Family Connections in Correctional Facilities: Informational Webinar on TTA Opportunity

The Webinar Aired Live Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Speaker Biographies

Rachel Brushett, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, US Department of Justice 

Rachel Brushett is a Senior Policy Advisor working primarily with the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Diagnostic Center. The Diagnostic Center provides customized training and technical assistance to communities across the United States experiencing public safety and criminal justice issues with on-site assistance and coordination of Department of Justice (DOJ) support. Dr. Brushett joined the Diagnostic Center team in January 2017 and provides support for Federal team operations and ongoing engagements with local communities. She also provides subject matter expertise in the areas of quantitative measurement and data analysis. In addition to working with the Diagnostic Center, she assists in managing the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA’s) Justice Reinvestment portfolio. Before joining OJP and the OJP Diagnostic Center, she was a Research Officer with the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Public Safety Performance Project working with states to enact juvenile and adult Justice Reinvestment projects. Prior to that, she worked as a contractor for BJA, providing analytic support for grant program performance measurement. She received both an MS and a PhD in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati.

Hilary Cuthrell, National Institute of Corrections, US Department of Justice

Hilary Cuthrell, PhD, is a developmental psychologist with expertise in young children of incarcerated parents. She is currently a Correctional Program Specialist at the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), where she manages the Family Connections Project. Dr. Cuthrell’s expertise has centered on parent-child contact and visitation within both state and local correctional facilities throughout the country. She has worked with incarcerated parents, their children, and their children’s caregivers both within correctional facilities and the community for nearly a decade.

Bryce Peterson, Senior Research Associate, Justice Policy Center, Urban Institute

Bryce Peterson’s research at the Justice Policy Center has focused on examining issues related to the impact of incarceration on children and families. Dr. Peterson is the co-Principal Investigator of the Family Connections in Correctional Facilities Project where is he leading the development, implementation, and evaluation of a set of model practices designed to reduce the barriers present in correctional institutions that hinder children’s ability to cultivate and maintain relationships with their incarcerated parents. Previously, Dr. Peterson co-led Urban’s work funded by NIC to identify and document promising practices for children of justice-involved parents. The project disseminated a framework document and three toolkits for practitioners in the field on implementing parental arrest policies, family impact statements, and family-focused jail programming. He also co-led the development of a white paper describing the various impacts of different prison and jail visit modalities on incarcerated parents and their children, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. He received his PhD in Criminal Justice from John Jay College, City University of New York.

Jocelyn Fontaine, Senior Research Fellow, Justice Policy Center, Urban Institute

Jocelyn Fontainehas more than a decade of experience in criminal justice research and has specific expertise on the impact of incarceration on families, including children. Along with Dr. Peterson, Dr. Fontaine is co-Principal Investigator of the Family Connections in Correctional Facilities Project designed to develop, implement, and evaluate a set of model practices intended to reduce the barriers present in correctional institutions that inhibit children’s ability to cultivate and maintain relationships with their incarcerated parents. Previously, Dr. Fontaine co-directed with Dr. Peterson the NIC cooperative agreement on children of incarcerated parents and co-authored the four practitioner-friendly documents and toolkits describing the promising initiatives and strategies designed to mitigate the impact of parental justice-involvement on children Additionally, Dr. Fontaine directed the multi-site evaluation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-funded Community-Centered Responsible Fatherhood Ex-Prisoner Reentry Pilot Project, which included an implementation assessment of six responsible fatherhood reentry programs for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated fathers and their children and families. Finally, she was part of the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s advisory committee for developing model policies to safeguard children of arrested parents. Dr. Fontaine received her PhD from the American University in Justice and Public Policy.

Lindsey Cramer, Research Associate, Justice Policy Center, Urban Institute 

Lindsey Cramer’s research focuses on the impact of the justice system on fathers, children, and families, as well as the correctional and community-based interventions designed to mitigate the effects of parental justice involvement. Ms. Cramer is working with Drs. Peterson and Fontaine to develop and implement model practices in correctional facilities designed to support and facilitate contact and communication between incarcerated parents and their children. Previously, Ms. Cramer helped identify and document innovative practices to help mitigate the impact of parental arrest and incarceration on children, resulting in a series of practitioner-friendly materials. Ms. Cramer also manages the implementation, outcome, and impact evaluation of the Fathers Advancing Communities Together (FACT) Program in Contra Costa County, California, and helped lead the implementation evaluation of the six Community-Centered Responsible Fatherhood Ex-Prisoner Reentry Pilot Projects. Ms. Cramer received her BA in economics from The College of Wooster.

Alina Martinez, Lead Coordinator, One Family Program, Community Works West

As Lead Coordinator, Alina Martinez oversees the implementation of the One Family Program at the San Francisco County Jail in San Bruno, California, the largest San Francisco County Jail facility. Ms. Martinez manages all aspects of the contact visiting program, parent education program, and one-on-one therapeutic services. She also provides one-on-one therapy with parents in jail and arranges and participates in the Transitional Goodbye Visits for parents and their children when parents are sentenced to state prison. Ms. Martinez also works directly with the Jail Captain, Facility Commanders, Watch Commanders, and other deputized staff as well as Community Works West staff to ensure the smooth delivery of all program services. She participates in the San Francisco Sheriff's Department's monthly Visiting Committee meetings during which she discusses family services operations, policy or department changes, issues that might arise around the visiting policy, and issues that are brought up by One Family participants or children’s caregivers. Ms. Martinez also liaises with other community partners such as the San Francisco Unified School District to train school counselors and teachers about the impacts of parental incarceration on children and schedules the in-custody parent-teacher conferences between parents and teachers. Ms. Martinez earned her Masters in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in marriage and family therapy from the University of San Francisco.