Dr. Alice P. Green
Dr. Alice P. Green was/is the founder and executive director of the Center for Law and Justice, a civil rights organization focused on advocacy and education created in 1985 in Albany, New York. Dr. Alice Green, is a longtime prison abolitionist based in Albany, New York. For nearly 40 years, the Center has been the foremost change agent in working to transform policies, practices, and people in the area of social justice, criminal justice, and prison reform. The Center provides community education on civil and criminal justice, legal guidance and advocacy, crisis intervention, and community planning and organizing around criminal justice, civil rights and civil liberties issues concerning the poor and communities of color.
Through her work at the Center, she emerged as a key ally and supporter of the Green Haven Think Tank and the entire captive population of New York State. As a result of her effective work with incarcerated people, she has been banned from all state prisons in New York since 2000, but the Center continues to work on behalf of people who are incarcerated and returning to the community.
Dr. Green’s works speaks to the critical insight that women typically play essential roles in supporting prison movements from outside the walls. Three decades after founding the Center, Alice continues to organize. She supplies incarcerated collectives and individuals with organizational resources, technical support and publicity. She also organizes protests, lobbies legislators, visits and corresponds with various captives and mentors college students.
A staunch advocate for implementing community policing, eradicating police brutality, and dismantling systemic racism, Green’s career highlights include serving as legislative director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, deputy commissioner of the New York State Division of Probation and Correction Alternative, a member of the citizens policy and complaint review council of the New York State Commission of Correction, and executive director of Trinity Institution - a youth and family services center. She was/is also the founder of the African American we Cultural Center in Albany’s South End.
Green writes and lectures on racism and criminal justice, often providing commentary and analysis for many newspapers, television, and radio programs . With Dr. Frankie Bailey, she co-authored the book, “Law Never Here: A Social History of African American Responses to Issues of Crime and Justice” (1999 Greenwood Press), “Wicked Albany”, (2009) & “Wicked Danville” (2011 History Press) - the latter two on Prohibition. In addition, she wrote the afterword for “Black in the Adirondack” (2017). In 1997, Green founded - in collaboration with the Center for Black Literature housed at Medgar Ever College in Brooklyn and Plattsburgh State University - the Paden Institute and Retreat for Writers of Color, located in the Adirondack town of Essex, New York. There, writers get technical assistance and a free serene writing environment. She is the current president. Green’s other literary accomplishments include creating and editing several community newspapers throughout her career: The Voice of South End, The South End Scene; and The Advocate, also distributed to persons imprisoned across New York State.
In July 2021, Green was inducted into the Essex Literary Wall of Fame at the Belden Noble and Library in Essex New York, a recognition reserved for notable authors hailing from that area. Dr. Green is recognized as a literary Legend by the friends and foundation of Albany Public Library in 2018. Dr. Green has earned a doctorate in criminal justice, and three master’s degrees - education, social work and criminal justice.
Despite her substantial contributions to the struggle, she maintains that she received more than she gained.
