END-OF-YEAR NEWSLETTER
- Jenny Espinoza-Marcus
- Dec 23, 2025
- 11 min read
As we close out the year, we’re reflecting on the power of lived experience to spark empathy, shift narratives, and drive real change. From growing recognition of our storytelling model to packed film screenings, new writing cohorts, and meaningful legislative wins, this year showed what’s possible when incarcerated voices are centered in conversations about justice, families, and prevention. This edition shares how stories are opening hearts, shaping policy, and helping communities invest upstream—back to the start—where lasting change begins.
Message from Founding Member
Juan Moreno Haines
When Dr. Jenny Espinoza and our founding team launched Back to the Start in 2022, I saw a program uniquely designed to foster betterment in largely unseen communities. The idea behind what we do as incarcerated storytellers is not complicated. As people who have slipped through the social net, we believe our histories are steeped with answers on how to repair its brokenness. I make no excuse for the crimes that I’ve committed. Nevertheless, my criminal behavior is rooted in erroneous thinking that is directly tied to my childhood trauma. Unpacking how I became who I am is instructive, not only for my personal growth, but also for lawmakers and the public to highlight the importance of investing in early childhood development and strong families.
We discovered through our stories some fundamental realities. One reality is that when kids stop going to school, they too often turn to the streets where nefarious elements take over and prison awaits them. Therefore, when legislators enact smart policies aimed at keeping kids in school, it helps to limit those harmful influences. We also learned the importance of supporting families. We discovered that no substitute can replace a child’s feelings for their parents. When a child is seperated from their parents — no matter the circumstance — the child feels that pain and trauma for the rest of their life.
These two fundamentals, keeping kids in school and supporting families to thrive, are perhaps the most important elements of a robust community. When monies are spent supporting children and families, expenditures into failed institutions such as jails and prisons are reduced or ideally not needed at all.
And that’s why we are especially proud to share in this newsletter how our stories have been moving policymakers to enact legislation that helps to do exactly that. Our policy work is being noticed beyond Sacramento too, including recent recognition of our work forging solidarities by the Yale Justice Collaboratory and at the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color’s (ABMoC) Annual Policy Summit. We have also been leveraging the power of our stories through a series of film screenings for our short documentary film, Reflections Behind Bars, directed by Sundance and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jacob Kornbluth. This is among some of the good news that we are excited to share with you in this holiday newsletter.
Our stories have the potential to open hearts and minds toward solutions that promote lasting change for the better. That is why we go Back to the Start. But don’t just take my word for it, see for yourself.
Reflections Behind Bars
Film Viewings Gain Momentum
"We can only change policy at the speed that the narrative changes."
- Filmaker Jacob Kornbluth
UC Berkeley Law
Our film tour began in September at the UC Berkeley School of Law, where Back to the Start partnered with the Criminal Law & Justice Center to host our first public screening of Reflections Behind Bars, our short documentary film created by filmmaker Jacob Kornbluth. At the core of the film are the raw, deeply personal narratives and poems from currently incarcerated individuals, about growing up at the intersection of poverty, violence, separated families, and systemic racism.
A strong turnout of law students, faculty, advocates, and community members filled the auditorium for a powerful afternoon of film and conversation that brought the voices of incarcerated storytellers into one of the state’s most influential academic settings. The panel discussion was moderated by Chesa Boudin, Executive Director of UC Berkeley’s Criminal Law & Justice Center and former San Francisco District Attorney. He helped frame the film’s narratives within broader conversations about the central role storytelling plays in shaping how we think about law, public safety, and human dignity.
“How we tell stories… is often far more important than what we communicate. Understanding the personal stories behind the kind of statistics and data that you saw in this film … is critical, and that’s one of the things that’s so powerful and so impactful about the work that Back to the Start does.” — Chesa Boudin, UC Berkeley’s Criminal Law & Justice Center
Panelists included Dr. Jenny Espinoza, filmmaker Jacob Kornbluth, Back to the Start founding member Brian Asey Gonsoulin, formerly incarcerated advocate Anthony Ammons, and Sally Ching of the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color (ABMoC), creating a dynamic and heartfelt exchange that resonated deeply with the audience.
“A lot of people looked at me as a troubled youth instead of a youth in pain, a youth that needed to talk.” — Anthony Ammons, now with the State Attorney General’s Office
Student engagement was deep and sustained, with many staying after the event to ask questions and explore how storytelling can shape policy and law. The thoughtful engagement signals growing momentum for justice-centered storytelling as both an educational tool and a catalyst for systemic change, strengthening Back to the Start’s presence in education spaces and expanding awareness among future lawyers and policymakers.
Mill Valley Public LibraryThe momentum from the successful Law School carried into our November event at the Mill Valley Public Library, where more than 300 community members gathered for a screening nestled among the redwoods. The standing-room-only crowd reflected a growing public appetite for stories that move beyond stereotypes and headlines to reveal the human realities of incarceration and explore solutions that prevent people from entering the system in the first place.
The event’s panel featured the additions of well-known formerly incarcerated advocate Markelle Taylor and Marin Poet Laureate/Back to the Start Advisory Board member Francesca Bell, whose reflections deepened the conversation about trauma, resilience, and the storytelling as a catalyst for change. The night's theme centered around the transformative power of writing and the arts to effectuate systems change. Many attendees stayed long after the program concluded to talk with the panelists, continuing conversations and expressing interest in future screenings and advocacy efforts.
Join Us in Keeping the Momentum Going
Together, these events reflect growing momentum for Reflections Behind Bars as a tool for education, connection, and action, affirming the power of incarcerated people’s stories to open hearts, influence policy, and bring communities together to discuss solutions that break the cycle. As we plan more viewings, the turnout and response from these screenings signal real momentum for us to expand our reach and impact across communities hungry for authentic narratives about justice and preventive solutions that work. Please contact us if you are interested in hosting or sponsoring a film screening or community event.
Watch the trailer for Reflections Behind Bars
Building Solidarities Across Sectors
Yale Justice Collaboratory
This fall, Back to the Start’s policy and storytelling model was featured in The Notebook, a national annual publication of the Yale Justice Collaboratory that highlights work bringing people together in solidarity across differences through story, art, and research. The volume explores how solidarities take root, placing Back to the Start prominently alongside organizers, artists, researchers, and advocates advancing systems-level change across the nation.
"Through story, art, and research, this publication shows how solidarities take root and how they move us toward a safer, more just world."
- The Notebook: Solidarities, Yale Justice Collaboratory
The article highlights Back to the Start’s Multisector Map, a strategic framework that connects policy areas often treated as isolated, from education and child welfare to housing and health. The map shows how our organization leverages a multisector approach to advance systemic change, with the ultimate goal of upstream interventions for children and families. Each legislative cycle, our incarcerated program co-leads inside San Quentin identify and prioritize bills across these sectors, pairing them with a growing, indexed library of lived-experience narratives. We then mobilize these narratives through op-eds, legislative testimony, and direct engagement with policymakers. In this way, we translate the lived experience of our writers into coordinated, prevention-focused policy action.
Explore the Multi-Sector Map and read the full article:
From Silos to System Change
In the same spirit, Back to the Start recently presented a session at the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color (ABMoC) Annual Policy Summit. Titled From Silos to Systems Change: Multisector Advocacy to End the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline, our team hosted a cross-sector gathering focused on reshaping narratives and advancing upstream investments for children and families. Drawing on Back to the Start’s work with incarcerated storytellers, Dr. Espinoza facilitated a dialogue along with Philip Melendez and Carolyn Placente on how to move beyond scarcity-based frameworks and break down barriers fully realize the synergies of cross-sector collaboration.
The conversation delved into promising areas for deeper collaboration, and we look forward to sharing how this work continues to evolve, including opportunities to engage with partners in driving support for policies aimed at ensuring all children can reach their full potential.
Legislative Session Wrap Up
Gov. Newsom Signs Priority Bills
We’re proud to share that Governor Gavin Newsom signed three of our priority bills this year, translating the lived experiences of the stories we elevate into actionable, upstream policy change. These wins were possible because supporters like you help ensure incarcerated storytellers can be heard where policy gets made.
PASSED! AB 1376 — Ending Endless Juvenile Probation
AB 1376 reforms California’s juvenile probation system by establishing presumptive limits on the length of probation, generally capped at 12 months unless the court finds an extension is in the youth’s best interest. The law also requires regular court review to ensure conditions are developmentally appropriate and tailored to each child.
The law curbs the practice of prolonged probation that too often disrupts education, family stability, and healthy development, increasing the likelihood of deeper system involvement. By establishing clearer timelines and accountability, AB 1376 shifts youth justice toward rehabilitation and early intervention rather than extended surveillance, punishment, and a pipeline to prison. Assembly member Mia Bonta, the bill’s author, stated that “this law reforms a broken system that disproportionately harms youth of color and helps shift the focus toward rehabilitation and opportunity.”
“Probation should be a bridge, not a trap door.”— Back to the Start’s Jessie Milo in his op-ed in The Orange County Register
PASSED! AB 49 — Safe Access to Schools for Children & Families
This law protects students and families by restricting immigration enforcement activities in nonpublic areas of school campuses unless officers present a valid judicial warrant or court order. By clearly limiting when and how enforcement may occur, the law helps ensure that schools remain safe, accessible learning environments where children can attend class and families can engage without fear. The measure reinforces educational stability as a critical upstream investment in student wellbeing and long-term success.
In celebrating the signing, legislative leaders and the governor’s office underscored that this law sends a clear message that children should never be afraid to go to school, and that California stands with families most affected by immigration enforcement pressures by prioritizing education, safety, and community trust.
PASSED! AB 1230 — Strengthening Expulsion Rehabilitation Plans
If a student is expelled from school, this bill mandates that a team of educators address the behavior that led to expulsion and develop a plan for the student’s safe and timely return. The law ensures plans are meaningful and accessible, including prohibiting districts from denying readmission solely due to financial or logistical barriers. By keeping young people connected to education, AB 1230 reduces the risk that school exclusion becomes a gateway to incarceration.
Author Assembly member Mia Bonta and supporters framed AB 1230 as a critical piece of student success reform, emphasizing that students who have been excluded from school deserve a pathway back grounded in support and opportunity, not continued exclusion.
New Cohort Launch
Expanding our Stories
This month we launched our third narrative writing cohort, welcoming 30 new participants into our storytelling program. As our community of writers continues to grow, so does the range of voices, experiences, and expressions through which lived experience is shared and understood. This cohort builds on earlier successes while expanding the ways participants can reflect, create, and connect through stories — with each other, their inner selves, and the outside world.
This new cohort also includes an expanded poetry component, led in part by Marin Poet Laureate, Francesca Bell. Bell has been impressed by the raw talent emerging from the group. At a recent panel discussion, she shared “Is He Going to Make It Through,” a poem by Back to the Start graduate Freddie Huante. The poem traces Huante’s life from being born premature and fighting to survive in the NICU to later receiving a life sentence in prison. Huante’s poem captures — in ways that only poetry can — the stark contrast between our society’s care for life and its disregard for it, alongside the vulnerability, resilience, and the long arc of trauma that often follows.
As Spanish-language co-lead Edwin Chavez reminds us, the experiences explored in these stories cut across identity and background: “Trauma does not discriminate. Trauma breaks all barriers, whether language or borders. It doesn’t care what race you are — trauma is trauma.”
This is one of the ways the program is making a meaningful difference: by helping writers process and heal hidden wounds, often for the first time. Through writing, participants are given space to name trauma, own it, transform it into new meaning, and harness their voices into something powerful — the chance to have a positive impact by helping prevent harm in the first place. To answer this call, our writers take the brave step of exposing some of their deepest vulnerabilities and most painful moments in one of the toughest environments a person can experience. And yet this work succeeds because they are supported and accepted every step — and every word — of the way, thanks to our incarcerated co-leads and their peers at Back to the Start.
In the spirit of expanding our stories, we’re excited to share that we’re on the verge of adding a new site for our program. Look for details in our next newsletter, where we’ll reveal the location and discuss what this expansion will make possible.
'Tis the Season
Join Us in Carrying this Work Forward
We’re heading into the new year with real momentum. From plans to expand our program to a new site, host our biggest film screening to date, and build out a statewide coalition focused on upstream interventions that prevent harm before it occurs, we are grateful for the opportunity to engage in meaningful progress on issues we all care about. We’re excited about what’s ahead and look forward to sharing more in our next newsletter.
“Writing our stories is a form of art.To change the future sometimes,We have to go BACK TO THE START”— Jessie Milo, reading from his poem in Back to the Start
As the year comes to a close, the season invites reflection on what it means to care for one another and to invest in solutions that strengthen families, communities, and our shared future. The stories, screenings, and policy wins highlighted in this newsletter reflect what becomes possible when lived experience is met with empathy, integrity, and a commitment to upstream change.
If this work and our values resonate with you, we invite you to help carry it forward. Your year-end support makes it possible for incarcerated storytellers to continue sharing their experiences, for communities to gather in dialogue, and for evidence-based policies to take root where they can do the most good. Whether through a donation, hosting a screening, or staying engaged as an ally, your participation helps ensure these stories continue to open hearts, inform solutions, and build a more just and connected society.
Thank you for standing with us — and for being part of a community committed to care, dignity, and hope!
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