Voting Rights and Civic Participation Civic participation includes all the ways citizens participate in the democratic process. It includes the right to vote, serve on a jury, and run for elected office. Voting Rights In New York State, as long as you are a U.S. citizen 18 or older, you can vote unless you are currently in…
Parental Rights 1. Can I lose my parental rights if I am convicted of a crime? Only very serious criminal convictions against a child – like murder and manslaughter – require the state to sue to terminate your parental rights. 2. Can I lose my parental rights if I am sentenced to prison or a residential treatment…
Records of Arrest and Prosecution If you have been convicted, or even arrested, for a crime, there is a record of it, often in many places at once. The court where you were sentenced maintains records of your criminal case, and those are public information available to credit reporting agencies. A record of your arrests…
Government Benefits and Education Loans If you are a New York State resident you can apply for and receive government benefits like Food Stamps, Medicaid, TANF and cash assistance, no matter how many convictions you may have on your rap sheet. However, arrest and incarceration can temporarily affect your government benefits and your eligibility for…
Housing and Reentry A criminal history can affect your eligibility for both public housing and, if a landlord conducts a background check, private housing. An arrest – even before anyone is found guilty – can often trigger eviction of you or your entire household from public or private housing. Federally Subsidized Housing (NYCHA & Section…
Employment & Reentry 1. An employer said it wouldn’t hire me because it doesn’t hire anyone with a criminal record. Is that legal? No. Employers must consider each person as an individual. Refusing to hire all people with criminal records violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Law of 1964, the New York State Corrections…
Non-citizens involved in the criminal justice system confront additional and severe civil consequences. Even if you have lived in the United States for a long time or if you have ties to the U.S. and family here, guilty pleas and convictions can lead to an immediate detention and the initiation of deportation (also called “removal”)…
The term “reentry” is used by many advocates, service providers, policy-makers, and formerly incarcerated people to define what happens to people coming home from prison. More broadly, it describes a process of reintegration, rehabilitation, and restoration of rights that should begin when an individual is arrested. “Collateral consequences,” is a popular label for the legal,…
The Center for Holistic Defense, sponsored by BJA and a project of The Bronx Defenders, has announced the recipients of its 2010 Holistic Defense for Public Defender Offices Technical Assistance Project. In response to its Request for Proposals, the Center received 23 applications from public defender offices across the country. The three offices chosen are…
The Bronx Defenders is thrilled to announce our newest innovative venture—the creation and implementation of The Center for Holistic Defense. With funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, and in collaboration with The Center for Court Innovation and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the Center will help fill a…
n recognition of his efforts to ensure equal justice for all people regardless of ability to pay, the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) announced today that McGregor Smyth, the Managing Attorney of the Civil Action Practice, is this year’s winner of the Kutak-Dodds Prize, alongside Alan Alop, Deputy Director for Intake Offices, Legal…
The Center for Holistic Defense released its Request for Proposals to public defender offices and systems nationwide interested in technical assistance and support in integrating Holistic Defense into their practice. For more information about this opportunity, download the RFP here. Attachment
Shoshana Brown was a speaker at The Prisoner Justice Conference, a gathering of over 57 organizations statewide that are doing prisoner justice work. The conference was a day long in Albany and close to 200 people attended. Shoshana spoke about the political necessity of this conference and shared her own personal story of how mass…
Robin Steinberg spoke to the Criminal Law Committee of the Bar of the City of New York about Holistic Defense and the work of the lawyers and advocates at The Bronx Defenders.
Robin Steinberg and The Bronx Defenders Social Worker Ariane Eigler spoke at the 29th annual Edward V. Sparer Symposium at the University of Pennsylvania Law School titled “Now More Than Ever: Expanding Access to Justice in Times of Crisis.” The symposium is an annual event inviting legal experts and practitioners to speak on poverty law…
Robin Steinberg was featured on a panel moderated by Professor Paul Butler called “The Evolving Role of the Public Defender” at the 2010 Indigent Defense Symposium in Washington, D.C. The three day event, entitled “Looking Back, Looking Forward” was hosted by the Attorney General’s office. The symposium was created to provide an environment for public…
Robin Steinberg passionately believes that effective legal defense for the poor includes a good dose of social work. Never say something is impossible to achieve around Robin Steinberg ’82; it will only motivate her to prove you wrong. The 51-yearold founder of the Bronx Defenders, a unique non-profit public defense group in the Bronx, always…
Rebecca Engel testified in front of the City Council about proposed gang laws that would negatively affect the clients of The Bronx Defenders. She highlighted the drastic civil consequences young people charged with misdemeanors can potentially face, as well as the ways that this legislation would exacerbate the racial bias and over-policing problems we already…
The Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association invited Robin Steinberg to speak at their Sunny Climate Annual Conference in Hawaii. Robin spoke about Holistic Defense and its benefits for clients and advocates alike.
Robin Steinberg traveled this fall to Israel, where she met with Criminal justice leaders, judges, and public defenders at the US Embassy. She advocated with government officials for the integration of social workers into the public defender office and gave a talk at the Annual Public Defender Conference in Israel about the benefits and dangers…
Ann Mathews was the keynote speaker at the Southfield, Michigan library for an interfaith roundtable forum on public defense sponsored by the Michigan Campaign for Justice. The Campaign is a broad-based group of organizations and individuals from across the political spectrum fighting for a fair and effective public defense system in Michigan. She spoke about…
By McGregor Smyth. Collateral sanctions. Invisible punishments. Internal exile. From the moment of arrest, people are in danger of losing jobs, housing, basic public benefits, and even the right to live in this country. For many, these hardships are far more severe than the criminal charges confronting them. In New York, a plea to disorderly…
Robin Steinberg traveled to Eastern Europe with the Justice Initiatives Program at OSI where she conducted skills training for young public defenders and worked with their idealistic advocates on making Holistic Defense a reality in Moldova.
When Robert E. Chambers Jr. was arrested on Oct. 22 on charges of selling cocaine out of an Upper East Side apartment, many people saw it as the denouement of a morality tale, the final fall of “the preppy killer” who pleaded guilty to strangling Jennifer Levin during rough sex in Central Park two decades…
By McGregor Smyth. Investment in an infrastructure for cross-sector collaboration is key to breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and crime. The criminal justice system is the institution with the single most pervasive impact on communities of poverty and of color. In those communities interaction with the police and courts, as well as incarceration, has…