Welcome!
The Center for Community Alternatives (CCA) is a leader in the field of community-based alternatives to incarceration. Our mission is to promote reintegrative justice and a reduced reliance on incarceration through advocacy, services and public policy development in pursuit of civil and human rights.
CCA serves people in trouble: youth at risk; families in crisis; people struggling to address drug and alcohol problems and HIV and AIDS; and people who have been involved in the criminal justice system who are seeking community reintegration and productive, law-abiding lives. CCA endeavors to address these issues by emphasizing personal empowerment, self-respect and concern for one's community.
Selected Articles
Sentencing for Dollars: The Financial Consequences of a Criminal Conviction
Closing the Door to Higher Education
Aspiring to the Impracticable: Alternatives to Incarceration in the Era of Mass Incarceration, Marsha Weissman, Ph.D. New York University Review of Law & Social Change, Volume 33.2, 2009.
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News & Events
CCA is holding its first annual Walk/Run for Justice. It is a 5K (3.1 Miles) Run/Walk on August 28, 2010 at 9 a.m. at Onondaga Lake Park, Bay View Area. CCA is looking for runners, walkers, sponsors and volunteers! Click here for details including a brochure, waiver, and entry form.
Marsha Weissman, Ph.D, CCA’s Executive Director, is the recipient of the Ralph E. Kharas Award presented by the Central New York Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union at their Annual Spring Dinner , June 9, 2010. Susan Horn, Executive Director of Hiscock Legal Aid Society and CCA Board Member/Secretary is the recipient of the first Seidenberg Legal Advocacy Award presented at the same event.
CCA-Syracuse provides opportunities for school-based mentoring of middle school youth. Please consider Changing Lives Through the Power of Mentoring!
Those opposed to the recently enacted drug law reform have seized upon a small, but important aspect of the legislation — conditional sealing — as a way to create the misperception that drug law reform will diminish public safety. Click here for an explanation of how conditional sealing can actually enhance public safety and foster New York State's commitment to reentry and reintegration.