Life Ownership Program

Opportunities for People Who Have Been Incarcerated

County of Los Angeles

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative

Prison is a place that does not breed accountability, although this is what the judge, the district attorney, the people who have been harmed, the community, and the incarcerated person's family is asking for from the incarcerated individual. There's very little that's required from a person who has been sentenced and there is a lot of pressure to keep one's mouth shut and not tell the truth, not even to oneself. This is fundamentally causing a lot of harm in our community. When incarcerated people can learn the vocabulary of accountability, to recognize how their choices contributed to their incarceration, and to understand the insight questions that can help navigate them towards finding out why they did what they did and what reasons they did it for, they can see accountability as a gift. They can begin to fully participate in building themselves and their lives anew. The byproduct of accountability is a responsible person who is able to contribute to society in prosocial ways.

Sharp Circle Inc. works with people who want to shift their lives in a positive direction. We create around them a circle of individualized support, including people, resources, and new opportunities via community connections that are aligned with the individual's goals. - We are individual-centered and design programs around people's needs - We recognize people's desire to be prosocial and contribute resources to growing this perspective - We focus on releasing prosocial behavior vs. restraining antisocial behavior - We guide people towards self-agency via new connections - We encourage people to stretch themselves out of the familiar to grow and experience expanded potential We designed the Life Ownership Program for transitional-age youth housed in juvenile detention centers and it can also be applied to incarcerated adults. Participants will create a Life Ownership Plan that expresses accountability and insight, which benefits the people harmed, the community, and the individual, while also igniting an audacious fresh start for their lives via a detailed reentry plan that begins in the now instead of the future. This plan offers incarcerated people the opportunity to showcase their transformation, proving their need for support rather than further incarceration. Participants engage in group sessions and one-to-one sessions with a team of trusted mentors and graduate from the program with healthy new community connections and opportunities to shift their lives.

At Sharp Circle Inc., we see people as investments. By investing in people through our innovative mentorship programs, we liberate them from their internal and external obstacles so they can freely add their unique value to the world in prosocial ways. When people see themselves as valuable, they are more likely to contribute their value to society, and this supports communities overall. When people cause harm in society, it is costly on many fronts. At Sharp Circle Inc. we believe that people who are willing to transform, can. We identify these people who are willing to change and through our programs, these individuals will learn to communicate their needs better, take responsibility for getting their needs met in healthy ways, and take responsibility for their life outcomes. They will learn to respond differently to life pressures, encouraging less violence and less of the things we don't want in society more of the things we do want.

The program will be 6 months long and each participant works with a team of mentors one-to-one ("1:1") and also in group settings. The 1:1 sessions center around SMART goals established by the mentees. The group settings will offer education and knowledge sharing of tools, resources, and skills to take to the 1:1 sessions to help create the individual's Life Ownership Plan. We measure our effectiveness through the mentee's attainment of their SMART goals. In addition, throughout the 6 months, a set of 3 in-program surveys will be given to each participant, asking them to rate their experience and what they're learning. Participants will complete an ACES evaluation before entering the program. After the 6 months, we'll also ask for 2 additional surveys: 2 months out of the program and 6 months out of the program. We'll use the combination of data collected from the ACES evaluation, the in-program surveys, and the post-program surveys to measure successful or unsuccessful outcomes.