Our Mission

CoRA is a New York State coalition of advocates working to change laws, policies, and practices to eliminate the perpetual punishment that flows from involvement with the criminal legal system. We seek to eradicate all civil barriers to ensure that people who have had contact with the criminal legal system have a fair chance to succeed as full community members. In support of this goal, CoRA’s members and partners regularly convene to exchange ideas, hone skills, and build a more just society for all.

Our Story

CoRA began its journey in 2005 as a group of advocates brainstorming ways to remove civil barriers, including barriers to employment and housing, for people with criminal legal system involvement. We formalized our structure in 2012 and adopted the name Coalition of Reentry Advocates. Now, almost two decades later, CoRA has grown to comprise approximately thirty member and partner organizations. CoRA member and partner organizations serve New Yorkers in urban and also in rural regions, where there is a dearth of legal service providers working on reentry due to lack of funding. 

As a coalition of non-profit legal service providers and community-based organizations, we fight for our clients in courtrooms, administrative hearings, legislatures, and city and state agencies. CoRA itself has no funding. Even so, we have had remarkable successes. In 2010, eight bills drafted or supported by CoRA were enacted into law, another fourteen were enacted into law in 2019, and another was enacted in 2024. We have successfully persuaded various government agencies and the judiciary to create or amend their policies and practices in order to promote economic opportunity for people with criminal legal system involvement.

CoRA member and partner organizations’ staff, some of whom are directly impacted, meet regularly to advance CoRA’s mission and problem-solve reentry issues faced by New Yorkers with criminal legal system involvement. Whether addressing intensely technical legal issues or advocating for the fundamental rights of people returning home, CoRA continues to work towards building a society that is just for everyone.