Leonard, executive director of the Insight Prison Project, spent over 23 years incarcerated within California’s jail and prison system for a 15-year-to-life sentence for second degree murder. While incarcerated at San Quentin, Leonard created the Responsibility, Rehabilitation, & Restoration Interfaith Roundtable to promote restorative justice by including prisoners and volunteers from many faith and ethnic backgrounds to work together. Leonard participated in numerous IPP programs as a participant and as co-facilitator for: Victim/Offender Education Group (VOEG), Next Step, the Violence Prevention Program, Violence Prevention Program Facilitator Training, and many others. Leonard earned an Associate of Arts Degree in General Education from Patten University and created other opportunities for prisoners to further their education. Since his release, he has married, earned a bachelor’s degree in both Finance and Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the University of San Francisco (USF), was awarded the USF Archbishop Oscar Romero Leadership Award, and continues to promote restorative justice through public speaking. Leonard and his wife Aouie have been featured in USF Magazine Summer 2013 for their work in restorative justice
