Our history

Full Circle Project’s founding story begins in 1995, when its founder John Winkelman was incarcerated at the age of 19 and sentenced to life without parole. That reality was marked by profound hopelessness, yet a choice emerged: to seek reconnection with his authentic self and become the person he was always meant to be, despite past actions and the harm caused. 

Every opportunity for rehabilitation was pursued because accountability and personal growth were the right path forward.

In 2015, John was introduced to restorative justice, a framework grounded in accountability, empathy, and making meaningful amends. This approach became a guiding calling. He spent years engaging in rigorous self-reflection, practicing restorative justice internally to shape how he understood himself and his relationship to others. Over the next decade, he deepened his practice, facilitated victim-offender education groups, trained service dogs, and graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Irvine.

In an extraordinary act of grace, Governor Gavin Newsom commuted his sentence in recognition of this rehabilitative transformation. On March 21, 2025, after nearly 30 years of incarceration, John returned home. 

Since release, life has remained centered on service; John entered the University of San Diego’s Master of Arts in Restorative Justice program and advocates in Sacramento for policy changes addressing mass incarceration. In December 2025, Full Circle Project was officially founded as a fiscally sponsored project of the 501(c)(3) Nested Integral Coaching Constellation.