Step Inside The Circle
235 Men, gathered in the yard of a maximum security prison, to learn about themselves for the first time. Are you ready to face your past?
View a trailer of the film “Step Inside the Circle” about childhood trauma behind bars. (Filmed on location at CSP-LAC in Lancaster, CA)
“Let’s shift the paradigm of how we incarcerate, isolate and dehumanize the most traumatized members of our society. Unaddressed childhood trauma changes how we respond to the world and when triggered, we make choices that sometimes have devastating consequences including domestic violence, addiction, murder and prison.
I, too, would have been incarcerated had I not had the privilege and support system I lucked into.”~Fritzi Horstman,
What is an ACE?
An ACE is an “Adverse Childhood Experience” also known as childhood trauma. This term originated from the study created at Kaiser by Dr. Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda of the CDC.
What is childhood trauma?
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, childhood trauma is defined as: “The experience of an event by a child that is emotionally painful or distressful, which often results in lasting mental and physical effects.”
ACE’s and Toxic Stress
According to the CDC: ACEs and associated conditions, such as living in under-resourced or racially segregated neighborhoods, frequently moving, and experiencing food insecurity, can cause toxic stress (extended or prolonged stress). Toxic stress and ACEs can change brain development and affect such things as attention, decision-making, learning, and response to stress.