The Just Us Solutions Team
With more than 80 years of combined experience inside carceral settings and navigating the criminal legal system, our team brings unmatched insight to the table. We believe the people closest to the challenges must lead the solutions, and we confront root causes directly to deliver change that lasts.
Just Us Solutions was built from grit, insight, and the lived truth of people who survived the system and refused to let that be the end of their story. After earning resentencing under Senate Bill 6164, founder Jacob Ivan Schmitt stepped into community life with the same determination that carried him through years of incarceration. His mastery of legal process and reentry systems quickly led to contracted work with state agencies, but he chose not to rise alone. Instead, he reached back to the people who had stood beside him inside: credible, battle-tested leaders who understood the terrain of incarceration, trauma, and return better than any textbook could teach.
What began as a vision rooted in personal transformation has grown into a powerful organization that designs strategies for individuals, families, and communities impacted by the criminal legal system. Just Us Solutions approaches every challenge with the belief that the clearest answers come from those closest to the struggle. Our team uses its lived experience to decode barriers, build pathways, and deliver practical solutions grounded in trust, cultural competence, and real-world navigation.
Just Us Solutions is more than a consulting team. It is a force for possibility. It is a testament to what happens when insight becomes leadership, when lived experience becomes expertise, and when hope is turned into work that transforms lives. From our earliest days to the systems we are helping shape today, we carry one conviction forward: people deserve solutions designed by those who truly understand the journey, and together we can build futures that are stronger, freer, and filled with purpose.
Jacob Ivan Schmitt
James Paulk II
Rory Andes
Mark Falls
Ben Brockie
Yusef Reader
Director
Jacob Ivan Schmitt
Jacob Ivan Schmitt is the founder and director of Just Us Solutions, LLC, where he leads with both vision and lived experience. He has become a respected voice in justice, reentry, and community systems, building initiatives that improve access to legal support, education, trauma care, and services for veterans and system-impacted individuals. His leadership is defined by strategy, empathy, and an ability to translate vision into practical solutions that communities can rely on.
Jacob’s life story is one of resilience and transformation. A childhood trauma survivor, he spent more than thirty years in institutional settings. Through self-education in law, he strengthened his moral reasoning and cultivated a deep understanding of accountability. These hard-earned lessons now shape his work in developing strategies that bring hope and structure to those who remain entangled in trauma and the criminal legal system.
Today, Jacob’s influence extends from community partnerships to the Washington State Legislature, where he has testified on reentry collaboration and justice reform. He has been quoted in reporting on sentencing practices and featured in interviews and podcasts that explore trauma, accountability, and recovery. In every setting, Jacob holds to a simple belief: when all hope is lost, belief itself becomes the foundation for change.
Paralegal
Ben Brockie
Ben Brockie (A’aninin) is a public health intern at the Urban Indian Health Institute and an undergraduate student at the University of Washington. A member of the Ft. Belknap Indian Community in Ft. Belknap, Montana, Ben is a Mary Gates Scholar and Dean’s List student, pursuing dual majors in American Indian Studies and Sociology, with a 3.9 GPA.
Ben will enter law school upon graduation, a life trajectory and topic matter that has impacted his life like no other. He hopes to craft a just system from the inside out.
Ben’s academic and professional interests center on Indigenous rights, public health, and justice reform. He is deeply passionate about increasing access to higher education in carceral settings and addressing systemic rhetoric and practices within the criminal legal system that disproportionately harm Native people and other marginalized populations, including the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW).
As a teenager, Ben was sentenced to over 800 months for two bank robberies involving a BB gun. After serving 22 years, he was granted the awesome gift of clemency. During his incarceration, he discovered a deep passion for education and earned a college degree. Just ten days after his release, he began his studies at the University of Washington.
Drawing on both lived experience and a strong sense of accountability to his community, Ben is committed to using education as a tool for advocacy and empowerment. He plans to attend law school in 2026 to further his work in challenging inequities, ensuring Indigenous representation, and amplifying Native voices within systems that have historically excluded them.
Future Initiatives Manager
Mark Falls
Mark spent over 30 years incarcerated, entering prison at a young age and emerging with hard-won wisdom. In that time, he became instrumental in reshaping prison culture, particularly around reentry and release. Mark recognized early on that the path forward was not through misbehavior or division, but through unity, rehabilitation, and preparation for life beyond the walls. He worked tirelessly to collaborate with individuals across ethnic and gang affiliations, encouraging them to envision futures grounded in sustainable employment, family support, and personal growth.
As a facilitator for multiple reentry programs, Mark guided younger individuals to think beyond survival and toward self-actualization. His role was not only instructional but also transformative. He bridged divides and helped people see that their dreams could be realized through discipline, education, and planning. In doing so, he established himself as a respected leader whose influence carried weight across communities inside prison.
Today, Mark enjoys the simple yet profound pleasures of freedom: fishing, time with his wife of more than 30 years, and reflecting on what it means to be truly empowered and alive. But he does not stop there. Mark sees his journey as a foundation for creating future projects with expansion in mind. His initiatives are designed to foster rehabilitation, community stability, and pathways to dignity. His story is not just about survival. It is about resilience, vision, and the potential to build systems that uplift others for generations to come.
Co-Director
Rory Andes
Rory is a community-minded operations leader, consultant, and advocate whose life experiences as a combat veteran and formerly incarcerated individual give depth to his work. He serves as Co-Director of Just Us Solutions, where he manages daily operations while coordinating projects that bridge legal support, reentry services, education, and community partnerships. With a focus on building practical systems that deliver real results, Rory is dedicated to guiding clemency efforts, aligning resources, and ensuring that documentation and processes are clear, measurable, and effective.
His career spans nonprofit leadership, program design, and cross-sector collaboration with advocacy and education partners to provide digital literacy, mentorship, and pathways to stability. Rory is also active in shaping policy, connecting with legislation, and helping others understand the language of law as it is written. Known for his calm presence, strong ethics, and meticulous attention to detail, he blends the wisdom of tradition with modern strategies that strengthen teams and sharpen outcomes. Whether building networks, advancing policy, or speaking before an audience, Rory brings both discipline and grace, always leading with the conviction that progress is achieved together.
Recovery and Health Specialist
James Paulk II
James Paulk serves as a Recovery Specialist and Health Coach with Just Us Solutions, LLC, where he plays a key role in strengthening the bridge between individuals impacted by addiction and the community partners who support them. His work centers on education, resource navigation, and collaborative engagement with nonprofits, state agencies, and recovery-focused organizations across Washington State.
In his role, James provides guidance rooted in real-world experience, helping communities better understand substance use, recovery pathways, and the supports people need to heal and rebuild. He represents Just Us Solutions in the field with clarity, professionalism, and a strong commitment to helping individuals move toward healthier, more stable lives.
James’ work is self-directed by design, allowing him the flexibility to meet people where they are and respond to the evolving needs of the community. Through outreach, relationship-building, and recovery-focused coaching, he helps expand the organization’s impact and deepen the support network available to those on the path to wellness.
Incarcerated Advisor
Yusef Reader
Yusef Reader is a powerful voice for prison abolition, transformation, and human dignity. Since 2002, he has reshaped his life through faith, education, and an unwavering commitment to growth. Once known as Yusef Jihad, he turned the challenges of incarceration into a foundation for leadership, becoming both a mentor and an architect of change within prison walls.
Yusef has co-founded critical programs, designed educational curricula, and guided countless peers in their own journeys of transformation. His work reflects not only personal resilience but also a belief in the possibility of collective change. His leadership is defined by compassion, insight, and an ability to inspire others to reimagine what justice and rehabilitation can mean.
Today, Yusef collaborates with Just Us Solutions, contributing as a writer, thought leader, and mentor from inside prison. His essays and reflections, shared on his website and Substack, challenge conventional narratives about incarceration and highlight the power of faith, education, and community. Through his voice, Yusef demonstrates that change is not only possible, it is essential.