How do I apply for citizenship? Can I apply for “deferred action” as a student? Does my criminal record affect my status? What’s going on with immigration reform? Join us for The Bronx Defenders’ Community Immigration Workshop for answers to these questions and more! This event will take place tomorrow, July 18, 2013 at The…
The last time they took Vernice Hill’s children away, the time they didn’t give them all back, was the afternoon she went to see her neighbor. Ms. Hill lives in a hulking building on East 188th Street, in a frayed neighborhood in the Bronx. It was May 1, 2005. Inside her apartment, her two little…
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…
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…
The Bronx Defenders invites you to a very special community event in celebration of National Reunification Month, honoring families who have been involved in the child welfare system. There will be a stage! A piano! And Patricia R. Floyd from Law & Order. We encourage you to attend and bring friends, family and colleagues. We…
Brenda Zubay, LMSW, a social worker in our Family Defense Practice, spoke at a series of interdisciplinary discussions on May 29th, June 24th and June 26th, on ASC Visitation Policy best practices for family visitation entitled “Visitation: The Road to Reunification.” To view the flyers click here: Flyer Staten Island – June 26 FINAL- BROOKLYN JUNE 24…
Annual Celebration of Families is an event to celebrate families who have recently reunified or are about to be reunified. Families enjoy a meal together, play games, celebrate their successes, and go home with a framed family portrait. What we thought would be a little party turned out to be an incredibly powerful moment for…
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…
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…
PABLO — In 2011 the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Defense office received an award from the Center for Holistic Defense sponsored by the Bronx Public Defenders office in New York for technical assistance that uses a holistic approach that allows the tribal defense team to be client-centered with limited financial resources. The award is…
The Bronx Defenders is pleased to announce the launch of our new website! We hope you can take the time to explore our site and support the work that we do for and alongside our clients, their families and their communities. Key highlights from this new site include: How We Work – an interactive visual…
On June 11, 2013, Alex Sierck, Project Director of the Center for Holistic Defense, spoke on a webinar panel entitled “Defender Initiatives in Indian Country.” The panel discussed how recent legislation has affected tribal courts and the tribal defender community and examined how two tribal defender initiatives are enhancing the provision of justice and improving…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 11, 2013 Contact: Justine Olderman, The Bronx Defenders, (917) 836-4366 The Bronx Defenders Denounced Proposed Bail Bill in New York State The Bronx Defenders called for the New York Legislature to abandon Proposed Bill S. 4483 (Nozzolio) / A. 6799 (Lentol), which does not contain constitutional safeguards or provide adequate guidance in setting…
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…
We are very pleased to announce that Akin Gump Partner Estela Díaz has joined The Bronx Defenders’ Board of Directors. Ms. Díaz has represented companies and individuals in a variety of criminal and regulatory investigations involving state and federal governmental authorities. In addition, Ms. Díaz has experience conducting internal investigations involving allegations of misconduct against senior executives…
On June 8, 2013, Jennifer Friedman will be representing The Bronx Defenders at an immigration event hosted by New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera & The Advisory Board for the Peruvian Community in New York. Topics to be discussed include: immigration reform, immigration fraud and “Notarios,” pathways to citizenship and the NYS DREAM Act. TIME: 11:00 AM – 2:00…
The Bronx Defenders is proud to announce the start of our 2013 summer interns. After a highly competitive selection process, our interns arrived at our offices with a diverse array of experiences and backgrounds. Through the summer, both our legal and non-legal interns will receive intensive training in Holistic Defense, working alongside our Criminal, Family,…
On July 10th and 11th, 2013, Keith Baumann, Emma Ketteringham, Helen Montalvan, Ryan Napoli, Lauren Teichner are all scheduled to speak at the American Bar Association’s National Parent Attorneys Conference in Washington, D.C. They will lead various workshop sessions including one on Daubert and Frye hearings in Family Court, the drug war in child civil…
A Judge Takes on Stop & Frisk. Article by Jeffrey Toobin. Excerpt: “…Bradley took the ticket to the offices of the Bronx Defenders, who have pioneered what they call “holistic defense,” a method based on recognizing that, for criminal defendants like Bradley, deportation, eviction, or the loss of parental rights may be more ruinous than conviction…
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…
An analysis by New York City’s public advocate may indicate that racial profiling does not contribute to effective stops. The report looked at public NYPD data on stop-and-frisk from 2012, and found that weapons and guns were more often found on white New Yorkers than African-Americans or Latinos. The NYPD discovered a weapon in one…
When Lynn Sanchez, a Bronx parent activist, challenged police and education officials to address persistent school climate problems during a public forum on school safety last year, she did not think they would say yes. And yet just months later, Sanchez was sitting with safety agents during one of their training sessions — which, for…
Over the years we engaged in high impact, change-oriented advocacy by filing impact litigation cases to further promote fairness in the criminal justice system, reduce barriers to reentry, and create opportunities for our clients.
As the executive director of the Bronx Defenders, a public defense and legal services organization, Robin Steinberg has spent her career demanding justice for the residents of the poorest Congressional district in the nation. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the landmark Supreme Court case that requires states to provide attorneys…
Today, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, LLC and The Bronx Defenders filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court on behalf of five Bronx residents, charging the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) with targeting Black and Latino communities for marijuana arrests and “manufacturing” misdemeanor crimes against residents in order to meet departmental quotas. All…