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.
News & Events
CCA receives a shout out in Juvenile Justice Information Exchange article for its work with NeON, Neighborhood Opportunity Network in East New York.
CCA provides early interventions for young people involved in the juvenile justice system. New York State is one of only two states in which the age of criminal majority is 16. CCA's recommendations. The short video by Brave New Foundation describes the ramifications of this important issue and features CCA's work.
CCA's newest member of the Board of Directors is Sheila Rule, Executive Director, Think Outside the Cell Foundation, NYC. In partnership with an award-winning photojournalism agency, they have produced a video, "The Shadow of Incarceration's Stigma". Click here to view the video.
Selected Articles
Sentencing for Dollars: The Financial Consequences of a Criminal Conviction - CCA 2007
Aspiring to the Impracticable: Alternatives to Incarceration in the Era of Mass Incarceration, New York University Review of Law & Social Change 2009.
The Use of Criminal History Records in College Admissions Reconsidered
Juvenile Justice: The Case for Local Control (City Limits, January 2011)
