Category: In the News
New York Daily News: Stop the tide of deportations: A breakthrough program can stand up for New York’s immigrants
“The three NYIFUP providers in New York City — The Bronx Defenders, the Legal Aid Society and Brooklyn Defender Services — have requested additional funding from the city. They should get it; every additional dollar going to NYIFUP will ensure universal and effective representation for immigrants with a target on their back. Elected officials in […]
Gothamist: How A Sealed Arrest Can Get You Arrested In New York
“’There are a lot of cases where people were arrested or faced prosecution, and they were innocent,’ said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, from the Bronx Defenders. “We need to protect them, and we need to protect our values that people should be presumed innocent, and they shouldn’t face the consequences [of an allegation], unless it’s been […]
Filter Magazine: Denial of Methadone Devastates Incarcerated People: What Hope?
“Rosie Russo, MSW, a social worker with the criminal defense practice of the Bronx Defenders, advocates for clients to receive methadone through the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, which provides healthcare at Rikers. But that doesn’t work for some clients, who get transported upstate where there is no treatment. ‘If we have a client who is […]
CNN: Prosecutors want to move Manafort to Rikers Island
“Violence comes in all forms, from other people who are incarcerated there to violence at the hands of corrections officers” – Alice Fontier, our Criminal Defense Managing Director. Watch the full video here
Manhattan Neighborhood Network: Raising The Bar: Justice Reform Part 2
The Bronx Defenders often see our low-income clients forced to plead guilty when they cannot afford to pay cash bail. Karume James, our Criminal Defense attorney, shares the difficult decisions they need to make when our criminal legal system cares more about profits than lives. Watch the full video here
New York Daily News: Feds transferred over 230 undocumented immigrants detained near Mexico border to NYC-area jails
“The Trump Administration has again brought the border crisis to the New York City area. As a sanctuary city, New York has an obligation to ensure that these individuals have access to robust counsel, and NYIFUP stands ready to provide that representation. We will work with our partners at City Hall during this influx to […]
Urban Matters: When Child Welfare Intrusion Makes Reproductive Freedom and Illusion
Our Fallon Speaker, Family Defense attorney, and Erin Cloud co-wrote an op-ed advocating for rethinking prevention and childcare advocacy. “Change must happen now. We can start by rejecting the notion that maternal “risk” can be predicted by poverty or Child Protective Services data. In both the child protective and criminal legal systems, there is a […]
Investigative Post: The cost of suspending driver’s licenses
“The court system in these cases is really trying to extract money from these clients. It doesn’t serve any public safety function,” says Scott Levy, our Special Counsel. Read the full article here
Medium: What We Mean When We Say #AbolishBigData2019
“In whatever form it might take, we orient our future work toward the commitment that data must be used to measure systems, not people.” Rebecca Widom, our Chief Data Scientist, presented at the University of California Irvine’s two-day workshop “Datafication and Community Activism: Redrawing the Boundaries of Research” on how the important work of data […]
New York Law Journal: Albany Must Reject Any “Dangerousness”-Based Preventative Detention Scheme
The Bronx Defenders, Legal Aid Society, and Brooklyn Defender Services came together in this op-ed to speak against extending preventative detention to accused New Yorkers based on perceptions of “dangerousness,” which could mean an increase in the number of people in pretrial detention as well as sanction further racial discrimination and bias. “We will not […]