Public and Appellate Defenders call on NYC District Attorneys for a Full, Transparent and Independent Audit of the NYPD Latent Print Section
December 7, 2023
Contact:
Brian Schatz
Director of Community-Based Initiatives & External Affairs
press@queensdefenders.org
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***
Public and Appellate Defenders call on NYC District Attorneys for a Full, Transparent and Independent Audit of the NYPD Latent Print Section
Attorneys Demand Answers on the NYPD’s Delayed Notification of Fingerprint Misidentification that May Have Contributed to Wrongful Convictions and Due Process Violations
(NEW YORK, NY) – The Legal Aid Society, Appellate Advocates, The Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Center for Appellate Litigation, Innocence Project of New York, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, New York County Defender Services, Office of the Appellate Defender, Queens Defenders released a letter sent to all five New York City district attorneys calling for a full, transparent, and independent audit of the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Latent Print Section. The groups also called for a comprehensive list of all cases in which evidence was either examined or verified by the fingerprint examiners involved in the erroneous fingerprint analysis back in 2015.
The joint defender and advocate letter comes in response to a near-decade delay by the NYPD’s Latent Print Section to formally disclose that one of its fingerprint examiners erroneously matched an individual’s fingerprint to a crime-scene fingerprint back in 2015 while two other examiners verified the misidentification.
Indeed, the NYPD’s disclosure in a letter dated July 13, 2023, is addressed only to prosecutors. Local DAs attempted to notify affected defendants, but the NYPD’s July 13, 2023 letter failed to identify which cases were affected by this misidentification event or the extent of the error’s impact on the operation and reliability of the Latent Print Unit.
Defenders and advocates expressed deep concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the fingerprint misidentification, which undermines the criminal legal system and the constitutional due process rights and right to a fair trial of the accused. Of particular concern is one of the examiners who verified the erroneous identification went on to become a trainer for the NYPD Latent Print Section and provided misleading testimony in at least two trials.
“Every person has the right to a fair trial where they are presumed innocent until proven guilty.” Said Lori Zeno, Executive Director & Founder of Queens Defenders. “The NYPD’s delay in identifying and sharing information related to cases where examiner error led to misidentification or tainting of a police investigation is deeply disturbing and undermines the integrity of the legal system. Further, the allegations of pervasive laboratory failures and cheating on OCME exams suggests a broken forensic collection system that cannot be relied upon to determine the outcome of an individual’s case. We are calling on the NYPD to immediately provide details of affected cases so that any miscarriages of justice can be expeditiously remedied. Queens Defenders is committed to defending and protecting all our clients who may have been impacted by these unjust systems and processes.”
“The NYPD’s disclosure letter reveals next to nothing about how this misidentification may have negatively impacted any number of our client’s cases,” said Jenny S. Cheung, Supervising Attorney of the DNA Unit at The Legal Aid Society. “It is unacceptable that even one client would have their right to a fair trial jeopardized as a result of the lack of disclosure of all pertinent case-related information to defendants and their counsel. We ask the DA’s Office to provide answers to the litany of questions raised by this disclosure letter, and promptly make all information available to attorneys and their clients.”
“New York State is third in the country in wrongful convictions, and it is incidents like this belated disclosure of a 2015 latent print misidentification that demonstrate why,” said Mariah Martinez, DNA & Forensics Unit Attorney at New York County Defender Services. “City District Attorneys must do better to mitigate and prevent wrongful convictions, starting by disclosing all of the cases that involved Detectives Joe Martinez, Gerald Rex, or Edward Sanabria, as required by the U.S. Constitution. This information potentially affects thousands of clients who these officers were associated with and raises the deeply concerning possibility of a wrongful conviction. Our clients deserve a complete accounting of process being used to evaluate each and every one of these cases to ensure that justice is delivered.”
“These recent disclosures show once again that NYC’s criminal legal system is optimized for securing convictions, not doing justice,” said Mark Zeno, Deputy Director at the Center for Appellate Litigation. “The means for determining who may have been unjustly convicted due to these chronic systemic failures within NYC’s law-enforcement apparatus are entirely within the government’s control, yet NYPD and the District Attorneys’ Offices have refused to identify those persons who may to-this-day be wrongfully incarcerated due to these failures. Our clients—and New York’s citizens—deserve better.”
“As defenders we are deeply concerned about the lack of transparency and failure to provide complete information. New Yorker’s deserve a more accountable criminal legal system that does not shield unjust results from correction. The behavior of the New York District Attorney’s office and the NYPD severely undermines the administration of justice. We join the call for a full, transparent, and independent audit of the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Latent Print Section,” said Caprice Jenerson, President & Attorney-in-Charge of Office of the Appellate Defender.
“When similar forensic laboratory errors occurred in other cities, such as Washington, D.C. or Houston, their departments engaged in rigorous, independent audits of their laboratories, allowing them to identify and correct systemic problems, ameliorating past failures of justice and preventing future harms,” said Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez, Director of the Science and Surveillance Project at Brooklyn Defenders. “In New York, eight years of secrecy and avoidance of accountability has allowed the problems within NYPD’s forensic lab to fester. After so much time, we, as defenders, are unable to identify the many cases and people impacted by this misidentification event and other scientific failures or misconduct emanating from it. The people of New York City deserve transparency, accountability, and scientific rigor. In this case, sunlight is truly the best disinfectant.”
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Read the full letter here.
New York City Public Defenders File Amicus Brief in Support of the Appointment of a Federal Receiver Over NYC Jails in Nunez v. City of New York
December 4, 2023
Contact:
Daniel Ball, Brooklyn Defender Services, (dball@bds.org)
Anthony Chiarito, The Bronx Defenders, (achiarito@bronxdefenders.org)
Emily Whitfield, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem,
(ewhitfield@neighborhooddefender.org)
Lupe Todd-Medina, New York County Defender Services, (LToddmedina@nycds.org)
Brian Schatz, Queens Defenders (bschatz@queensdefenders.org)
Michael Orey, New York University Law School, michael.orey@nyu.edu
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***
New York City Public Defenders File Amicus Brief in Support of the Appointment of a Federal Receiver Over NYC Jails in Nunez v. City of New York
(NEW YORK, NY) – The Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, New York County Defender Services, and Queens Defenders, with co-counsel NYU School of Law’s Civil Rights in the Criminal Legal System Clinic, filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs’ motion for contempt and appointment of a federal receiver over New York City jails in Nunez v. City of New York.
Eight years after the court entered its consent decree mandating significant reforms to reduce the use of excessive force in New York City jails, the people held in those jails are increasingly subject to intolerable and sometimes deadly violence and dysfunction. Amici submitted the brief in support of the plaintiffs’ application for the appointment of a receiver, as the NYC Department of Correction (“DOC”) has shown it is unwilling and unable to protect the people in its custody and their constitutional rights, or to undertake the reforms needed to comply with core provisions of the consent decree and other court-ordered relief.
In its brief, amici offer insights from their experience as public defenders to highlight the impact of DOC’s excessive force and hyper-confrontational culture on people in custody, and the severe consequences of exposing people to normalized violence and disorder. The brief recounts stories of people who amici represent who have suffered enormous physical and psychological harm as a result of the chaos and dysfunction in New York City jails.
The five defender offices stated:
“For years, we have seen New York City’s jails plunge deeper and deeper into an abyss of chaos and cruelty, yet what we have witnessed in the past two years has been alarming beyond measure. DOC’s increasingly pervasive culture of hostility and aggression has inflicted outrageous violence, suffering, and neglect on the people we represent. The severity and urgency of the crisis in NYC jails requires the appointment of a receiver. Given the experiences of the
people we represent, no lesser remedy is appropriate.”
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Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month | May 2023
May is Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, and we celebrate the rich and diverse contributions of people of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage. May was chosen as AAPI Month because of two key dates:
- May 7, 1843 commemorates the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the US.
- May 10, 1869, or Golden Spike Day, recognizes the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, which had significant contributions from Chinese workers.
Unfortunately, hate crimes against the AAPI community have dramatically increased across the nation and in NYC. For example, there were 131 reported hate crimes in NYC in 2021, compared with 28 in 2020. Unfortunately, this oppression is not new. The US has a painful history of discrimination against the AAPI community. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, for the first time, restricted entry of an ethnic group on the premise that it endangered the good order. During World War II, Japanese Americans on the West Coast were incarcerated at the order of the US Government because they were deemed a public danger.
The theme for AAPI Heritage Month in 2023 is Advancing Leaders Through Opportunity. We champion the successes of leaders in our AAPPI community. Here are a couple of organizations leading the cause for equal civil rights:
- The Asian American Foundation is a leading organization raising the influence and well-being of the pan-Asian American community. They work in the mental health, immigration integration, economic empowerment, and civic engagement spaces.
- NAAAP-New York (National Association of Asian American Professionals) is a Pan-Asian American professional organization that promotes the career advancement and leadership development of Asian American professionals.
Learn More Through Literature!
Inclusion: How Hawai‘i Protected Japanese Americans from Mass Internment, Transformed Itself, and Changed America by Tom Coffman
Here to Stay: Uncovering South Asian American History by Geetika Rudra
Citizens, Immigrants, and the Stateless: A Japanese American Diaspora in the Pacific by Michael R. Jin
The Loneliest Americans by Jay Caspian Kang
Pedagogies of Woundedness: Illness, Memoir, and the Ends of the Model Minority by James Kyung-Jin Lee
Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans by Jenny Wang
We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story by Simu Liu
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
May is Mental Health Awareness Month
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Despite cultural progress, mental health issues and care are still stigmatized in our society. Recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, political turmoil, environmental worries, and societal concerns of civil rights being stripped away only compound struggles with mental health.
Mental health care access for our clients is an acute problem. The Rikers Island, Department of Corrections complex is the largest psychiatric provider in NYC and one of the largest in the country. Approximately 50% of the Rikers’ population has a mental health diagnosis, and about 16% have a serious mental health diagnosis. Yet, mental health access is extremely poor at the Rikers Island complex. The following article details the deaths at Rikers Island through 2022, many of which are suicides. As a disclaimer, the article is very sad and troubling: https://www.nytimes.com/article/rikers-deaths-jail.html
Prioritizing access to mental health care should be a paramount concern for us, as QD colleagues and advocates for NYC’s most vulnerable populations. We struggle with criminal, family, housing, and immigration courts, and white supremacy and classism are baked into these systems which destroy lives, families, and communities. As public defender professionals, we consequently cope with secondary or vicarious trauma. This can manifest in many ways, including loss of sleep, headaches, stomachaches, chest pain, poor eating habits, or struggling to keep healthy relationships.
Learn More Through Literature!
Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others Paperback by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky and Connie Burk
Sometimes Amazing Things Happen: Heartbreak and Hope on the Bellevue Hospital Psychiatric Prison Ward by Elizabeth Ford MD, Bernadette Dunne, et al.
Stop Overthinking: 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present by Nick Trenton
The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Letting Go: The Pathway To Surrender by David R. Hawkins
Transgender Day of Visibility - March 31st 2023
International Transgender Day of Visibility aims to celebrate the transgender community, while also drawing attention to discrimination and attacks faced by transgender and non-binary people. This issue couldn’t be more relevant today as state legislatures around the country are passing anti-trans bills.
We would like to highlight this courageous story from the Nebraska legislature. Machaela Cavanaugh, a Nebraska state senator, has engaged in a filibuster since February to prevent an anti-trans bill from becoming law. This bill would criminalize certain medicine and health care procedures for trans people under the age of 19. This filibuster has snarled virtually all action in the Nebraska state legislature.
We would also like to highlight this video on NBC News that includes an interview with actress and GLAAD (the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy group) Board Member, Peppermint, and Executive Director of the National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, Carter Brown. They discuss how to be a respectful ally to the transgender community amid this waive of harmful legislation.
Ramadan 2023
The 29–30-day long holiday of Ramadan begins on March 22nd. Ramadan is celebrated during the 9th and holiest month of the Islamic calendar. During this month, Muslims believe that God gave the Qur’an to the Prophet Mohammad and instructed him to carry God’s message. Ramadan is a period where Muslims strengthen their relationship with God. Through fasting daily from dawn until sunset, Muslims gain a greater understanding of the lives of people who are disadvantaged.
Muslims have a long history in the United States that dates to the African slave trade. Scholars estimate that around 30% of the Africans brought to the US during the slave trade were Muslim. Black Americans made up most of the Muslim population in the US before the Civil War. Today, Muslim America is one of the most diverse Muslim communities in the world. For example, around 30% of Muslim Americans are Asian, 20% are Black, and there is a growing population of Muslims with Latin American heritage. This can be seen through the cuisine during Iftar, breaking fast, that represents the various Muslim communities and cultures in the US. This intersectionality is a beautiful aspect of Muslim America.
However, Islamophobia is increasing in the United States. This acceleration was partially driven by the events of September 11, 2001. We see and hear hateful rhetoric from business and political leaders today. This language only emboldens people to harm the Muslim community and challenge their rights and freedom in the US.
Eid al-Fitr
April 21st, is Eid al-Fitr, a holiday which concludes the holy month of Ramadan. As Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Fitr, we honor the important contributions of the Muslim community in New York City. This is also a time to remember our blessings as Ramadan is a holiday devoted to charity and generosity. Zakat al-Fitr is a “charity of breaking the fast” – “zakat” is one of the 5 pillars of Islam – that is to enable less fortunate people the ability to celebrate Eid al-Fitr. As Ramadan concludes on Eid al-Fitr, we remember Muslim communities struggling with poverty and enduring conflict around the world.
Islamic Relief USA is an organization that helps Muslim communities in the US and around the world. Zakat on Eid al-Fitr is one of their biggest sources of donations. See here for more information.
Queens Defenders wishes everyone who celebrates a happy and blessed Eid al-Fitr.
Statement Against Laws and Bills Targeting Black and LGBTQ+ People
Queens Defenders stands with the Black and LGBTQ+ communities.
The United States is seeing a continued effort to erase the history of Black people. These bills and laws thwart progress by eliminating or making illegal education curricula, Black fraternities and sororities, and diversity and inclusion programs. The goal of these efforts is to further racist policies that segregate, hinder development, and promote white supremacy. While this is not new in the United States, it is still jarring and horrifying.
There are over 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills percolating in state legislatures around the country. Laws that involve hate against LGBTQ+ people have recently been enacted in various states, and many of these laws specifically target the transgender community for harassment and dislodging from our society. These bills and laws restrict education, entertainment, family autonomy, and health care for the LGBTQ+ community.
Black and LGBTQ+ people are our coworkers, friends, family, and clients. We stand firmly against hate and lies. Many of us may request learning to understand how to help Black and LGBTQ+ people, and we will provide professional development opportunities for those who wish.
We will not compromise QD’s commitment to the respect and dignity for all our Black and LGBTQ+ community members. Queens Defenders stands behind the right for all Black and LGBTQ+ people to exist free from oppression and hate.
Women's History Month & International Women's Day | 2023
March is Women’s History Month. International Women’s Day began as a legal movement for labor rights in the early 20th century. After International Women’s Day was commemorated on March 8th, the month of March became Women’s History Month. The legal profession in the United States has been shaped by trailblazing women, and we are all indebted to the contributions of women as we strive for equality and justice. I encourage you to review this website, as the American Bar Association has highlighted a variety of women in the legal field to celebrate.
The fight for gender equality continues. Prison rates for women continue to rise and mass incarceration has a devastating impact on women. Click on this link for Vera’s report. As segments of our country attempt to strip health care rights away from women, the disparity in health care for Black women is abysmal, which is noted by the maternal mortality rate being more than double for Black women. Additionally, trans women face a grim reality in the United States as their health care and safety are challenged. This is especially the case in NYC as trans women endure increasing violence at Rikers.
March 8th is International Women’s Day, a time to highlight & acknowledge the achievements women have made to our society and the legal profession. A theme for International Women’s Day in 2023 is to #EmbraceEquity. At Queens Defenders and beyond, we aim to recognize how people start from different places. We then employ equitable action and programs to create meaningful opportunities and inclusion. This cannot be achieved without focusing on gender equity for all women.
Queens Defenders centers its mission and values around fighting for justice in an equitable and inclusive way, and justice for all women is at the heart of our work.
Black History Month and QD's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Values
During Black History Month, we reflect on the contributions of African Americans on our history and culture. The accomplishments of Black Americans are grand, and the United States owes an incalculable debt to the successes of Black Americans. Please note that Queens Defenders has a library of Black history books in the 3rd floor conference room.
A theme for Black History Month 2023 is resistance. Black Americans have resisted slavery, lynchings, racial terrorism, ongoing forms of segregation and harassment, and police killings. At Queens Defenders, as we mourn the death of Tyre Nichols and countless Black Americans who have suffered at the hands of police violence, we challenge ourselves to celebrate the accomplishments of Black Americans while fighting to uproot racism and oppression in the criminal legal system and beyond. We challenge ourselves to not relegate this work to the month of February. In the spirit of continual work to replace racism with inclusion, Queens Defenders has updated its values for diversity, equity & inclusion, including our devotion to working from an anti-racist and anti-oppression lens. Please see here:
- Diverse: QD represents and appreciates the differences in our community.
- Equitable: QD provides everyone with the opportunities to succeed. This recognizes that marginalized groups continue to endure discrimination and oppression. Advantages and barriers mean that not everyone starts in the same place.
- Inclusive:
• All QD team members feel a sense of belonging.
• QD is actively inviting the participation of all.
• QD is creating avenues of growth and development for all. - Anti-racist and anti-oppression lens: We identify racist and oppressive practices and replace them with diverse, equitable, and inclusive ones.
Public Defenders and Civil Legal Services Providers Call for Increased Funding to Ensure High Quality Representation and Other Critical Services for Low-Income New Yorkers
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***
Public Defenders and Civil Legal Services Providers Call for Increased Funding to Ensure High Quality Representation and Other Critical Services for Low-Income New Yorkers
(NEW YORK, NY) – New York’s leading public defender and civil legal service providers called for increased funding in the City budget, highlighting the dire impact underfunding has wrought on their ability to meet the needs of low-income New Yorkers.
Not only have chronic underfunding and contracting issues led to widespread attrition, but if unaddressed this year, New Yorkers will be further marginalized and disconnected from critical services, reinforcing bias in the legal system and eroding public safety.
Citywide Criminal Defense Budget Demands
New York’s leading public defenders – The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, New York County Defender Services, and the Queens Defenders – are requesting $125 million from the City for Fiscal Year 2024, which is subject to change should Albany allocate sufficient funding to local defender offices for these purposes, to:
- increase salaries to properly compensate staff for their critical work and to allow people to meet their living expenses;
- meet existing discovery needs, including hiring additional staff and technology improvements to collect, store, organize and share the evidence on cases;
- assure caseloads meet standards and are reasonable for attorneys and other staff;
- guarantee top quality legal representation for the people we represent and provide additional services, such as social workers;
- combat ongoing attrition so that cases are not transferred from one attorney to another, which is contributing to court delay.
Citywide Civil Legal Services Budget Demands
Dozens of civil legal services providers who administer critical housing, eviction, immigration and other related work are calling on the City to provide at least $300 million in increased funding in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget to:
- increase all civil legal services providers’ baselined contracts;
- increase providers’ capacity to represent all eligible people who come through New York City Housing Court;
- fund salary increases for staff to address unprecedented attrition and to attract prospective hires;
- bridge the funding shortfall that undercut providers’ ability to administer essential civil legal services work.
Citywide Family Defense Budget Demands
New York’s family defense legal providers – Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, Center for Family Representation, and Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem – are requesting an additional $30 million in the FY24 budget for lawyers for parents. This is above the $50 million that is baselined in the current budget. This money will:
- ensure workload meets statewide standards and is reasonable for attorneys and other staff;
- ensure parents are represented by qualified counsel with the expertise, time, and resources necessary to dedicate to these important cases;
- combat ongoing attrition to reduce transfers which interrupt representation and contribute to court backlogs;
- provide critical social work and parent advocate services.
“Defenders and civil legal services providers are just as much a part of the legal system as the prosecutors, police, corrections, and others in law enforcement,” said Twyla Carter, Attorney-in-Chief and CEO of The Legal Aid Society. “When one side is overwhelmingly funded and one is severely underfunded, people suffer, and injustices flourish, disproportionately affecting low-income New Yorkers of color. The City can still do right by our organizations and our clients by prioritizing our needs in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget to ensure that the New Yorkers and the communities we serve receive the legal representation that they need.”
“When we are underfunded, it doesn’t just undermine our mandate to provide legal and support services, but the legal rights of every New Yorker,” said Justine Olderman, Executive Director of The Bronx Defenders. “Every day, thousands of New Yorkers come through our doors fighting to stay in their homes, reunite with family, and access services they need. Yet the City’s inability to meet its funding and contracting obligations, while touting the high quality representation and services we provide, is a slap in the faces of struggling New Yorkers. New York’s actions must match its rhetoric. We demand fair funding in this year’s budget.”
“By chronically underfunding public defenders, Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams are keeping a thumb on the scales of justice – a scale already weighted against the Black and Brown people disproportionately represented in our country’s criminal and civil legal institutions due to systemic racism,” said Alice Fontier, Managing Director of Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem. “Public defenders provide the services that create true public safety. We keep families united, connect our clients to a wide range of much-needed services – such as childcare, mental health treatment and job training – and help people stay in their homes. It makes sense not only morally but economically to adequately fund the essential services we provide to our fellow New Yorkers.”
“An investment in New York City’s public defenders is an investment in our City’s most marginalized and vulnerable citizens,” said Lori Zeno, Executive Director of Queens Defenders. “Public defenders know better than most the insurmountable impact a criminal charge can have on a person’s ability to maintain employment, housing, keep their family together, and more. We call on the City to recognize the vital role our Attorneys and Social Workers play in mitigating the impact of a criminal charge on someone’s ability to live a productive, fulfilling life by adequately funding the services we provide in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget.”
“Failure to properly fund public defense not only threatens New Yorker’s legal right to counsel, it jeopardizes the well-being of the thousands of people who rely on our services each year. Public defense organizations are an essential resource to low and no-income people facing extremely harsh outcomes in the legal system, such as imprisonment and long-term family separation. Every person we represent deserves an attorney who has the time and resources to be fully prepared for their case.” said Lisa Schreibersdorf, Executive Director of Brooklyn Defender Services. “The City has the ability to assure justice in the legal system by properly funding our offices in the coming fiscal year and we urge them to do so.”
“The rights of New Yorkers are in jeopardy if civil legal services providers and public defenders are not adequately funded,” said Lisa Rivera, president and CEO of New York Legal Assistance Group. “For New Yorkers experiencing poverty and marginalization, especially in our BIPOC communities, our services are not optional: they are the difference between a secure home and homelessness, between having food on their tables and going hungry, between building a life free of violence and being forced back into danger, and much more. We cannot continue to meet the needs of our clients while the City chronically underfunds our work and delays our contracts. The City must fairly fund civil and defender legal services in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget so that the rights of New Yorkers are protected.”
“Every New Yorker deserves a fighting chance, especially low-income New Yorkers who are just one step away from extreme poverty, homelessness, food instability, deportation, and life-threatening health issues,” said Raun Rasmussen, Executive Director of Legal Services NYC. “But without adequate funding for civil legal services providers and public defenders, these communities don’t stand a chance. Like other providers, we are fighting to meet the growing needs of New Yorkers looking for a lifeline, especially struggling families trying to restabilize coming out of this pandemic. New York City must do the right thing and meet the funding needs of its first-line defenders so that every New Yorker can access the legal services and resources they need to thrive.”
“Civil legal service providers and public defenders provide access to justice for the most vulnerable New Yorkers,” said Tiffany Liston, Executive Director of Mobilization for Justice. “This crucial work for New Yorkers in crisis is underestimated and underfunded. We call on this City to live up to its promise, and provide adequate funding in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget for the sake of the most marginalized communities and the advocates that fight for them.”
“Equal justice for all cannot be a reality until there is sufficient funding provided to civil legal service providers and public defenders to enable them to provide critical legal services to those most in need,” said Jessica Rose, Executive Director of Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A. “Current funding falls far short of what is needed to build and sustain adequate staffing at our organizations to meet the demand for our services.”
“Our city’s public defender system is at a crisis point,” said Stan Germán, Executive Director of the New York County Defender Services. “Our lawyers are living in the most expensive city in the nation on a legal salary that is not proportionate with other attorneys in the field. Meanwhile, as our city increases police presence on the streets and subways, and the court system continues to send more of our indigent residents – mostly Black and Brown men – to Rikers Island, legal representation for our most vulnerable is left with the heavy promise of juggling crushing caseloads and the Sisyphean task of managing excellent representation for every client. We are not asking for pay equity that is aligned with the salaries of big law firms. We are asking for a living wage increase so that we are able to recruit and retain excellent attorneys for our clients who deserve nothing but our very best.”
“Last year, CAMBA Legal Services provided legal assistance to more than 8,700 individuals in the areas of immigration, foreclosure prevention, consumer law, and housing,” said Janet Miller, Executive Vice President of CAMBA Legal Services. “Without adequate funding for the network of individuals and organizations providing this kind of critical support to struggling New Yorkers across the five boroughs, these vulnerable individuals and families will be left without meaningful access to justice to protect their rights and secure their futures. Investing in free legal services is key to social justice. It is also a critical investment in our communities and our shared future.”
“Legal services ensure access to life-saving healthcare, accessible housing and transportation, quality education, permanent immigration status, and healthy neighborhoods,” said McGregor Smyth, Executive Director of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “But New York has chronically underfunded the hard-working people that provide these critical services. New Yorkers deserve better. In its FY24 budget, the City must commit to funding fairness and contracting reform to ensure that these organizations have the resources they need to succeed.”
“Legal aid attorneys offer life-changing representation to vulnerable, low-income families who otherwise have the deck stacked against them. But lately, our city’s legal services have been stretched too thin, as attorneys and staff continue to transition to the private sector due to crushing workloads, insufficient resources, and low pay,” said Council Member Shaun Abreu. “We have the blueprint to retaining talent in the public sector and ensuring all New Yorkers can exercise their inviolable right to legal counsel. Now, it’s time to act on it: we need to increase funding to legal services organizations, revamp our city’s contracting process so payments are sent on time, and do everything in our power so that legal counsel remains a right, not a privilege.”
“The work of New York City’s public defenders and civil legal services organizations is indispensable to the countless marginalized New Yorkers they serve,” said Council Member Kevin C. Riley. “Action is needed now to address ongoing issues with urgent investments, not budget cuts or underfunding. Cutting funding to an already overwhelmed system not only seeks to further disenfranchise low-income families and communities of color, but it also exacerbates the lack of resources, staffing, and support our providers need to meet the City’s high-demand for critical services. I stand with my colleagues, public defenders, legal service agencies and all advocates to demand improvements to infrastructure and advancements that empower defenders and providers to better serve our city.”
“Every day, public defenders and civil legal service providers serve my constituents at risk of eviction, deportation, losing their public benefits, and other issues facing New Yorkers experiencing poverty,” said Council Member Tiffany Cabán. “As a former public defender myself, I know all too well what a formidable disadvantage they would be at without such advocates, and what it means for advocates to forgo higher-paying jobs in order to serve our communities. Their ability to support my constituents is directly related to their own financial stability. If they are worried about making rent, affordable health insurance, or navigating an unmanageable workload — or worse still, if they’re leaving their jobs entirely — their clients will bear the brunt. It’s time we honored the vital work performed by our public defenders and civil legal service providers.”
“The compounding crises that we are addressing in the city are interrelated — as a tenant faces eviction and housing costs soar, they turn to organizations like Legal Aid for representation,” said Council Member Carmen De La Rosa. “The most vulnerable New Yorkers are calling on us to fund the vital social services that they depend on to survive in our city. We cannot talk about reducing recidivism rates, equal access to representation, and harm reduction without funding competitive benefits for our legal workers.”
“Our public defenders are the first line of defense for working-class residents against an increasingly hostile economic structure. They protect our neighbors from evictions, advocate on their behalf when their wages have been stolen, and represent them in court when they’re entangled in the criminal justice system. But chronic underfunding is putting their important work at risk,” said Council Member Shahana Hanif. “I’m proud to stand with the Legal Aid Society to call for a truly just budget. Underfunding and a dire lack of resources is overburdening the caseload of our public defenders, leading to increased burnout and worse outcomes for those they represent. In this budget fight, I am committed to getting our public defenders the dollars they need to represent our neighbors and keep working-class New Yorkers safe.”
“Public defenders are on the frontlines fighting for my constituents, and I stand with them as they urge the City Council to adequately fund the legal services our communities depend on,” said Council Member Alexa Avilés.
“Chronic underfunding of public defender and civil legal services organizations has directly harmed New Yorkers most in need. We cannot achieve Right to Counsel for tenants facing eviction or reduce the population at Rikers if we fail to increase funding in order to retain and recruit staff for legal services organizations,” said Council Member Lincoln Restler.
Background
The widespread underfunding of organizations that provide legal services in New York City has been developing for years and is now at a crisis level. This includes public defenders in criminal and family cases as well as attorneys who work on housing, immigration, employment, education, and benefits for hundreds of thousands of low-income people each year.
The City has failed to provide funding at levels that allow adequate staffing to meet contract requirements. In addition, basic cost increases, such as office rent and health insurance for staff, have not been covered. This forces organizations to reduce staffing in order to pay for office space and supplies, and meet other organizational responsibilities. There remains little room in the budget for well-deserved raises for staff as a result, even though these essential workers came to work throughout the pandemic and continue to show up in courts, jails, homes and communities every day.
Until now, public defender and civil legal service organizations have had to manage these budget shortfalls by choosing not to fill staff vacancies and delaying critical investments in technology that are needed in today’s digital age. Unfilled vacancies result in higher caseloads for staff who remain. This is unfair to clients whose cases are transferred to an attorney who is not fully familiar with their case. It is also increasingly impossible to keep track of documents and video evidence on cases due to the inadequate storage solutions that cannot be upgraded without significant financial investment.
New York City has always been an expensive city which has been difficult for staff at non-profit legal service organizations. With increasing inflation over the past year, many staff have had no choice but to leave their jobs or work more than one job, while still carrying high caseloads. The impact of skyrocketing inflation, and the likely return of student loan repayments combined with the cost of living in New York, is untenable for people who work for the public good as attorneys, social workers, paralegals and other administrative, and technical service staff. Many are forced to leave the public sector in order to make a living wage in New York City, leaving a wide gap in the experience needed by the complexity of the cases and circumstances involved for many of the people represented by these legal services organizations.
According to internal data collected from local public defender offices including The Legal Aid Society, The Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, Queens Defenders, and New York County Defender Services, attrition rates are at a double digit level, and in some cases up to roughly 25 percent. Some report increases in attrition of approximately 70 percent to more than 200 percent compared to last year. Without a significant increase in salary, there will be continued attrition and loss of invaluable and irreplaceable staff.
These funding needs, combined with well-documented delays in contract registration and payments, have created a crisis for legal services in New York City. Defenders are a major counterbalance to many racially and ethnically biased enforcement policies and outcomes that take place on a daily basis. Inadequate funding hampers their ability to continue to make a difference for individual people and families, most of whom are BIPOC and reside in under-resourced communities. If left unaddressed, these funding issues will further marginalize hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and disconnect them from the legal, civil, and social services they need to survive and thrive. True public safety comes from investments that keep people in their homes, in their jobs, and with their families. The City must meet the demands made today.
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