Dr. Alice Green
Executive Director
Dr. Alice Green is the Executive Director of the Center for Law and Justice, a civil rights organization she founded in 1985. She has a doctorate in criminal justice and 3 master’s degrees – education, social work, and criminology. 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 of particular concern to poor communities and those of color.
Alice Green, an adjunct professor at the University at Albany, has also taught at Russell Sage and Siena College. She began her career as a secondary school teacher and social worker. For many years, she directed Trinity Institution, a youth and family services center in Albany’s South End. While there, she also did community organizing and founded the South End Scene, one of the longest published Black newspapers in Albany.
In 1997 she founded and is now President of the Paden Institute and Retreat for Writers of Color located in the Adirondack town of Essex, New York. There, writers are provided technical assistance and a free environment for writing.
In 1985, Governor Cuomo appointed Dr. Green to membership on the Citizens Policy and Complaint Review Council of the New York State Commission of Corrections. A year later, with Senate approval, he appointed her to the position of Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives. She was put in charge of strategic planning, policy, and information. After leaving state service, she became Legislative Director for the New York Civil Liberties Union where she had served as Director of their Albany Office in 1982.
​Dr. Green writes and lectures on racism and criminal justice and often does commentary and analysis for a number of newspapers and 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) and Wicked Albany(2009) and Wicked Danville(2011 History Press), two books about Prohibition.
Alice Green is a member of the board of directors of the of the New York State Defenders Association,, the Vice President of Senior Hope, an alcohol and drug counseling program and member of the Advisory Board of the Capital District Chapter of the NYCLU. She is a founder of the African American Cultural Center of the Capital Region. For over 20 years she worked as a prison volunteer.
In Recognition of her work,
Dr. Green has received numerous awards from a number of local and state organizations including the NAACP, Rockefeller College, National Organization for Women, New York State Bar Association, the University at Albany, the New York Defenders Association, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Social Justice Center, Citizen Action . Social Justice Center and the Albany Rotary Club. She and actor Danny Glover were co- recipients of the John Brown Freedom of Justice Award and she received the Community Service Award from St. Rose College and most recently, the Literary Legend Award from the Albany Public Library Foundation.
Social justice literary-related achievements
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Founding and editing of the “Voice of the South End” – a community newsletter
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Founding and editing of “The South End Scene? – a community newspaper
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Founding and editing of “The Advocate” – a monthly community newsletter distributed to persons imprisoned across New York State
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Founding of “The Paden Institute and Retreat for Writers of Color in collaboration with the Center for Black Literature housed at Medger Edgar College in Brooklyn and Plattsburg State University.
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Written a large number of Op-ed, commentaries, and blogs published in local newspaper
Vintage Interviews
For more vintage interviews, visit the Center for Law & Justice Youtube page.​