About Voices
What is Voices From Within?
Voices From Within empowers marginalized youth and justice-impacted adults to transform pain into purpose through trauma-informed education, leadership development, and mentorship through our CHOICES framework —activating new leaders who strengthen families, uplift communities, and advance true justice reform.
Our Model: A Continuum of Empowerment
We operate as an integrated ecosystem that addresses harm at every point in the pipeline — prevention, transformation, and accountability — building leadership across generations by sharing the significance of Choosing Healthier Options In Confronting Every Situation (CHOICES).
Our CHOICES framework rests on a universal truth that transforms everything: your circumstances don’t determine your choices—your choices determine your future. It is a catalyst for collective change across families, communities, and systems.
Our Vision
We envision a world where every voice can heal, lead, and create change—where the people most affected by inequality become the storytellers, innovators, and changemakers who rebuild systems from within.
Voices From Within was born inside the walls of Sing Sing Correctional Facility, New York’s infamous maximum security prison, where 11 incarcerated men decided to share their stories to motivate young adults to contemplate the consequences of their choices.
Our Impact
Participants leave our programs with:
• Stronger identity, resilience, and emotional regulation
• Leadership and communication skills grounded in lived wisdom and experience
• Greater empathy, community responsibility, and commitment
• Purpose-driven reintegration plans that reduce recidivism risk
• Confidence to make decisions that reshape their futures
They don’t just change their own lives—they change the trajectories of families and communities in their lives.
We Must Speak to Be Heard
Who We Are
Scott Semple
Rachel Barkow
Sean Pica
Dan Slepian
Michael Capra
Robert Allen
Dario Peña
Julian Castillo
Laron Rogers
Kenyatta Hughes
Tyrone Abraham
Lawrence Bartley
Sean Kyler
Jermaine Archer
Markey Coleman
Andre Jenkins
Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez
Dylan Wood
Susan Canavari
Geri Leigh Tiu
Amanda Pascale
Frequently Asked Questions
Voices From Within is a multimedia education and peer-counseling initiative that grew out of Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York. It was created by incarcerated men who wanted to use their own stories—and the harm they caused—to deter young people from following similar paths and to transform prison culture from punishment toward learning and moral commitment. The project centers the voices of people living with the consequences of their choices and the victims left in their wake, using filmed testimonies, facilitated conversations, and structured programs that emphasize “CHOICES” (Choosing Healthier Options In Confronting Every Situation). What makes it different is its credible-messenger approach: the work is designed and led by people who have lived the realities of crime, incarceration, and transformation from the inside, not just by outside experts.
Voices From Within is built around a set of initiatives that can be adapted to prisons, community organizations, and educational settings, including:
Peer-Counseling Program – workshops for incarcerated people focused on self-awareness, accountability, and civil values.
CHOICES Events – powerful events where incarcerated or formerly incarcerated “credible messengers” share their stories with youth to highlight the consequences of choices.
Culture Tours – structured ways to bring the public (or youth) into proximity with the realities of prison and under-resourced communities through honest dialogue about dignity and shared humanity.
Media Literacy & Story-Driven Curriculum – using original films and media (e.g., GUNS (Growing Up with No Shots), Letters from Sing Sing, Creating a Culture of Safe Spaces and Hope, and CHOICES event footage) as anchors for facilitated reflection and discussion.
Community Preparation & Reentry Support, Credible Messenger mentorship, Special Events, Clemency Collective, and Civic Engagement initiatives to support returning citizens and reduce harm in communities.
Implementation is usually staged and collaborative:
Initial needs conversation – to understand your setting (prison, school, community program), population (incarcerated adults, system-impacted youth, college students, etc.), and desired outcomes (prevention, culture change, reentry support, civic engagement).
Program design – selecting which initiatives fit best (e.g., CHOICES events for youth, peer-counseling inside the facility, media-based discussion series in classrooms). This is grounded in the model that has been used at Sing Sing and across New York State.
Training & facilitation support – identifying who will facilitate (Voices From Within team, local credible messengers, or staff) and providing guidance on how to use the films, discussion prompts, and exercises in a trauma-informed and restorative way.
Launch & iteration – starting with pilot groups, collecting feedback from participants, and then expanding to additional units, schools, or community cohorts.
According to their own materials, Voices From Within is already in the process of rolling out peer-counseling and mentoring programs across multiple correctional facilities in New York State, with the explicit goal of taking the model to prisons and communities nationwide—so the framework for expansion and adaptation is already in place.
The content is built around real stories of crime, gun use, incarceration, remorse, and transformation. The founding film GUNS (Growing Up with No Shots) directly addresses gun violence and has been viewed more than 10 million times worldwide, leading to partnerships with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and the NYC Department of Juvenile Probation.
Other media such as Letters from Sing Sing, Creating a Culture of Safe Spaces and Hope, CHOICES event recordings, and individual “voices” highlight themes such as accountability, grief, community harm, reconciliation, and hope.
Because the content includes discussion of serious violence and incarceration, it is generally most appropriate for:
Incarcerated adults and young adults
System-impacted or high-risk youth (often in middle school and up, with strong facilitation and support)
College courses and community groups exploring criminal justice, restorative justice, or trauma
Any implementation should be framed with clear expectations, support from counselors or social workers where possible, and structured debriefs to help participants process difficult material safely.
Voices From Within was conceived as a public-facing, social-impact initiative, and external reporting notes that it operates under a public domain license that has been used by public officials as a tool to address gun violence in New York City.
However, there are important nuances:
Some content is tied to major media partners (e.g., Dateline NBC, the Letters from Sing Sing podcast, other NBC productions, or the A24 film Sing Sing) which may have separate copyright and usage restrictions.
Institutional use (inside prisons, schools, or large community events) may require coordination so that screenings, recordings, and any adaptations respect both the spirit and the legal framework of the project.
Because of this, the safest and most accurate path is to contact Voices From Within directly via the site’s contact form or by reaching out to the listed producer contact (Dan Slepian) to confirm what’s permitted in your context, whether there are any fees, and how best to access high-quality copies and discussion guides.
While the website does not publish formal recidivism or longitudinal outcome statistics, there are several strong indicators of impact:
The inaugural film GUNS (Growing Up with No Shots) was launched in 2013 and has garnered over 10 million views, leading directly to partnerships with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and the NYC Department of Juvenile Probation.
At Sing Sing, the initiative is described as having helped shift the culture from “a correctional institution of punishment” to one of higher learning and moral commitment, through peer-counseling, mentoring, and credible messenger leadership.
The broader story of Voices From Within and its co-founders (particularly Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez and Dan Slepian) has been featured in national media, including the Pulitzer-finalist NBC podcast Letters from Sing Sing and the Emmy-winning project The Sing Sing Chronicles, underscoring the credibility and seriousness of the work.
As of 2023–2024, peer counseling and mentoring programs developed by Voices From Within are being implemented across New York State correctional facilities, with an explicit plan to continue expanding.