Queens Defenders Awarded Grant by The Joseph LeRoy and Ann C. Warner Fund for Youth Justice Court Expansion
April, 2021
Queens Defenders is pleased to announce that it has received a $16,000 grant for the Joseph LeRoy and Ann C. Warner Fund to expand our innovative Youth Justice Court program to the St. John’s Home for Boys in Rockaway Park, a Close to Home program for young men in foster care placements.
Queens Defenders’ Youth Justice Court program is a restorative justice-based diversion program that allows young offenders to have their case heard by peers instead of in Criminal Court. The program operates in nine locations throughout the borough and trains high school students to serve as attorneys, judges, and other roles to administer cases.
“The Joseph LeRoy and Ann C. Warner Fund (The Warner Fund) team is a lifelong advocate of restorative justice programs. That is why we are proud to sponsor the Youth Justice Court Program at St. John’s Home for Boys located in Rockaway, NY. The Warner Fund is confident that with grants like this, Queens Defenders will continue its success in creating and expanding innovative and lifesaving programming to serve adolescents and young adults that are involved in the criminal justice system.”
– Joseph R. Madonia, LCSW-R, CASAC, Executive Director, The Joseph LeRoy and Ann C. Warner Fund
Due to the residential nature of St. John’s and the unique challenges the young men who reside there face, The Youth Justice Court program will hear low-level offenses referred by participating police precincts in addition to resolving issues that arise within the residence itself. In addition, participants will learn about the court process, how to protect their rights and safely interact with the police, and they will be trained in various court roles, including serving as attorneys and prosecutors, judges, and members of the jury.
Historically, more than 80 percent of referred Youth Justice Court cases are resolved successfully. Of those cases, 80 percent have no further involvement with the authorities/police within a year.
“This grant from the Warner Fund will provide the young men residing at St. John’s with an alternative option to resolve conflicts within the residence and allows young men who commit infractions in the community to have their case heard by a court of their peers instead of in Criminal Court. In addition to the restorative-justice based approach to low level crime, participating youth will learn skills, discover possible career pathways, and build confidence in themselves and their abilities.”
– Brandon Jeffries, Director of Youth Services, Queens Defenders
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Youth Spotlight: Lastra
At the start of her junior year at Scholars Academy, Lastra walked into our Rockaway Outreach Center to see what it was all about. From the moment she walked in the door, our staff could see her passion for helping the community. When Lastra was asked if she was interested in volunteering, Lastra took a moment to think about what she could meaningfully contribute to the Center. She ultimately decided that she could offer tutoring services, as she had been tutoring her peers for years. A week later, she had the tutoring program up and running with multiple youth coming in daily for homework help.
Lastra volunteered in the Center for two months before being offered a position as a Young Adult Leader. Now, over two and a half years later, the tutoring program is thriving and continues to support many children in the community.
“Since I have known her, Lastra has had an interest in the education field. Her specialty has been homework help, and her enthusiasm in helping the youth is obvious. Every student involved in the Outreach program can feel Lastra’s presence. Regardless of age level or subject matter, she wants to know what area they are struggling to be of help.” -Brandon Jeffries, Director of Youth Programs
Lastra is a leader among her peers and a role model for the younger children she serves. She carries herself with grace, and always acts with purpose. Lastra is currently studying Applied Mathematics at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and continues to run our tutoring program despite her busy schedule.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes to the way students learn and engage in school. Virtual cues and course instruction are aspects that even the most experienced teacher has struggled to embrace. Still, Lastra accepts the challenge. After having participated in a training with United Community Schools, Lastra has been eager to find productive ways to help, utilizing research tools, worksheets, and new communication techniques.
When asked what she is most proud of in her work at Queens Defenders, Lastra said, “What inspired me to volunteer at Queens Defenders was my need to always give back to my community in any way possible, the best way I can. What inspires me to continue to come to work every day is my community and the many people that I know need our help. I’m most proud of the tutoring program and all the outreach that I have had the opportunity to do as a result of working at Queens Defenders because it introduced me to multiple different youths and community members. I appreciate the culture at Queens Defenders and love how my coworkers always try every day to find new ways to help the community and give back.”
We are proud to have Lastra on our team. At a time when community work has its challenges, Lastra makes it look easy.
NYC Defenders Decry Breach of Attorney-Client Privilege in Wrongly Recorded Phone Calls in NYC Jails
(NEW YORK, NY) – Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, The Legal Aid Society, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, New York County Defender Services, and Queens Defenders issued the following joint statement in response to a report that over 1,500 protected calls between people incarcerated in at local jails and their attorneys were wrongly recorded:
“The fact that calls between attorneys and their clients incarcerated in New York City jails were apparently recorded, without either person’s knowledge, is appalling and unacceptable.
The widespread, illegal practice described in this report undermines the most fundamental tenet of the constitutional right to counsel: the ability of people to receive confidential advice from their legal team.
It not only undermines the trust our clients have in the confidentiality of their communications with their defense teams but also the public’s trust in the legal system as a whole.
The role of private, privileged phone calls in this relationship has become even more crucial during the pandemic, at a time when the City imposed restrictions on visitation and legal staff has limited their ability to meet their clients face to face.
We urge the New York City Department of Correction and Securus to immediately ensure that no privileged calls are recorded ever again.
We call on the District Attorneys to denounce this practice, and to immediately disclose and sequester any attorney-client recordings in their possession, without listening to them first.
We also demand a full account as to how this was allowed to occur so that we can fully understand and assess the breadth and depth of this breach, how many of our clients cases were implicated, how this information was used, and whether these violations were of such a prejudicial nature that dismissal of the cases is warranted.
We are actively investigating and will take swift, and immediate action to defend the rights of our clients and our legal practices.”
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Queens Defenders Partners with JusticeText to Expedite Review of Crucial Discovery
Queens Defenders is partnering with JusticeText, an audiovisual evidence management software, to expedite the review of body camera footage, interrogation videos, jail calls, and other crucial discovery.
JusticeText was co-founded by Devshi Mehrotra and Leslie Jones-Dove while they were computer science students at the University of Chicago. They are on a mission to address the access-to-justice gap within indigent defense by building technology specifically tailored to the needs of public defenders and their clients.
Recent New York discovery reform laws require that the District Attorney turn over more material and allow criminal defense attorneys 15 days from arraignment to “discover, inspect, copy, photograph and test” what they receive. Since then, Queens Defenders has been receiving countless hours of footage from NYPD officers’ body cameras and of phone calls from incarcerated clients.
Christopher Whitehair, Supervising Attorney at Queens Defenders, states “Many of the witnesses will be on the police officers’ body cam footage. It is therefore imperative for us to be able to efficiently review the videos so we can identify such individuals. JusticeText will help us quickly identify and pursue lines of investigation.”
Nick Justiz, Staff Attorney at Queens Defenders, was one of ten attorneys in our office that piloted the software. He used JusticeText to assist him with two recent cases, both involving extensive body camera footage. “I uploaded all the videos to JusticeText before watching them because, honestly, it’s just easier to watch them through the JusticeText platform,” Nick says. “I can make a note of anything important right there. The transcript is already roughly enough laid out for you so that you know what’s important.”
JusticeText’s automated transcript is generated by a machine learning model and can accept custom vocabulary, including slang, witness names, and neighborhood names. The output is easily exportable to a separate document for sharing purposes.
The platform also makes it easy for attorneys to clip out relevant parts of the video or audio file by highlighting the transcribed speech. The snippets of discovery can then be easily shared with collaborators or used for impeachment purposes in trial. Nick says, “It was actually pretty convenient to be able to clip out just the parts of the Spanish that I needed translated — I could email them very quickly to a translator and get it back.”
JusticeText offers public defenders the ability to consolidate their workflow and helps expedite the review of high volumes of discovery. “I have all six videos right there and in one folder. It’s so easy to go back and forth to reference everything and just keep it in front of me, as opposed to the old process. It’s a huge cut down of those unnecessary logistical barriers to preparing your case,” Nick says.
Michelle Minkin, Staff Attorney at Queens Defenders, adds “I really like that I can search the transcript for keywords. I’ve found it to be very helpful in going through Body Cam videos and pulling out important statements or references to other discovery I know I should be looking for. I can highlight and flag these references so I know exactly where to refer to when I’m writing a motion.”
Following a successful pilot period, Queens Defenders rolled out software access to the entire staff. The office is dedicated to leveraging the latest technology to advance its mission of providing quality indigent defense across Queens.
Rockaway Community Justice Center Offers a Second Chance for Low-Level Offenders
The Queens Daily Eagle | October 2020