Centre County nonprofit focused on restorative justice practices set to close
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Center for Alternatives in Community Justice will close at the end of the year.
- Centre County Courts will take over CACJ's Pretrial Supervision Program.
- CentrePeace, Centre Helps and Penn State have adopted CACJ’s programs.
A longtime Centre County nonprofit aimed at helping people stay out of jail will close at the end of the year, with its services and programs shifted to Centre County Courts and other nonprofits.
The “painful decision” to close Center for Alternatives in Community Justice was prompted by a funding loss from the Centre County Courts, which will take over the Pretrial Supervision Program that CACJ has run for nearly 40 years, according to a press release from CACJ.
In 1988, Centre County contracted with CACJ as the county bail agency, tasking it with supervising people out on bail. As of December, the organization’s Pretrial Supervision Program had served more than 2,500 people and saved the county more than $20 million in taxes through avoiding incarceration costs, according to the press release.
“Having the pretrial bail program really allows people to maintain their lives and to not lose everything were they to be incarcerated before their trial,” Elizabeth Siegelman, executive director of CACJ, said.
Through CACJ’s Pretrial Supervision Program, program manager Beth Rudloff meets daily with people awaiting trial to ensure they are complying with their terms of bail. A new program, which Centre County Courts is still finalizing, will continue this oversight with added measures including ankle monitors, in-home confinement and curfews. Court-appointed pretrial officers will supervise defendants on bail and help them find employment, housing and education, as needed.
“The Court found that there were pretrial services required in today’s society that required oversight by a formalized Court position with access to Court resources,” Court Administrator Kendra Miknis wrote in an email to the CDT.
It is not unusual for counties to manage pretrial supervision through courts, rather than nonprofits. In developing its program, Centre County consulted Allegheny and Lycoming counties, each of which has a court-supervised pretrial program.
District Attorney Bernie Cantorna hopes Centre County’s new program will help more people stay out of jail before their trials.
“I think we could maybe reduce the jail population a little bit more,” he said. “That’s not on the table, but that’s what I would like to see.”
In January, Centre County Courts extended its contract with CACJ by six months, instead of a year. In 2025 the county gave $138,086 to CACJ, between the court and the Centre County Correctional Facility, for its pretrial program.
Facing the loss of those funds, the nonprofit has been preparing to close, delegating several programs to other organizations. CentrePeace adopted CACJ’s Reentry program, which helps people in jail prepare for release. Centre Helps absorbed the Youth Aid Panel, which keeps first-time youth offenders out of jail through community mentorship. And Penn State’s Restorative Justice Initiative took over the Community Conversation series, a platform to discuss local issues.
Siegelman is optimistic about the future of these programs, along with pretrial supervision.
“I’m really confident in the programs that are going to other local nonprofits, and I’m fairly confident in the court’s ability to run this program,” she said.
