Mission
Our mission is to serve society by working with the community and justice system to promote, develop, and implement effective alternatives that preserve human dignity, restore, heal, and empower individuals.
History
Community Citizens began CACJ in 1976 as a grassroots effort to address the problems faced by offenders re-entering the community. It was incorporated in 1978 and then the agency began collaborating with local judges, district justices, police, prison staff, attorneys, and human services to design and implement programs in Centre County.
The Community Service Program was officially established in 1979 in cooperation with Centre County Probation and Parole. This new program allowed judges to sentence offenders to community service under CACJ’s volunteers' supervision. In 1984, after CACJ had supervised hundreds of offenders, it was agreed that the Probation Department would assume total responsibility for the program. CACJ received the Centre County Medical Society’s Benjamin Rush Award for Outstanding Health Services for this program.
Programs
Mediation is an Alternative Dispute Resolution that allows the parties to decide the outcome of their case on their own.
The mediator is an impartial third person that helps them to reach an agreement without court intervention.
The mediator is an impartial third person that helps them to reach an agreement without court intervention.
Youth Aid Panel is a program that allows first-offender juveniles to restore the community they live in through community service and assignments.
The assignments vary according to the discretion of the panel of monitors (who oversee the program).
The monitors invite the juveniles to sign a contract. If the juvenile completes the contract within the time frame, he or she will graduate. Therefore, no criminal records will persist.
The assignments vary according to the discretion of the panel of monitors (who oversee the program).
The monitors invite the juveniles to sign a contract. If the juvenile completes the contract within the time frame, he or she will graduate. Therefore, no criminal records will persist.
Currently seeking volunteers to support the YAP program: email Brady Wassom for details at youthaidpanel@cacj.us
Pre-Trial Supervision provides an alternative to incarceration for pretrial detainees charged with bailable offenses and provides assistance in receiving needed social services to defendants released under supervision.
Pre-Trial Supervision was first offered in 1987 to arrested State College Borough residents as a pilot project. It was then offered county-wide when a Centre County local court rule named CACJ as The Centre County Bail Agency.
Centre County Community Conferencing is a voluntary process of intentional dialogue between groups of individuals who are directly impacted by a conflict, dispute, or even a crime with the goal of reaching a beneficial resolution for all parties allowing room for healing, restoration, and transformation.
Community Conferencing puts the power and decision-making back into the hands of the community, allowing them to create mutually beneficial resolutions which restore relationships and renew faith in community-led justice systems.
Collaborations
CACJ staff members sit on a variety of local and state boards, including:
Centre County Balanced and Restorative Justice Team/Children's Roundtable
Centre County Victim/Witness Policy Team
Centre County Criminal Justice Advisory Board
Centre Peace, Inc.
The Borough of State College
Centre County Child Access Center
Centre County Reentry Coalition
Centre County Council for Human Services