The experience behind your Documented Defense Assets.
The quality of documented mitigation materials depends entirely on who builds them. Justice Advisory Group's co-founders bring lived experience inside the federal system, decades of executive leadership, and deep addiction recovery expertise — the combination that makes JAG's documented work credible, substantive, and court-ready.
"No one should face the most consequential moments of their life without someone in their corner who knows how the system actually works — and knows how to document what matters."
Not advice. Documented proof.
Personal narratives. Character reference packages. Rehabilitation documentation. Mitigation reports. At every stage of the federal justice process, the difference between advice and documented proof is the difference a judge can actually see.
Personal Narratives
Compelling written accounts that present the full human picture of who a defendant is beyond the charges.
Character Reference Packages
Assembled, formatted reference collections that give judges a substantive look at community standing and character.
Rehabilitation Documentation
Written evidence of genuine behavioral change, program participation, and recovery — delivered with clinical credibility.
Mitigation Reports
Comprehensive reports synthesizing background, context, and mitigating circumstances into a court-ready document.
Steven Russo
Federal Experience & Sentence Mitigation
He's stood exactly where clients stand.
Steven Russo spent more than two decades as a C-level executive before his life took a turn that most corporate leaders never face: a federal criminal investigation, a guilty plea, and the full weight of the federal justice system. He emerged from that experience with something most consultants don't have — he's lived it.
That firsthand experience shapes the quality of every Documented Defense Asset JAG produces. Steven knows what a federal presentence report actually feels like to read about yourself. He knows how a personal narrative lands differently when it's written by someone who has stood in the same position. He knows which details matter to a judge — and how to document them in a way that makes a real difference.
Over four years of prison consulting, Steven has built a practice around one core output: tangible, documented materials that show the court the real version of who the defendant is. Not advice about what to say. Documented proof — personal narratives, character packages, mitigation reports — delivered with the credibility that only direct experience can provide.
15 years of addiction recovery — built into every RDAP case.
Jason Gerner spent fifteen years building and running addiction recovery programs before co-founding JAG. As a former partner at a large recovery center, he worked with thousands of individuals navigating substance abuse treatment — people in crisis, people rebuilding, and people trying to understand a system that wasn't designed to be understood easily.
That background is exactly what produces credible RDAP documentation. A significant number of federal defendants have substance abuse histories that intersect directly with their cases, their sentencing, and their eligibility for the Residential Drug Abuse Program — which can reduce a federal sentence by up to 12 months. Knowing how to document a client's substance history, frame it appropriately in mitigation, and build a compelling RDAP eligibility case requires someone who actually understands addiction and recovery from the inside.
Jason builds the Documented Defense Assets that make this work land. The written substance history that qualifies a client for RDAP. The rehabilitation documentation that shows genuine behavioral change. The mitigation narrative that presents addiction as context rather than excuse. For defendants where substance issues are part of the story, Jason's fifteen years of clinical experience produces documentation that attorneys and judges find credible — because it is.
Jason Gerner
Addiction Recovery & RDAP Documentation
Why Justice Advisory Group exists.
The federal justice system is adversarial by design. Defense attorneys fight for legal outcomes. Prosecutors argue for punishment. Probation officers write reports. Judges decide. But almost no one in that process is focused solely on building the documented human case — the proof of who the defendant really is beyond the charges they face.
That's the gap JAG was built to fill. We produce Documented Defense Assets: the personal narratives, character reference packages, rehabilitation documentation, and mitigation reports that show the court the complete person. Not just testimony. Not just conversation. Written, assembled, and delivered materials that humanize the defendant in the moments when it matters most.
Steven and Jason built JAG because they understand what distinguishes a good outcome from a preventable bad one: documented preparation, delivered early. They built this firm to produce exactly that.
Experience behind every document.
Start with a free consultation.
We work with defendants, families, and defense attorneys nationwide. The earlier you reach out, the stronger the Documented Defense Assets we can build.