Remembering Our Fallen Brothers With deep sadness, we share that in December, while Aaron and Bharataji were facilitating Project Restore Brownsville circles on a Saturday, they received the devastating news that Kells had passed away. They rushed to the hospital and arrived among the f irst, stepping into a space f illed with shock, sorrow, and communal grief. Earlier that day, Kells was speaking at a peace summit that brought together six major opposition groups in New York City— many of whom had come into relationship through the circle work and community-building efforts of Project Restore Brownsville and BedStuy with IC. During the gathering, someone in the audience asked a question about how this work was making street dudes soft.

While on stage, Kells spoke openly about how this work had changed him—how it was the hardest thing he had ever done, and how it had made him a better man.

Shortly after, he collapsed and suffered a stroke. As people gathered at the hospital, something deeply moving unfolded. Longstanding opposition met in the emergency room and held one another in shared loss. Aaron and Bharataji watched grief move through the room with nowhere to go—and yet, it did not turn into violence or retaliation. Instead, what emerged was a collective resolve: to come together in peace, to support Kells’ family and his daughter, and to care for the community he helped hold together. In that sacred space, a movement was born—one shaped by the life of a young man who stood at the heart of reconciliation and healing.

Kells was the f irst to circle on Saturday afternoons, always reaching out, always asking how to grow the work and bring it d e e p e r i n t o h i s c o m m u n i t y. H i s j o y, l o v e f o r l i f e , a n d devotion to healing leave an ache beyond words.

We g r i e v e t h i s l o s s a l o n g s i d e o u r N e w Yo r k c o m m u n i t y .

O u r h e a r t s a r e h e a v y . We , t o o , a r e h u r t i n g .

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Writing from Inside - Circle

P r a y e r o f a Wa y w a r d C h i l d ‌ ‌

By O’Kello Abdul Denon Lord why has thou forsaken me, why has though shaken me, to be in an environment where many believe you doesn’t exist, to speak your name will put many in a fit of rage, to be licked in a cage, for every moment not to feel safe, so every second I pace until the soles of my feet are decayed.

HEY!! Can you hear me father, I shout not to be disrespectful, but Introspective because my soul need some reassurance that my journey has not been ruined by the misdeed of an Insolent child, so every night I bow trying to get some clarity that I’m still part of the fold, that little Inkling to hold on to that lets me know I’m still part of you.

Fear sits in my belly like a rotten meal, not to be able to feel your presence is a reverence I shall not seek, are we not the meek, didn’t the 14th Amendment make us free, than why do I feel like some only see me as half a man, they devised a plan to kill me without putting me to rest, we’re in the wasted and of the unwanted. I’m a sought after poster child of what not to be, but what they don’t see is the phoenix inside of me, ready to be set free, to fly amongst creation as a new me, unshackled, unbound, unafraid to be happy, our physical body must learn, but we as a people discern concerned with the way our fellow man seems to hide his duality, but actually we factually condemn each other and that’s so sad to me because of what we don’t understand and can’t see, God grants us benediction in our inconsistency.

This is just a prayer of a wayward child finally knowing my purpose and reaching for the cloud, never again will feel forsaken, but coming to an awaken that my journey is making me proud, so I scream out loud.

T H A N K Y O U FAT H E R , T H A N K Y O U FAT H E R .

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SHARING YOUR VOICE We believe it is important for the outside community to hear your voice.

We've highlighted quotes from the words you sent us and shared on our social media under the title #VoicesFromTheInside. We've also highlighted quotes from the meditations and poems from the Folsom Prison Daybook.

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Bridging Circles Pen Pal Program Program Guidelines Inside Circle has been building an Outside Circle community over the last few years supporting women and men from the street - a.k.a the un-incarcerated - on personal growth journeys in the same way we’ve supported you men behind bars for over 20 years. We all need to check-in with a community. We all need to be heard. We all need to know we have not been forgotten. They have medicine to share and need to feel that they can be of service to others, to you. Can you reflect on your life and share a part of yourself, your medicine, on paper? Can you check-in by hand?

We have a beautiful community of people that would love to write to you. In order to participate in the program, we ask that you understand and respect the following guidelines: Pen pals are only allowed to send you letters, they are not allowed to send you gifts, money, packages etc…

Pen pals are not allowed to contact anyone on your behalf such as friends, family, lawyers, or judges.

This is a pen pal service, not a dating service. Please respect your and your pen pal's boundaries.

Pen pals are instructed to preserve their anonymity and to keep communications confidential. In turn, we ask that you respect their anonymity and keep their communications to you confidential.

Pen pals are advised to check their judgments and be open to the background of others, and we ask the same of you.

Pen pals are encouraged to not pry into places in your life that you do not wish to share, we ask that you show the same respect.

If you find these guidelines agreeable, we ask that you please fill out the attached form, sign your name, and return it to us at the following address: Inside circle, 2443 Fillmore St. #380-4123, San Francisco, CA 94115.

This will assist us in moving the process along to match you with a pen pal. We look forward to hearing from you and thank you for holding the light strong.

If you have already completed this form, you are on our waiting list.

Full name: ____________________________________________________________________________________ CDC Number: ________________________________

Date of Birth:____________________________

Address: ______________________________________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip: _________________________________________________________________________________ Are you trained in Victim Offender Dialogue?

Yes

___________________________________________ Participant Signature

No

___________________________________________ Date Signed

INSIDE CIRCLE | 2443 FILLMORE ST. #380-4123 | SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115 WWW.INSIDECIRCLE.ORG

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INFO CARD

THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO SHARE A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF AND MAIL THIS BACK IN THE ENVELOPE PROVIDED.

FIRST NAME: ________________MIDDLE NAME:___________LAST NAME:________________________ MAILING ADDRESS:________________________________________________________________ CDCR#: ________________ D.O.B:___________CLASSIFICATION SCORE:________HOUSING LEVEL:_______ # OF SERIOUS/VIOLENT 115’S...before joining group: _________and #after joining group: _____________?

HOW LONG DID YOU SIT IN GROUP?___________ARE YOU CURRENTLY TUTORING OR FACILITATING? (Y/N) _________

UE

TR

OF

RY VE

RT

TR

SO

T NO

SINCE STARTING GROUP WITH INSIDE CIRCLE...

UE

SURVEY

TR

UE

WOULD YOU SIT IN GROUP AGAIN IF ABLE? (Y/N) _______ ARE YOU INTERESTED IN STARTING A GROUP? (Y/N) _______

I AM BETTER ABLE TO IDENTIFY AND MANAGE MY EMOTIONS............................

I AM BETTER ABLE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MY ACTIONS.........................

I BELIEVE MY LIFE HAS A PURPOSE..............................................................

I AM MORE CONNECTED TO SOMETHING GREATER THAN MYSELF.........................

I FEEL LESS ALONE...................................................................................

I FEEL I AM WORTH SOMETHING...................................................................

I BELIEVE THAT LIFE HAS VALUE.................................................................

I AM BETTER ABLE TO COPE WITH STRESS.....................................................

I AM MORE IN CONTROL OF MY LIFE AND ACTIONS.........................................

I AM BETTER ABLE TO PUT MYSELF IN OTHER PEOPLE’S SHOES AND SEE THEIR SIDE OF THINGS.........................................................................................

I AM MORE CONFIDENT IN MY ABILITY TO OVERCOME ADVERSITY.......................

BELOW IS SPACE FOR YOU TO CHECK IN AND SHARE HOW YOU'RE DOING PHYSICALLY, INTELLECTUALLY, EMOTIONALLY, AND SPIRITUALLY. THERE'S ROOM FOR MORE ON THE BACK.

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CHECK-IN (CONTINUED) IF YOU HAVE ANY POEMS TO SHARE OR WORDS THAT HAVE MOVED YOU LATELY, WE'D LOVE TO HEAR THEM AND INCLUDE AS MANY AS POSSIBLE IN THE NEXT NEWSLETTER.

MARCH 2026

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