Salon: “I can’t breathe!” Police overreach, Eric Garner and the chokehold of racism
Read Bronx Defenders Summer Legal Intern Shaun Ossei-Owusu’s powerful commentary on police brutality in New York City, responding to the recent death of Staten Island resident Eric Garner at the hands of the NYPD. Another unarmed man dies after cops take it too far. Inside the chokehold’s sordid, deadly history. The streets, social media, and the…
The New York Times: Ill and in Solitary at Rikers
Read The Bronx Defenders’ Skylar Albertson’s “Letter to Editor” published in The New York Times in response to their recent article on mental illness among inmates at Rikers Island: To the Editor: “Where Mental Illness Meets Brutality in Jail” (front page, July 14) paints a horrifying but accurate picture of the abuse that mentally ill…
The 2014 Holistic Defense for Public Defender Offices Technical Assistance Project
The Center for Holistic Defense at The Bronx Defenders The 2014 Holistic Defense for Public Defender Offices Technical Assistance Project Request For Proposals The Center for Holistic Defense, a project of The Bronx Defenders, is pleased to announce the release of its fifth annual Technical Assistance Project Request For Proposals seeking applications from public defender…
New York Daily News: Bronx Freedom Fund seeks to show other groups how to post bail for needy defendants
The difference between being saddled with a criminal record and keeping one’s profile clean often comes down to a person’s ability to come up with bail money, a new report from The Bronx Freedom Fund shows. The fund, launched in 2007 and reopened in October 2013, four years after a judge ordered it to cease…
Watch Robin Steinberg’s Keynote Speech from Yale Law School’s 2014 RebLaw Conference
“We need to intervene more deeply, involve ourselves more broadly, and understand the lives of our clients more fully. We need to fight on behalf of individuals but we need to also mobilize communities to be warriors in the broader struggle of social and racial justice.” Bronx Defenders Executive Director Robin Steinberg gave an inspiring keynote speech…
Rise Magazine: ‘I Feel Good that I Never Gave Up!’: At National Reunification Month events, parents reflect on the long road home
For June’s National Reunification Month, organizations around the country celebrated the perseverance and resilience of parents reunifying with children from foster care and of the professionals who support them. On June 13, the family defense organization The Bronx Defenders hosted a reunification celebration, with food, face painting, performances, and families coming together to celebrate the…
Join us for The Bronx Defenders 2014 Summer Benefit on July 15th!
SAVE THE DATE The Bronx Defenders invites you to the 2014 SUMMER BENEFIT The South Cabana at The Maritime Hotel Tuesday, July 15th | 7:00 pm | 88 Ninth Avenue, New York City (entrance is at the corner of 16th Street & Ninth Avenue) Please join us on this summer evening to enjoy cocktails and…
A Celebration of Families!
Last week we hosted our annual Celebration of Families night to honor our clients who have been reunited with their children after arduous battles in Bronx Family Court. The evening provided our clients and their families an opportunity to share their stories, connect with one another, and take a moment to celebrate their perseverance after a difficult and…
The Bronx Defenders’ Skylar Albertson Delivers Testimony at Solitary Confinement Hearing
On Thursday, June 12th, 2014, The Bronx Defenders’ Skylar Albertson delivered testimony at the Joint Meeting of the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services and the Committee on Mental Health, Development Disability, Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Disability Services Solitary Confinement Hearing. Since January, Albertson and Social Work Intern Leah Baez have conducted 23 interviews with…
Brooklyn middle school students visit BXD to practice their trial skills
Yesterday afternoon The Bronx Defenders welcomed a group of 20 middle schoolers from the LAUNCH Expeditionary Learning Charter School in Brooklyn to our Justice Campus to read aloud closing arguments they had prepared and to receive feedback from a panel of Bronx Defenders attorneys and summer interns. The students’ field trip was inspired by their reading of Walter…
New York Daily News: The city should continue to fund a program that offers legal representation to indigent immigrants facing deportation
Numbers don’t lie: More than 70% of immigrants, documented or not, who face deportation proceedings in New York City do not have legal representation, an unfair situation which practically guarantees their removal. “Without a lawyer, immigrants’ opportunity to win their deportation cases is about 3%,” said Angela Fernández, the executive director of the Northern Manhattan…
The Bronx Defenders welcomes our 2014 summer interns!
We are very excited to welcome our summer 2014 interns today! Over the course of the next 10 weeks, 52 law school students and 15 college students from over 25 different schools will work together with attorneys and advocates in our Family Defense Practice, Criminal Defense Practice, Civil Action Practice, Immigration Practice, Policy & Community…
Robin Steinberg to speak on Bureau of Justice Assistance conference panel about holistic defense in tribal justice systems.
Robin Steinberg, Founder and Executive Director of The Bronx Directors, will speak on a panel at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance conference “A Collaborative Approach to Tribal Civil and Criminal Legal Assistance in Tribal Justice Systems” in Washington State next Tuesday, May 27th. The panel will explore the holistic defense model and…
The Bronx Defenders Completes its 2014 Defenders’ Academy Spring Training Program!
Today wrapped up the sixth and final day The Bronx Defenders 2014 Defenders’ Academy Spring Training! Over the course of the past week, 78 participants from over 20 different organizations – ranging from public defender offices to private firms to the U.S. military – have participated in an intensive trial skills program designed to strengthen…
Advocates from Across the U.S. Gather to Discuss Holistic Defense
Last week The Bronx Defenders invited fellow public defenders and advocates from 24 organizations – including 18 public defender offices – across the U.S. to its first Holistic Defense round table. The two-day gathering represented the first opportunity to convene in one room a group of innovators and trailblazers who are challenging traditional criminal justice…
The Bronx Defenders Meets with Chinese Delegates to Discuss Holistic Defense
Bronx Defenders Civil Action Practice Attorney Karen Maxim spoke with a delegation of Chinese law professors and research scholars on Tuesday, April 22nd, as part of a presentation on pretrial services in the Bronx. Karen spoke about the importance of early advocacy to Holistic Defense and also discussed some the of The Bronx Defenders’ recent…
The Albert Cobarrubias Justice Project Blog: Bronx Defenders and the Feng Shui of Public Defense
The Albert Cobarrubias Justice Project writes about The Bronx Defenders Justice Campus: It’s not often lawyers at a public defender’s office are excited to show you around their building. And that’s usually for good reason – you’ve seen one defender office, you’ve seen them all. A lobby with a bullet proof glass window clients approach…