Interview on June 4: Preparing for the Parole Board: How Can We Help?

Join us for our Embraced:Fully Interview Series on Thursday, June 4, 2026 at 6:00 PM Pacific. Guests are always welcome.

Our guests will be Sister Mary Sean Hodges, Tony Kim, and Alfredo (Al) Cruz from the Partnership for Re-Entry Program (PREP) in Los Angeles.

This month we will talk about one of the most important, and often least understood, parts of coming home: preparing well for a parole board hearing.

From the outside, a parole hearing can sound like a date on a calendar or a legal checkpoint. For the person inside, it is the visible moment after years of quieter work: accountability, insight, changed thinking, concrete plans, spiritual growth, community support, and the ability to speak honestly about both harm and hope.

PREP has spent more than two decades helping incarcerated people do that kind of preparation. This conversation brings together three people who know the work from different angles: Sister Mary Sean as PREP’s founder, Tony Kim as PREP’s Executive Director whose own life was shaped by PREP during 32 years of incarceration, and Al Cruz as a PREP coordinator who came home after more than 28 years and now serves others preparing for release.

Sister Mary Sean Hodges
PREP Founder

Tony Kim
Executive Director

Alfredo (Al) Cruz
PREP Coordinator

Join our mailing list to receive the Zoom invite for this interview and future Embraced:Fully events.

In This Interview

How to prepare for a successful parole board hearing – including accountability, insight, realistic planning, and evidence of genuine change.

What the process looks like in real life – not just the hearing itself, but the long preparation before it and the support that makes a plan credible.

How people on the outside can help – families, faith communities, chaplains, mentors, and Angel Teams who want to offer support without taking over the work a returning person must own.

What hope looks like in practice – the steady, disciplined, often unseen work that helps people prepare to come home and stay home.

About Our Guests

Sister Mary Sean Hodges, O.P., a Dominican Sister of Mission San Jose, founded PREP after years of ministry with crime victims, incarcerated people, and their families. PREP’s work grew out of a restorative justice vision: serving incarcerated youth and adults, former offenders, families, and victims/survivors of violent crime.

Tony Kim now serves as PREP’s Executive Director. During 32 years of incarceration, he took PREP courses that helped shape his future. After his release in 2017, he returned to PREP as a volunteer, then became a course coordinator, helped coordinate art shows, and eventually stepped into organizational leadership.

Alfredo (Al) Cruz was paroled in 2015 after more than 28 years of incarceration. He came back to PREP as a volunteer, reviewing Spanish Insight work, and later joined the staff. His work is grounded in the conviction that PREP helps people who want to help themselves come home.

This interview is for Angel Team members, chaplains, families, volunteers, and anyone who wants to understand how serious preparation, community support, and spiritual growth can help open a path toward successful reentry.

Video Replays

Catch up on past interviews and inspiring stories at Embraced:Fully Videos.

Our Mission

In partnership with others, Embraced:Fully supports incarcerated and returning citizens in their moral and spiritual journey toward successful reentry. Through Angel Team members, we help connect individuals with community, faith, housing, employment, transportation, friendship, and mentorship, building bridges of hope and belonging.