Watch the replay of our conversation with Jesse Nava, who was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for a murder he committed at 17. Jesse tells David Fowler about the day in 2020 he got on his knees in the hole and asked God for help, and why he believes he needed ten more years in prison to become the man he is today.

Four months home, Jesse works as a carpenter and as a peer support specialist at a mental health crisis center.

About Our Guest: Jesse Nava

In Jesse’s words:

Hello, my name is Jesse Nava, and I would like to take a few moments to tell you a little bit about myself so that you may grab a quick glimpse into my life, in hopes that you can appreciate the journey I’ve had to travel, and the transformation I’ve undergone in order to become the man I am today.

It starts in 1980. I was born on drugs, to the care of two drug-addicted parents… For the first four years of my life, I endured all forms of extreme abuse and neglect at the hands of those who were supposed to love and protect me most. Eventually, my parents were sent to prison, and I was adopted by my paternal grandmother.

This is the first time in my life I was ever shown love and affection. Despite my mother’s unconditional love, I was already such a hurt, scared, and confused child who couldn’t understand or convey any of these feelings, my emotions manifested themselves in extreme fits of anger. We moved around a lot; a new apartment meant a new school, and that meant new kids. We were poor, so I never had the new clothes or shoes that made fitting in at a new school easy, quite the opposite. I got made fun of by the other kids, which led to many physical altercations. I was consumed by this overwhelming need to fit in and be accepted by others. This made perfect harvesting for the gangs as I entered 6th grade.

I’ll never forget the feeling I felt of finally belonging to something, my gang. I even remember telling myself at 12 years old, I’ll die for these guys, and protect this feeling of acceptance at all costs… That’s exactly what I did… I had built such a reputation as someone who would do anything for his “friends” that at seventeen years old I was approached by one of my “homies’” dad and asked to murder an innocent man for a large sum of money. I cared less about the money or myself than I did for the approval of these older guys. In 1997, I made the fateful decision to commit the murder. This decision destroyed so many lives, and as a result of that decision, I was rightfully sentenced to Life Without the Possibility of Parole.

Until God decided to bless me with a second chance, I spent 25 years in prison. I spent the first 19 years of my incarceration living the exact same way I was living in society, and doing everything I could to gain praise, recognition, and acceptance from the prison gang. Everything from drug dealing to attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder. None of that really mattered, because when you’re living that life, you’re only remembered for your last mistake… Some people say that we can age out of our ignorance. This isn’t always the case when we’re trapped in a web of arrested development.

For me, I finally reached an emotional rock bottom in 2020 when I was sitting in administrative segregation for distribution of a controlled substance in an institution. This was my “ah-ha moment.” I was tired of being the person I had been most of my life and knew I needed something different. I was scared of change, because all the masks I had created for protection were all I knew… I knew I couldn’t do it alone, so I got down on my knees there in the hole and told God, “I don’t know what this is going to look like, but I’m done doing it my way, I need your help…” Despite all I had been through up to this point, that commitment to God, myself, and my family led to some of the hardest steps I’ve ever had to take in my life. But also, the most rewarding…

I spent the next six years of my life forgiving, healing, overcoming addiction, dismantling a completely distorted belief system, rebuilding a value system, reshaping my self-concept, developing emotional intelligence, getting educated, and rebuilding relationships I had destroyed. I had a complete paradigm shift. Today, I sit here as a free man, blessed beyond my wildest belief, and to think my life has just begun!

In This Interview:

• Growing up — a childhood of abuse, and finding love with his grandmother, who adopted him at 4.
• Owning the harm — joining a gang at 12, the murder he committed at 17, and his full accountability for it.
• Rock bottom — sitting in the hole in 2020, soon after a letter from his daughter.
• Constant prayer — his first months of change, with the “toolbox” of old habits still under his bunk.
• A second chance — representing himself at a retrial, and why he believes the extra ten years were God’s timing.
• Four months home — a carpenter on weekdays, a peer support specialist at a crisis center, and a home with his wife.
• Audience Q&A — how to tell if someone’s change is real, self-care, and helping someone who isn’t ready.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 2:20 Growing up, and his grandmother’s love
• 9:29 First run-ins with the law
• 14:15 “Going to prison was a rite of passage”
• 15:09 Rock bottom in the hole
• 21:00 What stood in his way
• 23:30 Self-reflection and prayer
• 26:02 The scary early days of change
• 29:22 How others reacted
• 33:27 Life without parole, and a retrial
• 39:39 Rebuilding himself like a lowrider
• 40:28 Life today
• 41:38 His first day home
• 46:03 Audience Q&A
• 48:15 How to tell if someone’s change is real
• 52:44 Why self-care matters
• 56:36 His work at a mental health crisis center
• 1:03:01 When someone isn’t ready to change
• 1:08:34 What a 5150 hold is
• 1:10:50 His wife and family
• 1:15:16 Closing and how to get involved

Want to do more? Write to someone coming home as a Correspondence Partner.

More Video Replays

Catch up on past interviews and inspiring stories:

Our Mission

In partnership with others, Embraced:Fully supports incarcerated and returning citizens in their moral and spiritual journey toward successful reentry. Through our Ready for Reentry course and our volunteer Correspondence Partners, we help connect people coming home with community, faith, housing, employment, transportation, friendship, and mentorship, building bridges of hope and belonging.

Everyone deserves a community when they come home.

$25 a month gives someone coming home a year of support, starting 90 days before release. Monthly gifts help us plan ahead and say yes to more of the people who ask.

Give monthly Give once Other ways to give →

Choose Give monthly or Give once. The monthly form opens with Embraced Fully already chosen. On the card form, choose Embraced:Fully Program in the Fund menu. Gifts are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, The Principle Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 43-0816306).

Join us for our monthly Embraced:Fully Angel Team meeting on Thursday, October 15, 2026 at 6:00 PM (Pacific) on Zoom. Guests are always welcome.

This month, Gabriel Serafini and AmiLynne Carroll, our National Angel Team Coordinator, will be sharing our new volunteer training.

More than 2,300 people taking our Ready for Reentry course in prison have asked to be connected with a faith community when they come home. We need trained volunteers ready to help them, and that’s what this training is for.

Meeting Agenda

1. Introductions & updates
2. Sharing our new volunteer training
3. Questions & wrap-up

Where People Are Coming Home

4,024 learners have opted in for follow-up support. 210 are coming home within 90 days. You can look up your state on our Reentry Tracker.

Course data as of October 13, 2026.

Our Year-End Appeal

We’re in the middle of our year-end appeal. If you’re able to give, your gift helps keep Angel Teams going and keeps the Ready for Reentry course in more than 1,000 facilities. A monthly gift, even a small one, helps us plan ahead. You can give to our year-end appeal here.

This is a working meeting for Angel Teams nationwide and anyone interested in starting or joining a team, volunteering remotely, or simply learning more about reentry support. Together, we help returning community members build new lives and avoid re-incarceration through love, structure, and spiritual guidance.

Video Replays

Catch up on past meetings 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.

Everyone deserves a community when they come home.

$25 a month gives someone coming home a year of support, starting 90 days before release. Monthly gifts help us plan ahead and say yes to more of the people who ask.

Give monthly Give once Other ways to give →

Choose Give monthly or Give once. The monthly form opens with Embraced Fully already chosen. On the card form, choose Embraced:Fully Program in the Fund menu. Gifts are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, The Principle Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 43-0816306).

On May 2 and 3, 2025, returning citizens, volunteer chaplains, Angel Team members, and reentry leaders met at First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Washington, D.C., and on Zoom, for our third Embraced & Empowered Prison and Reentry Ministries Conference. All seven sessions are now free to watch. Pick one below, or watch the whole conference in order.

Pick a session

How change happens insideMy Path to Freedom: Moral Transformation Inside Prison49 min For prison volunteersHow to Be an Effective Prison Ministry Volunteer50 min Helping someone come homePreparing for Release: Journeying Together on the Path to Freedom1 hr 7 min For churches and faith communitiesReentry Ministry: The Role of Faith Communities in Healing Society54 min For Correspondence Partners and chaplainsPrison Tablets, Securus eMessaging, and Collaborative Games1 hr 3 min Life years after releaseBecoming a Pillar of Society After Prison1 hr 6 min What attendees took homeSmall Group Sharing: Turning Conference Ideas into Action24 min Welcomes and musicSongs, a story, and two welcomes10 short videos

Welcomes and music

Each day opened with music and a welcome. On Saturday, Dr. Karen Wilson-Ama’Echefu also told the story of a man who comes home after 20 years in prison and remembers his father’s advice: hide anger until tomorrow.

Opening Welcome: Partnering in the Path to FreedomGabriel Serafini and David Fowler · 11 min Saturday Welcome: God’s Love Flows Through UsGabriel Serafini and David Fowler · 7 min Hide Anger Until Tomorrow: A Story and Songs from Dr. KDr. Karen Wilson-Ama’Echefu · 11 min This Little Light of MineDr. Karen Wilson-Ama’Echefu · 3 min Goodness of GodMatthew Hammond, Liz Hammond and Davya Flaharty · 4 min Abide with Me (Hymn 7)Matthew and Liz Hammond · 2 min Holy, Holy, HolyMatthew and Liz Hammond · 2 min No God Beside MeMatthew and Liz Hammond · 4 min I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use MeMatthew and Liz Hammond · 3 min Lift Me Up (I Surrender to Love)Matthew and Liz Hammond · 3 min

More music from Matthew Hammond and Davya Flaharty is at Love Only Grows, and more from Dr. K at drk-echefu.life.

Get involved

Thank you to First Church of Christ, Scientist, Washington, D.C., for hosting us, and to every speaker, musician, volunteer, and sponsor who made the conference possible. The full list of sponsors is on the 2025 conference page. Looking for the year before? Watch the 2024 conference replays.

Watch the replay of our conversation with Curtis J. Jackson, who spent 28 years in California prisons after going in at 19. Curtis tells David Fowler why, growing up in South Central Los Angeles, he felt “preordained to be a gang member,” the day he walked away from his gang while still inside, and why his first parole hearing felt like “just a conversation.”

Four months home, Curtis is a full-time college student starting an electrician apprenticeship, and he is already mentoring the young men coming home behind him.

About Our Guest: Curtis J. Jackson

In Curtis’s words:

My name is Curtis J. Jackson, and my life is a story of transformation, redemption, and purpose. After spending 28 years incarcerated in California, I made a commitment to use my experiences not as a definition of who I was, but as a foundation for who I could become. During that journey, I earned my GED, participated in extensive rehabilitation programming, developed skilled-trade experience, and learned the value of accountability, responsibility, and service.

Today, I am a full-time college student, and I’m starting my apprenticeship as an electrician. I prioritize helping others, especially young people and individuals returning home from incarceration, recognize that their circumstances and past mistakes do not have to determine their future.

My greatest purpose is rooted in my family and in the belief that redemption is demonstrated through action. I want my children and community to see that real change is possible when we take responsibility, develop our abilities, and use our experiences to help others. Through youth mentorship, rehabilitation, workforce development, and entrepreneurship, I am working to create pathways toward opportunity and positive change. I don’t hide from my past; I use it as a source of inspiration and motivation.

My goal is to turn the lessons of my life into something that strengthens my family, empowers young people, and gives others the hope and tools to build a different future.

In This Interview:

• Growing up in South Central LA — foster care at five, a father he describes as one of the founders of LA’s gangs, and why the life felt chosen for him.
• Owning the harm — the drug deal that cost a man his life, and Curtis’s accountability for it.
• Prison culture — why every slight becomes a test of manhood, and a five-month prison war over a $2 sausage.
• The day he changed, cold turkey — breaking down after a resentencing hearing, then telling about 32 members of his own gang in his building that he was just Curtis now.
• Building something good inside — mentoring, banquets, walkathons, and winning over skeptical staff.
• A former rival’s phone call — the man he once fought, newly granted parole, called Curtis before he called his own mother.
• Granted parole at his first hearing — “When you really do your transformation, everything is just a conversation.”
• Four months home — his wife, transitional housing, starting with no credit history, and a goal of a contractor’s license by 2030.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 2:18 Growing up in South Central LA
• 4:28 “Preordained to be a gang member”
• 5:35 Selling drugs, and the harm he caused
• 8:03 Prison at 19 and its culture of violence
• 13:48 The day he changed, cold turkey
• 16:21 Giving up the gang’s protection
• 21:13 What changed behavior looks like
• 23:43 Building a positive community inside
• 27:59 A call from a former rival who made parole
• 31:25 Granted parole at his first hearing
• 34:09 Coming home to his wife and family
• 37:31 Four months home
• 40:53 Finding purpose in mentoring young men
• 43:09 Audience Q&A
• 51:05 How Troy’s change inspired his own
• 56:28 Looking ahead: a contractor’s license by 2030
• 58:30 The wife who stood by him
• 1:06:09 Closing and how to get involved

Help Curtis get his work truck. Curtis is about $7,500 short of the down payment on the truck he needs for his electrical and window-installation work. If you would like to help, contact us.

Want to do more? Volunteer with Embraced:Fully as a Correspondence Partner.

More Video Replays

Catch up on past interviews and inspiring stories:

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.

Everyone deserves a community when they come home.

$25 a month gives someone coming home a year of support, starting 90 days before release. Monthly gifts help us plan ahead and say yes to more of the people who ask.

Give monthly Give once Other ways to give →

Choose Give monthly or Give once. The monthly form opens with Embraced Fully already chosen. On the card form, choose Embraced:Fully Program in the Fund menu. Gifts are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, The Principle Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 43-0816306).

Watch the replay of our conversation with Joshua “Juice” Walker, co-founder of 7More, and Lance Fleming, 7More reentry specialist. In Texas, a man walks out of prison with a $50 check and a red mesh “chain bag” that tells the whole neighborhood where he just came from. Josh and Lance describe what that day really looks like — and what changes when someone is standing at the gate with clothes, food, dignity, and a peer mentor who has walked the same road.

The conversation moves from the Greyhound station where 7More began in 2015 to the releasing prison where the team now meets men before they step into daylight, and from Lance’s own turning point inside to the peer-mentor network that carries men through their first weeks home.

About Our Guests

Joshua “Juice” Walker is the co-founder of 7More with his wife, Debs. Born to missionary parents, he had visited more than 50 countries by age ten before his family settled in Ireland, where he and Debs began serving in inner-city Dublin youth work. A short break in Texas in 2005 changed everything: while volunteering with a homeless outreach in Houston, they found a two-month-old baby near death behind a dumpster — their son Isaiah, now 21.

Since 2015, 7More has met men at one of life’s most vulnerable moments, the day they are released from prison, and connects them with a network of peer mentors across Texas. Josh’s dream is that one day every man leaving prison in Texas will be met by “family.”

Lance Fleming is a reentry specialist with 7More. After years in and out of prison, his turning point came inside — in a Bible study he joined for parole certificates, and a prayer on a top bunk in Plainview, Texas, in August 2018. Today he walks with men from their first day out: IDs, bank accounts, transitional housing, second-chance jobs, and mentorship.

In This Interview:

• Two Greyhound buses a day — how 7More began meeting men released into the roughest part of Houston with a $50 check.
• The chain bag — why the first thing the team does is take away everything that says “I just got out.”
• Inside the releasing prison — 8:30 a.m. in the holding tank, and the hours before a man steps into daylight.
• “The majority are just scared to death” — Lance on what the men at the gate are actually feeling.
• A thousand different faces — Lance’s turning point, and why it started before he got out.
• Peer mentors who mentor mentors — the model, and how it connects with Ready for Reentry learners coming home.
• 44 rental applications — what employers, landlords, dentists, and churches can do to say yes.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 3:08 The name “Juice”
• 7:54 The baby behind the dumpster
• 11:47 Coming out with far less
• 13:30 Why “7More”: seventy times seven
• 16:58 Meeting the Greyhound buses
• 18:53 “They’re not used to kindness”
• 20:01 The chain bag
• 22:58 Inside the releasing prison
• 27:34 3,000 releases a month
• 29:09 When people truly decide to change
• 31:06 Lance: a thousand different faces
• 33:06 The top bunk under the gray blanket
• 39:03 Q&A: how release day works
• 43:19 Does prison rehabilitate?
• 45:01 Brisket for 160 officers
• 50:36 From prison to bus driver
• 56:36 “Who I was, that’s not who I’m gonna be”
• 59:33 Connecting chaplains to 7More
• 1:06:40 Partnering with Ready for Reentry
• 1:11:57 44 rental applications
• 1:15:12 Wrap-up

To learn more about Josh and Lance’s work, visit 7More. Watch the TDCJ video David mentions, “Providing Hope – 7More.”

More Video Replays

Catch up on past interviews and inspiring stories:

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.

Everyone deserves a community when they come home.

$25 a month gives someone coming home a year of support, starting 90 days before release. Monthly gifts help us plan ahead and say yes to more of the people who ask.

Give monthly Give once Other ways to give →

Choose Give monthly or Give once. The monthly form opens with Embraced Fully already chosen. On the card form, choose Embraced:Fully Program in the Fund menu. Gifts are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, The Principle Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 43-0816306).

Join us for our monthly Embraced:Fully Angel Team Workshop on Thursday, July 16, 2026 at 6:00 PM (Pacific) on Zoom. Guests are always welcome.

This month, we will focus on practical support and getting ready for reentry: what real support looks like, how to communicate with people inside, and how the September Embraced & Empowered Conference can help train more Ready for Reentry partners.

Right now, men and women inside are doing real reentry preparation: naming their goals, facing hard truths, and building plans for life after release. What the course cannot give them by itself is someone steady on the outside. That is where trained partners, local communities, and Angel Teams matter.

The July workshop will be a practical working conversation about what support can look like before and after release: steady communication, clear boundaries, concrete help, and inviting the right people into this work before September.

Meeting Agenda

1. Introductions & Announcements
Share who you are, where you are serving, and any current updates from Angel Teams or returning community members.

2. Sharing What Practical Support Looks Like
Concrete ways Angel Teams can help: communication, transportation, documents, housing, job readiness, steady friendship, spiritual encouragement, and healthy boundaries.

3. Communicating With Inmates
We will revisit Securus and other facility communication systems, including practical expectations, tone, consistency, and safety.

4. Getting Ready for Reentry: Conference Review and Sign-Ups
We will review the September Embraced & Empowered Conference, who should attend, and how to invite faith communities, reentry partners, returning citizens, families, and volunteers.

5. Shared Needs, Next Steps & Closing
Time for emerging needs, next steps, and staying connected as we continue building communities of support.

Embraced & Empowered Conference

The 2026 Embraced & Empowered Conference will be held Friday and Saturday, September 18-19, 2026, with participation available in Boulder and online. The Foundations training is designed for people who want to become Ready for Reentry partners: steady, trained support for someone preparing to come home.

View the conference details or register now. Registration is pay what you can.

This is a working meeting for Angel Teams nationwide and anyone interested in starting or joining a team, volunteering remotely, or simply learning more about reentry support. Together, we help returning community members build new lives and avoid re-incarceration through love, structure, and spiritual guidance.

Video Replays

Catch up on past meetings 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.

Everyone deserves a community when they come home.

$25 a month gives someone coming home a year of support, starting 90 days before release. Monthly gifts help us plan ahead and say yes to more of the people who ask.

Give monthly Give once Other ways to give →

Choose Give monthly or Give once. The monthly form opens with Embraced Fully already chosen. On the card form, choose Embraced:Fully Program in the Fund menu. Gifts are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, The Principle Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 43-0816306).

Watch the replay of our conversation with Jacquin Webb, founder and executive director of Reconnect 180 in Carson City, Nevada.

After 20 years of incarceration, Jacquin came home with a box of belongings and the practical question so many people face on day one: what comes next? In this interview, he shares how that experience became a calling to help other returning citizens prepare before release and find support after they come home.

Jacquin’s story moves from the first shock of release into the work of service: meeting people before the gate opens, helping them navigate identification, housing, employment, transportation, and the ordinary choices that can feel overwhelming after years inside.

About Our Guest: Jacquin Webb

Jacquin Webb is the founder and executive director of Reconnect 180. Through its 90/90 model, Reconnect 180 supports people in the final 90 days before release and the first 90 days after they return home.

His work is rooted in lived experience, faith, and the conviction that people coming home need more than encouragement. They need real tools, real relationships, and a clear path forward.

In This Interview

• The first days home after 20 years and why normal choices can become overwhelming.
• How Reconnect 180 began with handwritten resource lists outside parole and probation.
• Why the 90 days before and after release matter for preparation, trust, and practical follow-through.
• The barriers that most often derail people, including identification, housing, transportation, employment, isolation, and anxiety.
• What volunteers, churches, and Angel Teams can learn about offering steady support without overpromising.

To learn more about Jacquin’s work, visit Reconnect 180. You can also support Reconnect 180 directly.

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.

Support Embraced:Fully to help build bridges of hope and belonging for returning citizens.

Join us for our monthly Embraced:Fully Angel Team Workshop on Thursday, June 18, 2026 at 6:00 PM (Pacific) on Zoom. Guests are always welcome.

This month, we will discuss getting ready for reentry in our faith-based communities: what is already working, where the challenges are showing up, and what open questions we need to carry together.

Faith communities can become one of the strongest forms of reentry support. A congregation, branch church, study group, or small circle of volunteers can offer something many returning community members need deeply: steady relationship, moral and spiritual encouragement, practical help, and a place where they are not reduced to the worst chapter of their life.

But good intentions are not the same as readiness. Welcoming someone home well often asks more of us than warmth alone. It asks for humility, coordination, healthy boundaries, clarity about what we can and cannot provide, and a willingness to learn from people who have lived through incarceration and reentry firsthand.

Meeting Agenda

1. Introductions & Announcements
Share who you are, where you are serving, and any current updates from Angel Teams or returning community members.

2. Regional Angel Team Updates
Progress, questions, challenges, and encouraging developments from Angel Teams around the country.

3. Discussion Topic: Getting Ready for Reentry in Our Faith-Based Communities
We will look at what helps a church or faith community prepare to welcome and support someone coming home: communication, trust, practical needs, spiritual care, team roles, and coordination with existing reentry resources.

4. Successes, Challenges & Open Questions
This will be a shared conversation. We want to hear what has worked, where people have felt underprepared, and what questions Angel Teams are carrying as this work grows.

5. Shared Needs, Next Steps & Closing
Time for emerging needs, next steps, and staying connected as we continue building communities of support.

This is a working meeting for Angel Teams nationwide and anyone interested in starting or joining a team, volunteering remotely, or simply learning more about reentry support. Together, we help returning community members build new lives and avoid re-incarceration through love, structure, and spiritual guidance.

Video Replays

Catch up on past meetings 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.

Everyone deserves a community when they come home.

$25 a month gives someone coming home a year of support, starting 90 days before release. Monthly gifts help us plan ahead and say yes to more of the people who ask.

Give monthly Give once Other ways to give →

Choose Give monthly or Give once. The monthly form opens with Embraced Fully already chosen. On the card form, choose Embraced:Fully Program in the Fund menu. Gifts are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, The Principle Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 43-0816306).

In this Embraced:Fully Interview Series conversation, Alfredo (Al) Cruz and Sister Mary Sean Hodges from the Partnership for Re-Entry Program (PREP) talk with David Fowler about what real parole board preparation requires: accountability, honesty, insight, community support, and the long work of preparing to come home.

The replay also includes a short Ready for Reentry course clip from Carlos Vasquez near the end of the interview.

Audio-only version

Prefer audio only? Use the player below, or download the MP3 for offline listening.

Download the MP3 audio

Links mentioned in the interview

• PREP course list
• Embraced:Fully homepage
• Subscribe for future interviews and Angel Team events
• Support Embraced:Fully
• More Embraced:Fully Interview Series replays

In This Interview

• How PREP helps people prepare for parole hearings through correspondence courses, reflection, accountability, and practical support.
• What parole boards are listening for when someone speaks about responsibility, growth, remorse, and readiness.
• Why honesty matters in the hearing room and in the years of preparation before the hearing.
• How community can help without taking over the work that the person coming home must own.
• What Ready for Reentry adds to the broader preparation ecosystem for people working toward a safe and successful return.

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 grew out of a restorative justice vision and serves incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people through courses, parole preparation, and reentry support.

Alfredo (Al) Cruz was paroled in 2015 after more than 28 years of incarceration. He returned to PREP as a volunteer reviewing Spanish Insight work and later joined the staff. His work is grounded in the conviction that people who want to help themselves prepare well should have meaningful support as they work toward coming 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.

Join us for our monthly Embraced:Fully Angel Team Workshop on Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 6:00 PM (Pacific) on Zoom. Guests are always welcome.

This month, AmiLynne Carroll, our National Angel Team Coordinator, will share practical ideas about communicating effectively with incarcerated individuals.

Writing to someone in prison, visiting, corresponding, or simply offering steady spiritual support can feel straightforward from the outside. But inside, words can carry a different weight. Tone, clarity, consistency, hope, and respect all matter. This will be a practical conversation for anyone who is already serving, anyone preparing to serve, and anyone who wants to understand how communication can support genuine reentry preparation.

Meeting Agenda

1. Introductions & Announcements
Share who you are, where you are serving, and any current updates from Angel Teams or returning community members.

2. Regional Angel Team Updates
Progress, questions, challenges, and encouraging developments from Angel Teams around the country.

3. Featured Teaching: Communicating Effectively With Incarcerated Individuals
AmiLynne Carroll will share practical ideas for thoughtful, steady, and respectful communication with people who are incarcerated.

4. Group Discussion
We will leave time for questions and shared experience around correspondence, visiting, boundaries, encouragement, and helping people prepare for life after release.

5. Shared Needs, Next Steps & Closing
Time for emerging needs, next steps, and staying connected as this work continues to grow.

This is a working meeting for Angel Teams nationwide and anyone interested in starting or joining a team, volunteering remotely, or simply learning more about reentry support. Together, we help returning community members build new lives and avoid re-incarceration through love, structure, and spiritual guidance.

Video Replays

Catch up on past meetings 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.

Everyone deserves a community when they come home.

$25 a month gives someone coming home a year of support, starting 90 days before release. Monthly gifts help us plan ahead and say yes to more of the people who ask.

Give monthly Give once Other ways to give →

Choose Give monthly or Give once. The monthly form opens with Embraced Fully already chosen. On the card form, choose Embraced:Fully Program in the Fund menu. Gifts are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, The Principle Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 43-0816306).