Crafting Solutions: Creating and Strengthening Alternative Justice Programs for Family Preservation

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Isabel Coronado serves as the coordinator of Family-Based Justice Center. She provides day-to-day operation assisting grantees with implementation of their family-based alternative-sentencing programs, develops resources, and trains stakeholders. Prior to joining NYU, she was a Policy Entrepreneur at Next100, a progressive think tank for people with lived experience. Ms. Coronado used her time at Next100 to research, write, and develop original policy to better support children of incarcerated parents. In 2019, she joined the coalition To Keep Families Together, to advocate for the passage of the federal FAMILIES Act, which would authorize funding for states to implement alternative sentencing for parents and allow federal prisons to divert parents from prison, and she served as chair of the coalition beginning in 2020. She was Deputy Director of the American Indian Criminal Justice Navigation Council, where she co-developed a new nonprofit to bring data and awareness to the mass incarceration of Native people in Oklahoma. Ms. Coronado has a B.S. in health care administration from Northeastern State University and an M.P.H. from Oklahoma State University.

Sandy Mullins, J.D., has over two decades experience in policymaking, including as the Director of the Office of Executive Policy of the Washington State Department of Corrections and Senior Policy Advisor on Public Safety and Government Operations to the Governor of Washington, where her portfolio included criminal and juvenile justice and victim services. Ms. Mullins served as the Executive Director of the Washington State Sentencing Guidelines Commission, which involved multidisciplinary efforts to tackle ongoing and emerging criminal- and juvenile-justice challenges. Prior to her work in Washington, she served as the Executive Director of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, which works with its partners to improve criminal- and juvenile-justice processes and outcomes through legislative reform. Ms. Mullins has a B.A. in psychology and a J.D., both from the University of Colorado.

Janelle Prueter joined the Marron Institute in 2017, from her former position as Vice-President of Programs at Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC) in Illinois. During her tenure at TASC, Ms. Prueter led implementation of the Family Recovery and Reunification program in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the Mom’s and Babies program, a prison-based nursery program, in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Corrections. She has conducted hundreds of training sessions and workshops on topics including substance use, reentry, and alternatives to incarceration. She provides TTA to IDOC and to BJA Second Chance in her current role, and to RSAT grantees previously. Ms. Prueter has a B.A. in psychology and sociology from Beloit College and an M.S. in public services management from DePaul University.

Jazmone Wilkerson is a Program Manager in the Youth Justice & System Innovation Division. She received her Ph.D. in Counselor Education & Supervision from Lindsey Wilson College, J.D. from UDC with a specialization in Juvenile Delinquency & Special Education, M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and two Bachelors from Purdue University. Jazmone serves as technical expert with juvenile delinquency; Tribal, federal and state level juvenile justice and criminal justice training and technical assistance (TTA) experience; and mental health advocacy. She provides guidance to identify gaps in programming, resolve programmatic and administrative concerns, and suggest creative and innovative methods to design and implement programs from initial conception through sustainability. Jazmone has been a youth advocate for more than a decade who works within a racial justice lens from a holistic perspective to serve the whole youth and their families.