New York Times: Conflicting Expectations for Bratton’s Second Tour
In the 1990s, a time of vexing homicide rates in cities across the country, William J. Bratton left the New York Police Department and began marketing the crime-fighting techniques he had deployed so successfully here to other municipalities struggling with rampant disorder. At the time, business and civic leaders in Birmingham, Ala., brought him on…
SNAP Cuts Hurt Bronx Families
As a Public Benefits Advisor at The Bronx Defenders, I have seen the devastating effects of the recent cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP benefits – formerly called “food stamps” – help low-income Americans feed their families. When Congress allowed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to sunset on November 1st of…
The Bronx Defenders Welcomes Mayor de Blasio’s Announcement to Reform Stop-and-Frisk and Drop the City’s Appeal
The Bronx Defenders welcomes the concrete step taken today by the de Blasio administration to drop New York City’s appeal of the federal district court rulings in the stop-and-frisk cases. Today, the City has filed a motion in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that seeks a remand to the Southern District to resolve these…
Safer and Stronger: The Bronx Defenders Policy Recommendations for Community Safety in the Bronx
Safer and Stronger: Policy Recommendations for Community Safety in the Bronx Download the PDF here: The Bronx Defenders – Safer and Stronger 2014 The Bronx Defenders provides holistic and client-centered criminal defense, family defense, immigration defense, civil legal services, social work support, and community advocacy to indigent people of the Bronx. Our staff of over 200 represents 35,000…
Sky News: Anger Mounts At Stop-And-Frisk Policy
Most people in the south Bronx have an opinion on the NYPD’s stop and frisk tactic. In the face of mounting public and legal pressure, officers have more than halved the use of it city-wide, from over 500,000 instances in 2012 to nearly 200,000 in 2013. But this part of New York, just north of…
Capital New York: Police critics on Bratton’s Broken Windows push
Critics of the Bloomberg administration’s police policies say they’re concerned about the direction of the department under Bill de Blasio after learning that NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton planned to hire an author of the Broken Windows theory. The theory emphasizes strict enforcement of quality-of-life crimes as a way to deter more serious and violent crime……
El Diario: El Bronx pide a De Blasio mayor vigilancia a NYPD
Activistas y vecinos de los edificios de vivienda pública Betances Houses buscan difundir una encuesta bilingüe relacionada con prácticas policiales como “Stop & Frisk.” Por: Zaira Cortés/EDLP El Bronx — Alegando detenciones por perfil racial en vecindarios del sur de El Bronx, residentes solicitarán al nuevo alcalde Bill de Blasio mayor vigilancia a las prácticas…
PR Newswire: Video and Panel Explores the Drug War’s Impact on Pregnant Women and Families
NEW YORK, Nov. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Open Society Foundations are proud to host National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) for a groundbreaking event on November 19th in New York City that will explore the drug war’s impact on pregnant women and families. Drug war propaganda is increasingly being used to justify repressive policies toward…
Blueprint for Community Safety in the Bronx (Survey)
We need your help! The Bronx Defenders has created a Blueprint for Public Safety in the Bronx Survey to present to the next Mayor of New York City in January. Provide your input on how together we can make the Bronx safer for everyone. If you have five minutes, we just have a few quick…
The Uptown Chronicle: Stop and Frisk – A Daily Reality
Jahlanni Greene, 17, is a happy high school student. Aki Ferguson, 25, is a butcher. Jason Stewart, 32, is a maintenance worker. All three lead different lives and are different ages, but they are all black men, they all live in Hunts Point and they have all been stopped and frisked by the officers of…
Emma Ketteringham spoke at the 2013 International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Denver, CO on October 26th, 2013
On Saturday, October 26th, Emma Ketteringham, Managing Attorney of the Bronx Defenders’ Family Defense Practice, was a panelist for a roundtable discussion on the drug war’s impact on the criminal justice system during the 2013 International Drug Policy Reform Conference. The International Drug Policy Reform Conference is an event that happens every two years with…
Immigration Attorney Sarah Deri Oshiro gave testimony to the New York City Council
In the 2010 case Padilla v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court ruled that criminal defense attorneys must explain the potential immigration consequences of criminal case dispositions to their clients. This past week, the New York City Council Committee on Immigration heard testimony regarding attorney compliance with the ruling in Padilla. Bronx Defenders Immigration Attorney Sarah Deri…
Criminal Justice in the 21st Century: Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System
Robin Steinberg, Executive Director, and Marika Meis, Legal Director, attended a conference and contributed to a sweeping report coordinated by the Brennan Center and NACDL regarding racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system. According to NACDL, the report summarizes the “candid, sometimes painful panel discussions, and identifies a panoply of remedies that may advance…
The Chronicle of Philanthropy: How Investing in Grass-Roots Advocacy Helped Put an End to a Racist Practice
Despite news headlines almost daily this summer about New York City’s controversial stop-and-frisk police tactics, most journalists missed a key component in explaining why the worst abuses of this policy, in place for over a decade, have been curtailed. Had it not been for the grassroots activists, and financial support from a few courageous foundations…
Huffington Post: 10 Things You Should Know About This Week’s Stop and Frisk Decision
U.S. Disctrict Court Judge Shira Scheindlin handed down two landmark opinions on Monday. In Floyd v. City of New York, a federal class action lawsuit challenging racial profiling by the NYPD, Judge Scheindlin ruled that the NYPD’s stop and frisk program violates the Constitution. A second order laying out remedies covers both Floyd and part…
The Bronx Defenders Organizing Project will be registering voters today!
Volunteer today with The Bronx Defenders Organizing Project to register voters. The deadline is this Friday to register to be able to vote in the NYC primaries on Sept. 10th. Join us to register as many Bronx residents as possible. If you’re interested and available, please join us! Email Kamaub@bronxdefenders.org or meet us at 3pm at…
MSNBC: Rethinking the ‘war on drugs’
Monday saw two major legal developments in the so-called “war on drugs.” First, a judge in New York City ruled that the police department’s stop-and-frisk policy violated the Constitution in targeting a disproportionate number of blacks and Hispanics. Then, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the end of mandatory federal prison sentences for low-level, non-violent drug…
The Takeaway: Will Holder’s New Policy on Drug Sentences Transform Criminal Justice?
For nearly 30 years, being “tough on crime” was been part and parcel of successful political campaigns, and in the mid-1980s, Congress began enacting mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. After that the prison population exploded and some experts shook their heads at what they considered to be misguided drug policy. But as Attorney General…
The Bronx Defenders hails today’s ‘Stop and Frisk’ decision by federal Judge Scheindlin
The Bronx Defenders hails today’s decision by federal Judge Scheindlin as a critical first step in recognizing and tackling the widespread abuses in the NYPD’s stop and frisk program. In landmark decisions in two class action lawsuits, a federal judge ruled today that the New York City Police Department has violated the constitutional rights of…
The Bronx Defenders announces its first annual Highbridge Summer Youth Justice Project
The Bronx Defenders has been conducting regular Know Your Rights trainings for youth at the Highbridge Branch of the New York Public Library since December 2012. Working off the success of these trainings, we are proud to announce the development of the Highbridge Summer Youth Justice Project. The Highbridge section of the Bronx has one…
The Champion: Criminal Justice in the 21st Century: Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System
Our Executive Director Robin Steinberg wrote an article on racial disparities in the criminal justice system that was featured in The Champion. The article draws from discussions at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ conference report, Criminal Justice in the 21st Century: Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System. An excerpt…
City & State NY – Groups Target Koo and Rivera On Community Safety Act
In advance of an expected City Council vote on the proposed Community Safety Act next week, constituents and community groups will be holding actions in the districts of Council Members Peter Koo and Joel Rivera, calling on them to support the bills to ban racial profiling and establish an Inspector General for the New York…
New York Daily News: Bronx groups urge Councilman Joel Rivera to back legislation calling for an end to discriminatory profiling
Bronx groups urge Councilman Joel Rivera to back legislation calling for an end to discriminatory profiling Rivera has not taken a stance on bills intended to curb profiling during stop-and-frisks and establish an Inspector General for the NYPD Bronx community groups are calling on the City Council Majority Leader to back a pair of bills…
Heeding Gideon’s Call in the Twenty-First Century: Holistic Defense and the New Public Defense Paradigm
By Robin G. Steinberg, 70 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 961, Washington and Lee Law Review (Spring 2013) In September of 1997, eight public defenders squeezed into a small storefront office between a Radio Shack and a Rent-A-Center across the street from the courthouse in the South Bronx to practice a new kind of public…
Kumar Rao spoke at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. about race, diversity and criminal justice
On May 22, 2013, Kumar Rao spoke on a panel at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. The discussion was keynoted by U.S. Senator William ‘Mo’ Cowan (D-MA) and was titled “The Case for Diverse Voices in Public Policy.” The conversation centered around the need for diverse voices in leading efforts to legitimize and…