About me
Sonja Tonnesen-Casalegno, Esq., Advocacy Director, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Sonja is a movement lawyer and lifelong advocate for racial and gender justice who has spent over 15 years working to transform the carceral system. Born and raised outside Milwaukee, WI, Sonja grew up in a family deeply committed to social justice and with loved ones directly impacted by incarceration—experiences that shaped her dedication to liberation work from an early age.
As Advocacy Director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) and All of Us or None HQ, she leads the organization’s Policy & Legal teams, with a mission to release people from incarceration, restore human and civil rights, and reunify families separated by the carceral and family policing systems. Prior to joining LSPC in 2025, Sonja served as Policy & Legal Director at Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ), an Oakland-based nonprofit unlocking the leadership of young people to dream beyond bars and borders. She was also the founding Deputy Director of Root & Rebound, a groundbreaking reentry legal advocacy organization working statewide in California and South Carolina, where she secured landmark victories such as California’s Fair Chance Licensing and Ban the Box in Higher Education laws, and led impact litigation challenging discrimination in employment and prison conditions.
Outside of work, Sonja serves on the boards of Because Black is Still Beautiful, which builds pathways to liberation for system-impacted Black women and girls, and Kindred Care Collective, a parent-led Bay Area network supporting birth advocacy, healing and mutual aid by and for under-resourced parents. She is also a birthworker/doula, and her most important role is being ‘mama’ to two incredible children, ages 2 and 4, who inspire her daily to imagine and fight for a more liberated world.
