The Center for Community Alternatives (CCA), founded in 1981, is a leader in community-based alternatives to incarceration and policy advocacy to reduce reliance on incarceration. We provide direct services to communities in New York City, Syracuse, and Rochester, engaging approximately 3,500 youth and adults annually who would otherwise be incarcerated.
Services include gender-based substance treatment and recovery communities, sentence mitigation, court advocacy, workforce readiness, civic restoration services, emergency/transitional housing, student advocacy, violence prevention, and youth mentoring as well as afterschool programming and career exploration for justice-involved youth. The majority of our participants are Black or Latino/a and come from poor or low-income communities.
In addition to direct services, CCA aims to reform the criminal legal system and end mass incarceration across New York State. We have achieved success in persuading the New York State Legislature to adopt “reintegration” as a goal of sentencing, in reforming New York’s drug laws, and in realigning New York’s juvenile justice system so that more youth are placed in programs in their home communities, rather than detention or incarceration.
CCA has built upon these successes with policy victories including reducing the number of incarcerated youths in New York through “Raise the Age” legislation, reducing barriers to college admission for people with criminal records by “Banning the Box” on SUNY admission applications, as well as playing a key role in the passage of bail, discovery, and speedy trial reform in 2019.
Our work reduces the collateral consequences of incarceration, strengthens families, and builds safer communities.