SUPPORTING RE-ENTRY 

 Viewing this film with incarcerated citizens opens an opportunity for dialogue around themes of accountability and healing.  For offenders, CIRCLE UP may initiate conversations around how to return to community in a positive way, how to make amends to individuals who have been harmed, and how to continue to support positive change through taking responsibility and giving back to others.

For youth in detention, CIRCLE UP offers the opportunity to reflect on their own choices and how these choices impact the lives of their victims, their own families, and themselves. AJ counsels youth that one’s life can change in an instant with the use of violence; it is not possible to bring back those whose lives have been lost.  The only way forward is to make positive change.  For youth in the juvenile system, this message is profoundly relevant in helping them learn to make better choices for themselves. 

Inmates in Philadelphia’s Graterford Prison were very moved by a screening of the film in their restorative justice program.

Thrive Communities used the film to bring together a range of community organizations around positive return to community from prison in Lowell, Massachusetts.