News12: Bail reform law frees inmates accused of misdemeanor, nonviolent felonies takes effect
“Alice Fontier, of the Bronx Defenders, also welcomes the change. “All of the evidence, the data from the years of the cash bail system demonstrates that what happens is that poor people stay in jail and people with money don’t,” Fontier says. As of Dec. 28, 50 to 60 pre-trial detainees were awaiting release on…
New York Daily News: Poor and at risk of losing their kids: Moms and dads under ACS investigation deserve more legal help
“The City Council has proposed giving parents meaningful access to legal representation during an ACS investigation; like a suspect facing arrest, parents being investigated would have the chance to access legal help. Opponents of the bills claim access will make investigations more “adversarial,” even implying that children will be endangered. The first problem with this narrative is…
The City: Report Calls On New NYPD Top Cop Dermot Shea To Abolish Gang Database
“Public defenders and justice advocates are calling on new NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea to abolish a policing tool he’s strongly defended: the department’s gang database. The “Erase the Database” campaign, to be launched Thursday, marks the latest in a yearslong effort to end collection of names and monitoring of the estimated 17,500 to 42,000 New Yorkers believed to be in…
Amsterdam News: New report takes anti-gang initiative ‘Operation Crew Cut’ to task
“A new report unveiled today details how much harm both of these operations have reaped on New York’s Black and Brown teenagers. “Gang Takedowns In The De Blasio Era: The Dangers of Precision Policing” details how, through large scale conspiracy cases, how thousands of juveniles and adults were arrested and placed in a secretive gang…
Times Union: Commentary: Reforms make justice system fairer to New York’s poor
“Equal justice before the law is a cruel myth. In New York’s criminal courts it is better to be guilty and rich than poor and innocent. Under current law, guilty defendants who can afford bail are promptly set free while innocent poor people must sit in jail. This predicament is being remedied by criminal justice…
New York Daily News: Advocates celebrate New York’s new bail and discovery reforms ahead of Jan. 1 implementation
“Advocates and elected officials celebrated upcoming changes to the state’s bail and discovery rules during a rally on the steps of City Hall Tuesday for Human Rights Day… On Jan. 1, laws requiring prosecutors to turn over a wider range of evidence in faster fashion will go into effect, as well as reforms to the…
Rise Magazine: What Parents Need to Know: School Reports to CPS, Communicating with the School, and Advocating for Your Child
An interview with The Bronx Defenders Here, Asia Piña and Crystal Baker-Burr, a social worker and an education attorney at The Bronx Defenders, warn parents that some schools may call in reports far more quickly than others. They suggest ways parents can navigate challenges and improve their relationship with their child’s school to avoid unnecessary…
New York Daily News: NYC legal defense groups want additional criminal justice reforms from Albany
“The city’s top legal defense organizations want state lawmakers and Gov. Cuomo to keep criminal justice reforms at the top of their to-do list as they prepare for next year’s legislative session. The Legal Aid Society, New York County Defender Services, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders and Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem issued a…
The Chronicle of Social Change: More Services Or Better Legal Support For Accused Parents? New York Officials and Advocates Divided on What’s Best
“Some advocates who spoke to lawmakers last week rejected the notion that prevention programs were a panacea, and argued that lawmakers should focus instead on improving legal representation for parents. “We have to stop talking about preventive services,” testified Emma Ketteringham, a managing attorney for the legal aid group Bronx Defenders. “I’m not saying that’s…
Blackstar News: NY Transit And Police Accountability Advocates To Governor Cuomo: Invest In MTA Service Upgrades Not More MTA Police
“As New York City looks toward implementing historic criminal justice reforms, the addition of 500 cops to deal with what is clearly an economic and social justice issue is unnecessary, cruel and counterproductive,” said Scott Levy, Chief Policy Counsel at The Bronx Defenders. “Every day, The Bronx Defenders and other public defenders citywide witness the devastating…
News12: Bronx Defenders: Empowering low-income people through legal advocacy
“Two Bronx residents are working to help their own through the nonprofit group The Bronx Defenders. News 12 spoke with Noemi Cotto and Carol Larancuent about their legal advocacy in the community” Watch the full video here
Mitu: Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg Apologizes For Years Of Stop-And-Frisk Policy Ahead Of Possible 2020 Run
“The temperature in the city at the time was that the police were at war with Black and brown people on the streets,” Jenn Rolnick-Borchetta, the director of impact litigation at the Bronx Defenders, told the New York Times. “And that is how people experienced it.” Statistics show that Black and Latino people were nine times…
Latin Post: “Stop-and-Frisk” Shows Promise in Reducing Crime Rates, But Were Minorities Intentionally Targeted?
“However, based on recent data, the number of stops multiplied increasingly, in 2011 and ended up reaching more than 600,000 instances. In 2013 it reached 191,851. During his three terms as a mayor of New York City, the number of stops based on the records of the police reached an approximate 5,081,689. According to the…
Gotham Gazette: Facing Criticism, NYPD Reps Tell City Council Body Camera Program ‘A Work in Progress’
“Lenora Easter, team leader of the early defense team at the criminal defense practice of The Bronx Defenders, urged the Council to close a loophole that allows officers discretion to not turn on their cameras in exigent circumstances. She also pushed for increasing the “buffering period” on officer cameras – the two types of cameras…
The New York Times: Why ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ Inflamed Black and Hispanic Neighborhoods
“After taking office in 2002, Mr. Bloomberg oversaw a dramatic expansion in the use of stop-and-frisk. The number of stops multiplied sevenfold, peaking with 685,724 in 2011 and then tumbling to 191,851 in 2013. During Mr. Bloomberg’s three terms, the police recorded 5,081,689 stops. “The temperature in the city at the time was that the…
Law360: Immigration Courts’ Video Evolution Stirs Due Process Fears
“While recent statistics might seem to suggest that VTC has helped tackle the backlog of immigration cases, there are other factors that have likely contributed to the jump in completed cases, according to Sarah Deri Oshiro, managing director of the immigration practice at the Bronx Defenders, which was a plaintiff in the lawsuit over the…
New York Magazine: There Wil Be No Turning Back on Facial Recognition – It’s not perfect yet, but it’s already changing the world
“If Larry Griffin II’s story typifies a best-case use of facial recognition for law enforcement, Kaitlin Jackson, a public defense attorney with the Bronx Defenders, tells me one that exposes its drawbacks. Jackson represented a man who’d been arrested for the theft of socks from a T.J. Maxx store in February 2018, supposedly after brandishing a…
The Indypendent: Four New Jails For $10 Billion: Now is the Time For NYC to Invest in Communities Not Cages
“Some former members of the Close Rikers movement such as the Bronx Defenders and VOCAL-NY pulled out because they felt that the plan lacked any real investment in new community-based services such as affordable housing and community-based mental health programs. They also objected to spending money on building institutions that they view as fundamentally harmful.”…
City & State: The 2019 Nonprofit Power 100
“Justine Olderman has worked her way up at The Bronx Defenders since joining as a staff attorney in 2000. She served as managing attorney of the criminal defense practice – where she oversaw an expansion that more than doubled the practice’s caseload – before becoming the public defender nonprofit’s first managing director. Now as executive…
The Riverdale Press: Want to legalize marijuana? It must be fair
“Those neighborhoods have been targeted and have suffered in the war on marijuana,” said Eli Northrup, a policy counsel for Bronx Defenders, a non-profit that provides criminal defense from its base in Melrose. “If and when marijuana becomes legal, we need to repair those communities.” “Even small marijuana convictions can prevent people from getting public…
New York Daily News: Advocates call on Cuomo to keep an eye on prosecutors out to undermine criminal justice reforms
“Alice Fontier, head of criminal defense practice for The Bronx Defenders, said there is concern that law enforcement is seeking to perpetuate high incarceration rates of minorities and maintain the status quo, adding that the tactics being taught to prosecutors are “against the spirit of the law.” “All of these sort of fear-mongering tactics and…
Human Rights Watch: 128 Rights Groups Urge New York Legislature to Implement Pretrial Reforms
“Despite the fact that a majority of New Yorkers and State elected officials support the new pretrial laws, prosecutors continue to engage in a coordinated strategy to subvert the pretrial reforms before they have even gone into effect by spreading fear and misinformation. The new bail, discovery and speedy trial laws were carefully and deliberately crafted over the course…
St. Louis Public Radio (NPR): ArchCity Defenders Celebrates 10 Years of Advocacy, Growth
“The trio modeled themselves on the Bronx Defenders, a nonprofit firm in New York City that also offered social services to its clients. But it was in defending clients from a predatory patchwork of municipal courts that ArchCity found its mission — and, after the death of Michael Brown brought the news media to its…
Amsterdam News: Report: Solitary confinement increased in New York
“The Bronx Defenders want the Board of Corrections to stop waiting to initiate the rule-making process so New Yorkers can weigh in because it’s a crisis. “Hundreds of people are held in solitary confinement in our city’s jails every year,” read the Bronx Defenders’ statement. “The torturous conditions devastate the people we serve and the…
News12: New law to eliminate cash bail, release prisoners
“A new state law goes into effect in January that will eliminate cash bail for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. New York City has identified nearly 900 people who are currently behind bars awaiting trial that can apply to have their bail lifted and be freed.” Watch the full video here