“During the public testimony portion of the City Council hearing, New Yorkers expressed outrage over the behavior of the NYPD during citywide protests. “As public defenders in the South Bronx, none of this has come as a surprise. It’s the treatment we regularly see our clients, overwhelmingly black and brown people, subjected to,” said Zami…
The Bronx Defenders is organizing its second annual virtual race campaign, “Go the Distance for Families,” from Monday, June 7, 2021, to Tuesday, July 6, 2021, to benefit our Client Emergency Fund. COVID-19 pandemic has killed over 33,000 people in New York City and initiated the worst economic downturn in almost a century. As the…
“Public defenders from across the city stood in solidarity with the black community and the Black Lives Matter movement on Monday. Protesters walked from the Bronx Supreme Court and made their way to Foley Square to meet up with other protesters Many of them say that they became defense attorneys because of their own negative experiences with…
“Although courts ruled the program unfairly targeted minority communities, it was allowed to remain in the books. Mayor Bill de Blasio has reduced the number of stop-and-frisks allowed, while The Bronx Defenders have fought to keep records of those arrested under the program sealed.” Read the full article here
“Rivera said he was honored to have worked with Neighborhood Defender Services, Center for Community Alternatives, The Bronx Defenders, and the New York Civil Liberties Union in drafting the new bill, based on powerful testimony he heard at the joint legislative hearing held in May on the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on minority communities. “This…
“Public defense organizations such as the Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services and the Bronx Defenders called Vance’s request “outrageous” in a joint statement released Thursday. “Vance’s proposal would increase incarceration at a time when prisons and jails account for eight of the 10 largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the country and when the City’s own correctional…
“A joint statement by the city’s public defense agencies on Thursday slammed that move. “At a moment in which Black people and their allies are rightfully protesting state sanctioned racial violence while simultaneously bearing the brunt of a global pandemic – a crisis that makes brutal and dangerous city jails even more deadly – DA…
“Several legal defense groups called it an effort to circumvent the law and unlawfully detain protesters. “Already, there is a backlog of hundreds of New Yorkers who are being illegally held because the NYPD refuses to issue Desk Appearance Tickets in lieu of arrests or complete the paperwork necessary to arraign them, despite the fact…
June 4, 2020 ***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*** Daniel Ball, Brooklyn Defender Services, dball@bds.org Ryan Karerat, The Bronx Defenders, RKarerat@bronxdefenders.org Redmond Haskins, The Legal Aid Society, RHaskins@legal-aid.org Sam McCann, The Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, SMccann@ndsny.org Hettie Powell, Queens Defenders, hpowell@queensdefenders.org Lupe Todd-Medina, New York County Defender Services, LToddmedina@nycds.org (NEW YORK, NY) – Brooklyn Defender Services, The…
“ICE has already used the courthouse to trap immigrants during the current crisis. On March 13, as President Trump declared a National Emergency, Mr. RC, a client of The Bronx Defenders, appeared in state court in Poughkeepsie. Despite the mounting pandemic and the deployment of state and federal resources to try to contain the virus…
“Dawit Getachew, a public defender at the Bronx Defenders in New York, says he’s seen the racial disparity in arrests before and after the pandemic, because he represents clients from a South Bronx neighborhood that is primarily home to black and Hispanic residents. While Getachew said he is not surprised to learn about the widening…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 1, 2020 CONTACTS: Jared Chausow, Brooklyn Defender Services, JChausow@bds.org Ryan Karerat, The Bronx Defenders, RKarerat@bronxdefenders.org Redmond Haskins, The Legal Aid Society, RHaskins@legal-aid.org Sam McCann, The Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, SMccann@ndsny.org Hettie Powell, Queens Defenders, hpowell@queensdefenders.org Lupe Todd-Medina, New York County Defender Services, LToddmedina@nycds.org Joint NYC Defender Statement On NYPD Brutality…
“In particular, donating to bail funds allows organizations to do crucial work to provide justice to people who may be incarcerated because they cannot afford cash bail. Activists are also working to ensure that cash bail is not codified as part of the prison system. Other organizations to which you can donate: The Atlanta Solidarity Fund, the Bail Project, the Brooklyn Bail…
“When Trump promoted this drug in March, people all over the world rushed to take it. There was an immediate shortage of the drug. Now that he claims to be on hydroxychloroquine, it will likely spark a new run on the pills, which will directly jeopardize my own health by making it harder for me to…
“COVID-19 has upended every aspect of public life. It has also exposed and exacerbated the racial and economic disparities that have long existed in this city. Our legal systems are no different in that regard. Even as some court functions have slowed down, our legal systems continue to target and ensnare low-income New Yorkers. ‘Social…
“The situation is complicated when these organizations cannot pay for private simultaneous translation services and the lawyers are not bilingual. If a defendant is in custody, “you can’t talk to the person if you don’t know the language,” explains Alice Fontier, director of criminal practice at The Bronx Defenders. So for those who can’t make…
“I am the proud mother of four children.” When Tamanika was sent to prison, three of her four children were put in foster care, while her oldest child stayed with her family. “The court tried to terminate my parental rights but I fought hard and it didn’t happen,” she explains. “I had a wonderful team…
“At the Bronx Defenders, which is working with the Bronx mother, efforts to reunify families are sometimes cut short by an agency’s insistence that a parent have a longer track record of supervised visits with caseworkers and sessions with therapists and counselors. The pandemic has also had a significant impact on access to services —…
New York City Council Committee on Criminal Justice and Committee on the Justice System Re: COVID-19 in City Jails and Juvenile Detention Facilities May 19th, 2020 Written Testimony of The Bronx Defenders By Tahanee Dunn, Robyn Goldberg, Martha Grieco, Deborah Lolai & Julia Solomons Good afternoon Chair Powers, Chair Lancman, and committee members. My name…
La situación es complicada cuando las organizaciones no pueden pagar por servicios privados de traducción simultánea y además los abogados no son bilingües. Si un acusado está en custodia, “tú no puedes hablar con la persona si no sabes el idioma”, explica la directora de práctica criminal en The Bronx Defenders, Alice Fontier. Así que…
“In some states, like New York and California, there have been no official statewide orders cutting off all in-person visitation; instead agencies have been directed to make decisions on a case-by-case basis. But those on the ground say this is still leaving many parents without a voice in the decision-making process. Despite state-level guidance that…
“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, low-income black and brown communities like the Bronx have been hit the hardest,” Bronx Defenders Executive Director Justine Olderman said in the release. “This is a community that depends heavily on public transportation, encompasses countless essential workers and is over criminalized into a legal system that crams people into jail…
“As COVID-19 continues to devastate the country, we have witnessed the failure of Immigration Customs & Enforcement (ICE) to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus in our local jails. It is hard to imagine a government agency less equipped to address the COVID-19 pandemic than ICE. Even under “normal” circumstances before the pandemic, ICE proved…
“I fell in love with the work, I fell in love with the people, I fell in love with being able to represent clients and work so closely with clients and really tell their stories, and I haven’t looked back.” Bennie works for The Bronx Defenders, a nonprofit that represents low-income residents in the New…
The COVID-19 crisis has forced us to rethink every aspect of American life, revealing that many structures damaging in normal times are now downright catastrophic. This is true in the criminal legal system, where policies that prop up mass incarceration have enabled disease and death to ravage our jails and prisons. It is also true…