In the News
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…
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…
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…
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…
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: ArchCity Defenders saw problems with municipal courts before Ferguson turmoil
Two years before Ferguson attracted national attention for racial tension and questionable court practices, a group of volunteer lawyers calling itself the ArchCity Defenders was…
City Limits: The Rap-Sheet Trap: Mistaken Arrest Records Haunt Millions
Melissa wasn’t aiming terribly high: She wanted to be a substitute teacher in New York City’s school system, a job that would combine her passion…
Capital New York: Officials: Expand legal program for immigrants
Members of the state Assembly and advocates want to expand a public defender program for immigrant New Yorkers who are facing deportation. The New York…
Gotham Gazette: Bronx Program Serves as Inspiration for Mark-Viverito’s City-Wide Bail Fund Proposal
Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito used her first State of the City address to advocate major reforms to the city’s criminal justice system designed to keep…
City Limits: NY’s Certificates Offer Catch-22 to People Convicted of Crimes
When John Orlando was released from prison last year, he wanted to get his life back. He’d worked for decades as a funeral director, and…
New York Law Journal: City Broadens Its Evaluation of Indigent Criminal Defense
New York City officials are testing a number of methods to assess the quality of indigent criminal defense, which, they say, is part of a…