Working with you toward release
putting our lived experience to work for you
Your story matters in your bid for release. We will take your responses to our straightforward questionnaire and transform them into a comprehensive, personalized, and impactful document. This document will give the board a deeper understanding of who you are by exploring your upbringing and the experiences that shaped your choices. It will also demonstrate how you have taken accountability for your actions, outline the strides you have made toward rehabilitation, and highlight your commitment to positive change.
Who We Are
Two former prisoners working to make a difference.
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FounderIt all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.
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Design DirectorIt all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.
Aaron’s Story
Aaron Lowers – Founder, Parole Portfolio Specialists (PPS)
Aaron Lowers is a reentry success story, published author, and highly credentialed rehabilitation and parole planning expert. He holds a Master’s degree in Humanities, a Bachelor’s degree in English, and an Advanced Addiction Counseling certification (CCAPP CADC-II). Aaron brings together formal education, lived experience, and years of service leadership to help incarcerated individuals prepare for parole. His approach is rooted in insight, accountability, and practical guidance—developed through both personal transformation and professional mastery.
Sentenced to 27 years to life for crimes he committed alongside his two closest childhood friends while addicted to drugs, Aaron spent the first decade of incarceration entrenched in addiction and violence. Determined to change, he committed himself to education and recovery, earning three associate degrees, a BA, and an MA through correspondence. He became a certified addiction counselor, a peer mentor, and a youth intervention speaker. Aaron was granted parole at his initial hearing and released in 2017. Following his release, he taught high school in San Francisco, working with reentering youth navigating the same challenges he once faced.
Aaron founded Parole Portfolio Specialists (PPS) to support others still behind the wall—including the very friends who entered prison with him and remain there today. His lived experience, professional training, and deep understanding of the parole process make him uniquely qualified to help others earn suitability. Through PPS, he helps clients articulate meaningful insight, develop robust parole plans, and demonstrate authentic rehabilitation to the Board of Parole Hearings.
Sheila’s Story
From Prison to Purpose: My Journey to Freedom
I Never Thought I’d Change.
I had what you might call a normal childhood—until it wasn’t.
A family member sexually abused me, and from that point on, something inside me broke. I didn’t have the words or the tools to deal with the pain. What I did have was drugs—and for a long time, they worked.
But that came at a cost.
Years of addiction leading into years of criminality. Hurt people hurt people, and that is what I did. I hurt people. I hurt myself. I did not know how to feel anything except high. I ended up in prison—three different times—because of my choices. Each time I was released, I went right back to it. I went through countless treatment programs, only to try an avoid another prison term. So of course I did not change. I thought I was ok. The only reason I kept going back in was due to the mistakes of others.
Until Delancey Street.
That place didn’t just help me change my thinking—it taught me how to live. I learned accountability, discipline, and integrity. I began to understand that I had been living in the upside-down. What was wrong I thought was right. That actions had consequences, and that I needed to change everything.
And I haven’t looked back since.
Today, I work in recovery. I help others who are lost in the same way I was. That because of distorted thinking they ended up prison or lost in addiction. I know firsthand what it feels like to lose your freedom from bad decisions. I also know that we can and do change. This knowledge has driven me to this work. Being incarcerated is not the end of the story but can be a beginning. I am now dedicated to helping those lost in the system prepare for parole, rebuild their lives, and help them come believe that the doors will one day open.
You are not your worst mistake. You can still write a new chapter.
This is my story. It’s not pretty. But it’s real. And if you're reading this and feel like there’s no way out, I promise you—there is.
I’m living proof.
Once a Parole Portfolio Specialist Package is purchased, we’ll send out a personalized questionnaire designed to get to the heart of your story. This questionnaire invites you to share the circumstances that led to your incarceration, as well as the meaningful steps you've taken since then to grow and change.
We've invested countless hours into developing a tool that helps uncover the why behind past actions—and more importantly, the how of your transformation. Each question is intentionally crafted to highlight the efforts you've made to become a better version of yourself, to correct the behaviors that brought you to prison, and to show the progress that proves you’re no longer that same person.
This process is not just about telling your story—it’s about understanding it. It encourages deep reflection, allowing you to confront hard truths, express genuine remorse, and clearly communicate the impact your actions had on others.
Our approach is most powerful when it reveals the long, often difficult journey of personal transformation. Demonstrating this change is at the core of what we do. It shows the board that you are no longer a threat to those you once harmed—or to society at large.
We’re here to help you shape and share that truth—confidently and clearly—so that your future can begin.