Brooklyn Defenders

Help us meet our goal of raising $15,000 to cover exorbitant immigration application fees for our clients who cannot afford them! Exorbitant application fees are often the only thing preventing immigrant New Yorkers from being able to obtain lawful status, support their families, and live life out from under the shadows and fear of deportation. Your support has helped dozens of people pay for DACA application forms ($605), green card renewals ($465), work authorizations ($520), medical exams ($300), and much more. With a gift today, you can provide direct assistance to immigrant New Yorkers. Donate to our Critical Items Fund. https://lnkd.in/e5EBCkaJ

Brooklyn Defender Services Pro Bono unit is celebrating a wonderful year of successful and impactful pro bono partnerships. In 2024, we partnered with 22 firms and were able to leverage resources and expertise back to our clients to secure the best possible case outcomes. We are extraordinarily grateful to all our partners and are excited to share some highlights from Fall and Winter! https://lnkd.in/eVTdm_wB

On December 18th, 2024, Brooklyn Defenders Pro Bono unit partnered with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP to assist BDS clients with their Employment Authorization Document (EAD) applications. EAD's, also known as ‘work permits’, allow immigrant New Yorkers to legally obtain employment. These documents are vital for immigrants to access meaningful economic opportunities that allow them to acquire further resources to ensure their sustained success in the US. Thanks to the help of Simpson Thacher's dedicated volunteers, five people were able to submit their EAD applications. For more information about our pro bono partnerships, visit our website: https://lnkd.in/evBea65y

We just released a report analyzing newly obtained NYPD data of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology. Our analysis confirms what we’ve long suspected - Shotspotter fails to make our communities safer, at the expense of increased surveillance and policing of Black and Latine neighborhoods and tens of millions of dollars. Since 2015, New York City has spent over $54 million on ShotSpotter, a surveillance technology that is claimed to improve the identification of gunfire incidents through the use of an array of microphones and sensors located throughout the city.  Our analysis of nine years of previously undisclosed data reveals this expensive technology is unreliable and fails to make New Yorkers safer. When the NYPD investigated a ShotSpotter alert over a nine year span, over 83% of the time they found nothing to confirm that gunfire occurred. This means that NYC spent over $45M of the ShotSpotter contract on alerts that result in nothing. Less than one percent of the ShotSpotter alerts led to a firearm being recovered. But the impact of ShotSpotter on New Yorkers is striking. ShotSpotter alerts deploy officers to NYC neighborhoods over 22 times a day. And Black and Latine New Yorkers bear the overwhelming brunt of ShotSpotter-related police deployments, making up 2/3 of the New Yorkers who live in areas surveilled by ShotSpotter. Black residents in the city live in the same police precinct as 93% more unconfirmed alerts than the citywide average. While technologies like ShotSpotter are marketed as simple ways to increase NYPD efficiency, these tools fundamentally alter the landscape of policing and surveillance, disproportionately burdening communities that are already facing the brunt of police interaction and violence. Given the tool’s lack of reliability and high cost, it is clear that NYC should not renew its contract for this technology. Instead, the city should use this investment on efforts that actually make our communities safer: education, health, poverty reduction, cure-violence and community-based programs, and other resources. Read our full report: https://lnkd.in/dYxrHWnr Read our Q&A in Hell Gate: https://lnkd.in/dQvtcTu4

BDS’ Civil Justice Practice aims to reduce the civil collateral consequences for the people we represent in criminal, family, or immigration legal matters. We work with New Yorkers before they get to housing court, many of whom face illegal lockouts from their landlords. Additional protections are needed both to protect the many tenants who do not have access to pre-litigation legal assistance and to discourage landlords from engaging in illegal lockouts in the future. Earlier this month, Evan Ma, Staff Attorney in our Civil Justice Practice, testified at the City Council in support of a slate of legislation that would protect tenants against illegal lockouts. Read his full testimony on our website. https://lnkd.in/e8bBdhhj

This month, Brooklyn Defender Services’ Policy & Advocacy team was proud to co-present the panel “Family Separation: How Family and Criminal Courts Contribute to the Separation of Families and the Transformative Legislative Campaigns Fighting for Change” at the SOMOS Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hosted by New York Assemblymember Amanda Septimo, the discussion shed light on the deeply interconnected systems of family policing, juvenile legal proceedings, and the adult criminal legal system, emphasizing how these systems often perpetuate cycles of family separation and incarceration. The panel explored how legal advocacy, public education, and grassroots organizing can disrupt this pipeline, including community-based alternatives, transformative legislation, and investments in families rather than punitive systems. Alongside colleagues from the The Bronx Defenders and Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, we reinforced a vision where families remain united, supported, and free from oppressive systems of punishment and surveillance.

Spread holiday cheer with a gift today!   Please support Brooklyn Defenders’ Holiday Toy Drive to benefit the families we serve and bring toys to children this holiday season.   You can share in the joy of giving by donating brand new toys from our Holiday Wish List https://lnkd.in/ec8t_-Km Alternatively, monetary donations for gifts can be made here: https://lnkd.in/ePp_3e6d Together, we can make this season brighter for families in our community. Thank you for making a difference!

On October 22nd, 2024, Brooklyn Defenders' Pro Bono unit partnered with Davis Wright Tremaine LLP to provide BDS clients with critical support to overcome systemic barriers to employment opportunities as a result of an ACS or family court case. Davis Wright’s volunteers were educated on the harms of system involvement for parents, children, and caregivers, and received comprehensive training by BDS staff on how to best support our clients in navigating the New York’s State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of Davis Wright's volunteers, eight parents represented by our Family Defense Practice received assistance with removing their name from the State Central Register. We are so grateful for Davis Wright's commitment and dedication to this work, and we look forward to partnering with them again in the future!

On October 4th, Brooklyn Defender Services hosted a group of judges and lawyers from Ukraine working on local anti-corruption matters. The Ukraine Study Tour, hosted by the US Department of State, spent a week touring courts and the offices of public defenders and prosecutors with the aim of equipping these officials with the knowledge and tools needed to effectively combat high-level corruption. The tour included a walk through of BDS’ office and a presentation by our senior criminal defense staff. Yung-Mi Lee, Legal Director of BDS’ Criminal Defense Practice, led a panel of senior staff to share best practices on trial advocacy, case management, and plea agreement techniques within an adversarial legal system. The team shared BDS’ intensive trial training for new and experienced criminal defense attorneys and described our interdisciplinary model of defense that pairs investigators, science and technology experts and social workers with criminal defense attorneys to provide the best representation to our clients. We thank our visitors from Ukraine for the opportunity to share our mission, knowledge, and the perspective of public defense to help them develop their legal practice. 

Don't miss the September edition of Brooklyn Defenders’ monthly newsletter! This month’s issue contains a recap of our successful Back To School Barbecue & Resource Fair, as well as our featured spotlight on the "Promoting Pre-Trial Stability Act". Follow the link to read and subscribe to stay updated on the latest news and insights about our public defense and advocacy work. https://lnkd.in/exU9PiM7