Vice News: NYC to Eliminate Bail for Many Non-Violent Offenders
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to announce an overhaul of the city’s bail system on Wednesday that is designed to keep low-level offenders out of Rikers Island. The plan, which offers 3,000 offenders supervised release in lieu of bail, will help “reduce both the financial and human costs of needless incarceration,”…
The Guardian: New York City foster care: stories from children and parents the system failed
Nearly a decade later, Angelo Clement vividly remembers the phone call that changed his life. The then 14-year-old high school freshman was home alone on a school night in his small one-bedroom apartment in midtown Manhattan, where both he and his mother lived, when a teacher called looking to speak with his mother. Clement told…
BxD to conduct free legal clinic on employment and housing issues related to criminal records
Next Monday, June 29, 2015, The Bronx Defenders, together with the office of New York City Council Member Andy King, Power of Faith Ministry, and Gunhill Civic Group, will be hosting a free legal clinic for community members. The legal clinic will address criminal record errors on rap sheets (i.e. when things come up on a criminal background…
The Bronx Defenders testifies before NYC Council on the need for bail reform
Earlier this week, Justine Olderman, Managing Director of the Criminal Defense Practice, Robyn Mar, Director of Early Advocacy, and Noelle Turtur, Project Associate, submitted testimony on behalf of The Bronx Defenders before the New York City Council Committees on Courts and Legal Services and Fire and Criminal Justice on the dire need for reform of the New York…
ABC News: NYC Council Members: Suicide Points to Need for Bail Reform
The death of a 22-year-old man who hanged himself after spending three years as a teen jailed without trial should spur New Yorkers to push for bail reform, City Council members said at a hearing Wednesday. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said Kalief Browder’s death “has been a wake-up call for many in our city…
Observer: New York State’s Top Judge: Bail System ‘Totally Ass-Backwards in Every Respect’
In a country where criminal defendants are innocent until proven guilty, Kalief Browder spent three years in jail awaiting trial on charges of stealing a backpack when he was 16, because he couldn’t afford bail. The charges were eventually dismissed and Browder, who was never convicted of anything but had served a lengthy sentence, was…
New York Magazine: How All New Yorkers Killed Kalief Browder
In his short eulogy of Kalief Browder, The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote that the teenager’s death — he hanged himself with an air-conditioner cord in his home in the Bronx, after three years of torment by the legal system — “must necessarily be laid at the feet of the citizens of New York, because it…
Bronx Defenders statement on NYC Council passing of the Fair Chance Act
The Bronx Defenders applauds the New York City Council for passing the Fair Chance Act, a bill that will give New Yorkers with criminal records a fair chance to compete for jobs. The Fair Chance Act will prohibit all public and private employers in New York City from asking about an applicant’s criminal history until…
City Limits: Correction Dept. Slows Bid to Restrict Rikers Visits
A move to restrict visiting rights on Rikers Island—billed by the Department of Correction as a necessary step to control violence—that faced opposition from legal rights groups went nowhere Tuesday at a meeting of jail regulators. The Board of Correction decided to hold off on the proposal pending further study. The Board is considering whether…
Newsday: NYC may set up taxpayer-paid bail fund for low-level offenses
City Council leaders want to create a $1.4 million, first-of-its-kind city-financed bail fund to spare indigent defendants charged with low-level crimes from unfair and costly stretches of confinement at Rikers Island before their day in court. But criminal justice experts are divided on how effective a reform that would be, while one of the city’s…
Justine Olderman testifies before City Council on the stigma of mental illness
Managing Director of the Criminal Defense Practice Justine Olderman presented oral testimony before the New York City Council Committee on Courts and Legal Services earlier this month, on May 12. While commending the efforts that the Mayor and City Council have made thus far to address the over-incarceration of the mentally ill, Justine’s testimony called attention…
The Bronx Defenders welcomes its 2015 summer interns!
We are very excited to welcome our 2015 summer interns! The Bronx Defenders internship program gives students the opportunity to experience and learn client-centered, holistic advocacy through hands-on work with our interdisciplinary advocates. This summer BxD is hosting a total of 70 interns, including 48 law school students from 20 different schools who will undergo comprehensive,…
Gotham Gazette: Through Committee, Bill to Create Office of Civil Justice Heads Toward Law
New York City is one step closer to having a new Office of Civil Justice. On Tuesday, the City Council’s Committee on Courts and Legal Services unanimously passed a bill that would create the office, to be tasked with assessing, coordinating, and helping reform the civil legal services available to low-income New Yorkers. Among the…
The Bronx Defenders hosted its Third Annual Youth Justice Summit!
This week, The Bronx Defenders hosted its Third Annual Youth Justice Summit. Over two days at The Bronx Defenders Justice Campus, we brought together 104 youth from three schools and one youth program: Truman High School, Bronx School of Law, Government, and Justice, Bronx Lighthouse Academy, and the BronxConnect Program. The Bronx Defenders was joined by three of…
City Limits: State Senator: Citywide Bail Fund Would Help, Not Hinder, Courts
A recent Daily News editorial titled “City Council: Do not pass go on bad-idea bail fund” erroneously asserted that the city-wide bail fund being considered by the City Council was unnecessary, a waste of taxpayer dollars, and would undermine the authority of judges. With all due respect to The Daily News, I could not disagree…
Al Jazeera America: New York City police rethink ‘Broken Windows’ strategy
“The type of offenses that I see everyday in the courthouse in the South Bronx are not the type of offenses that are being policed in rich, affluent, white neighborhoods.” – Justine Olderman Bronx Defenders Managing Director of the Criminal Defense Practice Justine Olderman appeared on Al Jazeera America last night to discuss the negative…
Chenye Castroni presented testimony before City Council Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services
Bronx Defenders Criminal Defense Social Worker Cheyne Castroni presented testimony before the New York City Council Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services earlier this week in support of Intro Number 770, which would require that the Department of Correction (DOC) establish a crisis intervention program. Cheyne shared his experiences employing his crisis intervention training…
BxD’s Annual Youth Justice Summit coming up on May 19 and 20
The Bronx Defenders’ annual Youth Justice Summit brings together students from the Bronx to participate in youth-specific workshops facilitated by several of our organizational allies in New York City. The third annual Youth Justice Summit will take place at The Bronx Defenders’ Justice Campus over two days, May 19 – 20, 2015. This year’s partner organizations for…
BxD applauds the Mayor’s proposal to expand rent-regulated tenant protections
In a New York Daily News Exclusive released May 5, 2015, Mayor de Blasio unveiled his proposal for sweeping reforms to enhance rent laws that protect hardworking New York families living in the city’s one million rent-regulated apartments. The Mayor, together with housing advocates, intends to promote these reforms over the next six weeks in order to get…
City Limits: Four Nonprofits to Receive Residual Class-Action Settlement Funds
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, and The Bronx Defenders, all leading civil rights advocacy groups and law firms, announced that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has approved their request to equally distribute nearly $165,000 in remaining class-action settlement funds…
The Bronx Defenders receives Community Organization Award from Brooklyn Law School
Earlier this week, Bronx Defenders Trial Chief Karen Smolar accepted the “Community Organization Award” on behalf of The Bronx Defenders from the Brooklyn Law School National Lawyer’s Guild Chapter and the Brooklyn Law School Public Service Office. The Community Organization Award is given to an institution or group which is dedicated to social justice and has…
The Guardian: My friend died in a police van. That could have been me, if I were black
Bronx Defenders Social Work Intern Chun Rosenkranz published this moving op-ed in The Guardian on the real life consequences of living in a country whose criminal justice process is not color blind: My friend Hanuman was cremated two weeks ago, his ashes now sit in a wooden box on his parent’s alter. The cause of his death is…
Kate Rubin testified before City Council in support of proposed Office of Civil Justice
The Bronx Defenders Managing Director of the Civil Action Practice Kate Rubin presented written and oral testimony to the New York City Council Committee on Courts and Legal Services yesterday, April 15, in support of Intro 736, a local law to establish the Office of Civil Justice. The Bronx Defenders supports Intro 736 because an…
Bronx Defenders advocates present at National Association of Social Workers conference
Three Bronx Defenders advocates — Social Worker Sarah Knight, Parent Advocate Keston Jones, and Civil Legal Advocate Maria Monica Andia — will be presenting at the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), New York City Chapter conference “Social Work in the City: Dreams and Realities of Life in New York” on April 8, 2015. The conference aims…
BxD and attorneys from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP collaborate on amicus brief
On behalf of 15 organizations supporting the rights, interests, and health of parents and pregnant women, The Bronx Defenders Family Defense Practice, along with attorneys at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, sought leave to file an amicus brief in the New York Appellate Division, First Department, last week. Our brief argues that the New York…