STEERING COMMITTEE
The role of the Let's Circle Up (LCU) Steering Committee (SC) is to:
-
practice and spread restorative justice;
-
act as an example to alumni and help them develop leadership skills;
-
develop & facilitate workshops and train others to do so;
-
plan for & logistically organize workshops, meetings, & other events;
-
generate ideas;
-
make decisions or share insights that will inform decisions;
-
bring new people to the project;
-
provide leadership to subcommittees;
-
adapt to the ever-changing nature of our environment;
-
hold ourselves & each other accountable; and
-
provide vision, leadership, & direction for the project.
The SC is the brain and heart of LCU. Together we generate ideas and make decisions about how to improve, deepen, adapt, and expand LCU. Inside Members must have completed and Intro and
Advanced Restorative Justice Workshops and meet strict criteria that includes high levels of professionalism, integrity, and leadership. Outside members must commit to participating in SC meetings and other parts of the project regularly and support the work and mission of LCU.
OUR STORIES
Charles Boyd
Charles Boyd has been fighting a death by incarceration (DBI) sentence for the past 35 years. He is co-founder of Let's Circle Up (LCU) and is the primary coordinator for the Alternatives to Justice Project (AVP), which focuses on conflict transformation. Both LCU and AVP afford Charles the opportunity to build relationships and to impact the lives of those who take the workshops. He has been a member of the Graterford Inside Out (IO) Think Tank for 15 years. The IO Think Tank is the internal organs of Inside Out, an international program that promotes civic engagement around issues of victimization, redemption, and social justice. Charles works in the Substance Use Disorder Department as a Certified Peer Supporter and volunteers as a Hospice Caretaker. Furthermore, he has attained his Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies degree from Villanova University. He is an environmentalist who loves music, art, and creating safe spaces where people can talk through their problems and arrive at solutions. The highest title anyone could give Charles is to refer to him as a brother. He is committed to ending the practice of DBI sentencing, providing a healthy ecosystem for those who will follow, and always seeking ways to pay it forward. He loves reading, writing, traveling, and meeting new people.
Felix (Phill)
Rosado
Felix Rosado is co-founder and co-coordinator of Let's Circle Up. Originally from Reading, Pennsylvania, he fought a death-by-incarceration sentence from age 18, and won his freedom in July 2022. He is the author of the forthcoming Let's Circle Up Introduction to Restorative Justice Workshop Facilitators' Manual.
In 2016, Felix earned his Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies degree from Villanova University. As a member of Right 2 Redemption and DecarceratePA, two founding organizations of the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration, he seeks to end the practice of caging humans until death. Felix works for the Youth Art and Self-Empowerment Program, or YASP, an organization building a youth-led movement to end the practice of trying and incarcerating young people as adults and create a world without youth incarceration.
Marco (Mu)
Maldonado
Marco (Mu) Maldonado is a restorative justice practitioner and the co-chair of the Let's Circle Up Steering Committee since 2009. He has designed and facilitated a number of workshops, events, and meetings that have covered a wide range of topics focused on restorative justice education, social justice issues, and community building. Marco earned a Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Arts from Villanova University's Graterford Satellite in 2013. In 2018 he earned a Master's Degree in Humanities from California State University - Dominguez Hills, with a focus on history. He is currently the president of the Villanova University Alumni Association Graterford Chapter and has been an Inside Out Prison Exchange Program Think Tank member since 2007. Marco has been fighting to prove his innocence for over 25 years. In spite of his wrongful conviction, he believes justice comes in many forms and is linked to a higher power.
Shaun Campbell
Shaun Campbell has been incarcerated for 7 1/2 years at Graterford State Prison, now Phoenix. He has been a part of Let's Circle Up for the last 6 years and is a seasoned facilitator. A year after taking his first LCU workshop in 2012, he joined the SC. He also has spent 6 years as part of the Alternatives to Violence Project, a community based project that focuses on reducing violence in and outside of prison. He says, "My favorite thing about the LCU SC is the sense of family and purpose we have. We all want to do good for others." He looks forward to giving back upon his return home in 2021. He has aspirations to leave a lasting legacy of peacebuilding and healing to those who have been harmed by crime. He believes that anyone can do social justice if they truly believe that we are all connected, what harms one harms all, and no one is beyond redemption.
Fred Magondu
Fred Magondu has been a member of the Let's Circle Up Steering Committee and a facilitator since 2012. He is serving a 12 1/2-25 year sentence. Fred serves with the Alternatives to Violence Project as a senior facilitator and as a member of its leadership team. Part of his involvement in this work has been creating several workshops and facilitating numerous others. He is also involved in other organizations around the prison including Lifers Intra-Organization Network (LION), a group that seeks to end mass incarceration and allow for parole eligibility for life-sentenced persons. He is a member of the faith community inside the prison where he serves as a worship leader and facilitates a discipleship course for new and growing believers. His favorite part about being a member of the LCU SC is the brainstorming of ideas that takes place and developing new projects from scratch. Drawing for his own experience, Fred is committed to helping others rise above their past mistakes through empowerment, affirmation and recognition of the inherent dignity of all people. Fred reads widely and also enjoys writing on a variety of topics. He has written many essays and articles, some of which have been published in various newsletters and online. He is a husband and father of 4 kids ranging in age from 10 to 15. Fred enjoys running, reading, traveling, writing, exploring new ideas, hanging out with friends, and talking with his children.
​
Favorite RJ Quote: "Restorative Justice is just common sense." - Rooted in Respect
Robert (Bobby)
LaBarr
Robert (Bobby) LaBarr has been fighting a death-by-incarceration sentence for the past two decades since he was eighteen years old. He is a graduate and mentor of Education for Ministry (EfM), a theology course that helps people articulate their faith. He is a facilitator for Let's Circle Up and also facilitates conflict transformation through the Alternatives to Violence Project. Additionally, he is a member of the Inside Out Think Tank. He works in the Substance Use Disorder Department as a Certified Peer Supporter. He has attained certification for three vocational programs: Architectural Drafting, Business Computer, and Custodial Maintenance. Furthermore, he recently started taking classes with Villanova University and is studying to earn a Bachelor's in Interdisciplinary Studies. Robert realizes that education is the best way to overcome ignorance, which motivates him to keep educating himself. He is committed to abolishing a world that excludes and oppresses people because of their economic status, race, gender, and/or religious beliefs.
Richard (Rich) Sean Gross
Richard (Rich) Sean Gross first attended an LCU workshop in 2015 and two years later joined the SC and became an LCU facilitator. He also facilitates for the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) and is a member of the Lifers Intra-Organization Network (LION), which is lobbying for legislation to allow parole eligibility for all those sentenced to death-by-incarceration. Born in 1966 in York County, Pennsylvania, he has been incarcerated since 2002. His favorite thing to do in his spare time is to write and while in prison he has developed talent as a writer and won the 2015 Creative Writing Contest sponsored by the Prisoner's Family Conference of El Paso, Texas. You can find a book of his short stories at www.prisonsfoundation.org. His poetry is online at Minutes Before Six, and on Instagram at Emancipated Stories. For Rich, LCU and AVP are methods of atonement for violence he has committed, and the means by which he hopes to prevent violence among the group participants he reaches. Facilitating is the most enjoyable and meaningful action he does in prison and he is grateful to work with the intelligent, caring people in LCU.
​
Favorite RJ QUOTE: " I am because you are," the translation of the South African word Ubuntu.
Carmen Abdullah Woods
Carmen (Abdullah) Woods has been incarcerated for 35 years. He has been a part of the LCU SC since 2017 , first going through the Extended Intro Restorative Justice Workshop then the Advanced and joining the Steering Committee. He enjoys most the people and meetings of the minds. Abdullah has participated in many peer groups from Inside Out, Thinking for a Change, Real Street Talk, and a host of others. Throughout the years, he has much experience in facilitating and hopes to bring some of his insights and experiences to restorative justice because he believes in second chances and restorative justice complements that belief. He hopes to take restorative justice to his community one day in the future when he is released to go home and do all he can do to reduce mass incarceration. He is the father of two and grandfather of three.
​
Favorite RJ Quote: "We are all connected." and ""Restorative Justice is something that we do; it is action oriented on a basic human need to be involved in working through our own problems."
Joseph (Joe) Waring
Joseph (Joe) Waring left Graterford in 2018 to serve the remaining four years of his sentence in the federal system. While at Graterford, he took every level of Let's Circle Up workshops starting in 2012 and joined the Steering Committee in 2015. He facilitated mostly the Extended Intro Restorative Justice Workshop but also facilitated many of the others. He is a musican who loves making beats and watching movies, especially of the comic book-inspired variety. Joe looks forward to coming home to his children and doing restorative justice on the outside.
Shawnfatee (Muhsin) Bridges
My name is Shawnfatee M Bridges; my Muslim attribute is Muhsin. I’m a former Capital case inmate, which means I was on death row. I resided there for 20 yrs! In December of 2019, I was granted my freedom and a second chance at life. Restorative justice guided me to my new found path of helping others, not allowing it to be just about me. Who am I? Death row inmate, father, brother, friend--and now I can say a free man!
Margo Campbell
Margo Campbell is the External Coordinator with Let's Circle Up and an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Widener University. She comes to this work with extensive evaluation experience of several national and community-base prison reentry initiatives such as Ready4Work and the Baltimore Empowerment Zone Reentry Initiative, as well as a strong commitment to include people in prison, as well as those formerly incarcerated, as colleagues and partners in addressing mass incarceration and its effect.
Janice
Lion
Janice Lion has a strong commitment to contributing to movements for social justice and extensive experience working in the non-profit sector. Janice provides leadership for the Haverford College Center for Peace & Global Citizenship, where she advises and collaborates with students, alumni, staff, and faculty pursuing a wide variety of U.S.-based work. Janice earned a bachelor’s degree from Franklin & Marshall College in anthropology and women’s studies and a master’s degree from Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, with a concentration in community practice, policy, and advocacy. She hails from Delaware County, PA and has been part of LCU since 2010.
Anthony Marqusee
Anthony Marqusee (Haverford '16) has been practicing restorative justice through Let's Circle Up since 2013. Starting off as a student participant, he has since helped facilitate numerous restorative justice workshops inside prisons, on campus, and in Philadelphia. At Haverford, Anthony studied religion and astronomy. Today, he lives in West Philadelphia, where he also participates in grassroots community organizing against mass incarceration. His interests include science fiction, board games, and LGBTQ+ rights.
Michael Riccio
Michael Riccio graduated from Haverford College in 2013 with a B.A. in sociology where he wrote a thesis on the adverse effects of the U.S. criminal legal system upon poor, urban, predominantly black neighborhoods. He got involved with Let's Circle Up as part of his Haverford House project and quickly got hooked on restorative justice principles, facilitation, and the grassroots feel of the group. Michael has been a participant or has facilitated workshops or meetings with the Intro and Advanced restorative justice Workshops, Alumni Project, Steering Committee, and newly formed Restorative Integration since joining the group in 2014. He enjoys running, fishing, and reading when he is not at the prison. He currently resides in Philadelphia where he works as a work ready facilitator at CareerLink hosted by Nueva Esperanza in North Philadelphia.