Author: BXD
The Nation: How an Unusual Team Helps Extricate Bronx Residents From NYC’s Criminal-Justice System
How an Unusual Team Helps Extricate Bronx Residents From NYC’s Criminal-Justice System The Bronx Defenders do more than go to court. It was 1999, and Wendy was in solitary confinement in an upstate New York prison, reeling from the effects of heroin withdrawal. In pain, she oscillated between two thoughts: “I wanted to believe that […]
WNYC: Stop and Seize: When the NYPD Takes Your Cash
Last February, Harold Stanley was on his block one evening, in the Morrissania section of the Bronx. He decided to drive to McDonalds, and when he came back, sat in his parked car to eat. “Next thing I know somebody’s tapping on my window, telling me get out the car,” he said. “And I said […]
NY Daily News: When cops just take your cash and car
An arcane 134-year-old process few New Yorkers have even heard of means the NYPD can take the possessions — cars, cash, computers — of anyone who gets stopped, even if it’s for jaywalking and even if that person never gets convicted or even charged. And because those so-called civil forfeiture proceedings are civil, New Yorkers […]
Delegation of criminal defense attorneys from Japan visit BxD
On Monday and Tuesday, October 26 and 27, we were visited by a delegation of criminal defense attorneys from Japan. The Japanese criminal justice system will soon be instituting a system of plea bargaining for the first time, and the delegation came to learn from The Bronx Defenders – among others – about how our system works. They […]
NY1: Weighing Bronx DA Candidate’s Role in Controversial Rikers Case
Thursday night, NY1 reported that Darcel Clark, the leading candidate for Bronx District Attorney, played a previously undisclosed role in the case of Kalief Browder, the young man who committed suicide earlier this year after he was held at Rikers Island for three years without trial. However, as NY1’s Bobby Cuza reported, just how much […]
New York Law Journal: Legal Providers Critical of Foster Care Pact with State
Legal service providers on Wednesday denounced the terms of a proposed settlement of a class action suit in which the state has agreed to hire a monitor to review New York City’s foster care system. The class action, Elisa W. v. City of New York, 15-cv-5273, was brought by New York City Public Advocate Letitia […]
Jodi Morales and Sarah Deri Oshiro Presented Testimony at City Council Oversight Hearing
Criminal Defense Attorney Jodi Morales and Immigration Supervising Attorney Sarah Deri Oshiro presented testimony at City Council Oversight Hearing: Evaluating Attorney Compliance with Padilla V. Kentucky and Court Obstacles for Immigrants in Criminal and Summons Court. Written Comments of The Bronx Defenders New York City Council Committee on Immigration Jointly with the Committee on Courts […]
Where Criminal Defense Meets Civil Action: an Interview with Runa Rajagopal
This is the third in a series of interviews with attorneys who are pursuing social change through their work. This conversation is between Social Change editor Meghna Philip and Runa Rajagopal, a Team Leader and Supervising Attorney with the Bronx Defenders’ Civil Action Practice. Meghna Philip: You are the Supervising Attorney of the Civil Action […]
New York Times: State’s Chief Judge, Citing ‘Injustice,’ Lays Out Plans to Alter Bail System
Public defenders applauded Judge Lippman’s plans. Robin Steinberg, executive director of the Bronx Defenders, said the automatic reviews of bail decisions would hold arraignment judges accountable for their decisions and give defense lawyers more time to make a case for lower bail. Justine M. Luongo, who oversees criminal practice for the Legal Aid Society, agreed, […]
The Atlantic: How Treatment Courts Can Reduce Crime
Court-mandated substance-abuse treatment programs can keep people out of prison and save tax-payer dollars, so why aren’t they being utilized? When I first met my client, he was sitting on the other side of a metal grate (The client’s name has been withheld because of attorney-client confidentiality). We were in the cells behind the arraignment […]