Parole Success Advocate (Women's Prisons)

Parole Success Advocate - Women’s Prisons
About UnCommon Law
UnCommon Law fights to ensure that all people incarcerated for violent crime have access to effective legal representation and opportunities for healing. Through our unique, trauma-informed model of advocacy, we provide the space currently missing in the system for healing, accountability, and safe pathways home from prison. In developing new self-narratives, the people we serve are able to more effectively disrupt violence inside and outside prison and become leaders who change negative societal narratives about those incarcerated for violent crime. Our groundbreaking approach is changing policy and outcomes, driven by the voices and experiences of system-impacted communities.
UnCommon Law’s values include accountability, audacity, authenticity, collaboration, community, empathy, imagination, joy, liberation, and sustainability.
About the Role
The Parole Success Advocate is a core driver of Home After Harm, an energetic and interdisciplinary team at UnCommon Law. The Parole Success Advocate works to create a therapeutic community inside prisons by facilitating group spaces and one on one support for people inside who are preparing for parole and life success. The Parole Success Advocate will lead weekly groups with participants inside the prison and participate in workshops, legal visits, or other training inside the prisons as needed. In the event that in-person programming is delayed or canceled, the Parole Success Advocate will support Home After Harm participants through written letters, correspondence lessons, phone calls, and/or video conferencing.
About Home After Harm: UnCommon Law’s Pathways to Parole Success (Home After Harm) is currently a pilot program that helps people prepare for the discretionary parole process. Informed by people who have been through the parole process themselves, this program will support participants in taking accountability for past actions, while healing from past trauma. Home After Harm also provides limited legal support with a team of attorneys who will provide individual case feedback. This program currently runs cohorts in two men’s prisons in which participants are led through a written curriculum in small group, large group, and individual settings, and will be expanding to two women’s prisons. This position will work with the Director of In-Prison Programs, other PSAs, UnCommon Law’s Clinical Team, as well as outside experts when necessary, to create HAH lessons that are responsive to the particular experiences and concerns of female-identifying parole candidates.
This exempt position reports directly to the Supervising Parole Success Advocate and offers an annual salary range of $69,000 to $79,833. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our values. New hires are typically placed between the minimum and midpoint range. Final salary offers are determined based on the candidate’s job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as assessed during the interview process and aligned with our structured salary schedule.
Our office is based in Oakland, CA. This is a hybrid role that requires regular travel to Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) and other California prisons as needed, as well as in-person attendance at our Oakland office for staff meetings, training, and other program activities in accordance with our hybrid work expectations. Travel and in-person expectations will vary based on the program cohort schedule and team needs. Candidates who live near CCWF are strongly encouraged to apply.
Who Should Apply
We encourage candidates who have experience living in a California women’s correctional setting (Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), California Institution for Women (CIW), Folsom Women’s Facility) and personal experience navigating the discretionary parole process from one of these prisons. Candidates should bring strong facilitation skills with trauma-informed and person-centered approaches. We are looking for a highly relational and organized candidate who has a willingness to work collaboratively with the team and possesses strong written and verbal communication skills. Creativity and a proven capacity for collaboration are also a must.
We do not require candidates to have a college degree and we welcome candidates with non-traditional backgrounds and experience. The strongest candidates will let us know how their experiences and abilities relate to this role. We greatly value lived and related experience, and transferable skills. Applicants who submit cover letters that are not tailored to the position or the organization will not be considered.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
Program Facilitation and Training
Prepare for and facilitate weekly in-person groups, and complete related documentation and case notes
Contribute to and participate in legal workshops
Conduct one-on-one meetings with program participants, including reviewing relevant documents to prepare for individual meetings, taking notes, and entering relevant information into a database
Contribute to and participate in weekly collaborative interdisciplinary participant support meetings that involve regular case discussions, including creating agendas, notetaking, and facilitation
Conduct Peer Mentor (inside facilitator) training and provide ongoing support through a collaborative working relationship with peer mentors
Create and give trainings to UCL on facilitation techniques, delivering services inside prisons, and trauma-informed practices
Conduct phone or video calls with program participants and peer mentors
Draft and respond to participant correspondence, including individual letters and reviewing and providing feedback on participant writings
Program Administration and Logistics
Schedule phone/video calls and obtain access to prison files as needed
Maintain participant record management system
Assist in development and modification of program materials and calendar management.
Collaborate with UCL staff (and external consultants, when necessary) to write and update gender-responsive HAH curriculum and materials for women’s prisons, including continued review and adaptation to ensure relevance
Communicate with prison/parole officials, and other service providers in the community
Frequent travel to in-prison and other settings throughout the state

Employment type
Full-Time

Work arrangement
No