NDS opened its doors in 1991 to address some of the long-standing problems facing indigent criminal defense providers. Its community defense approach is manifested in a number of innovations -- including location in the community, early entry into a case, team representation and providing comprehensive social service support to help clients address an array of problems, even after their cases are over, have been and continue to be replicated in defender offices throughout the country and around the world. Our most recent innovation, defensaNDS,provides the many clients in our community for whom Spanish is their first language with representation from a fully bilingual team including attorneys, an investigator a social worker and a paralegal.

As part of its holistic, client-centered approach to service, through its Civil Justice Project NDS offers representation in civil cases that clients face as a result of current or past involvement in the criminal justice system. NDS provides a full range of social services to current and former clients to address problems that may have contributed to their court involvement, and to help clients and families find long-term solutions that will increase their chances of leading law-abiding and productive lives. NDS has enhanced its resources by forming strategic partnerships with major law firms through its Volunteer Attorney Program. Through a new initiative, Diligent Dads, NDS staff will work with non-custodial fathers who have been involved in the justice system to assist them in gaining the skills, resources and confidence to become more fully engaged in the lives of their children.

NDS also engages in community education activities to make sure community residents are aware of its services and to help them better understand how the criminal justice system operates. Through our youth leadership program, Students Taking Action Towards Empowerment (STATE), NDS helps teens and young adults develop skills that will assist them in minimizing the likelihood of violence or arrest when they interact with police, and provides a variety of activities designed to develop the leadership skills of program participants.

If you would like information about our services or to learn more about our education programs email us at segarra@ndsny.org or call (212) 876-5500.

Community Defense

Over 15 years ago, a group of career public defenders came together to create NDS. They came from different parts of the country, but all shared a sense of frustration that the systems in which they had worked had become less and less about service to their clients. They were disturbed that they met their clients only minutes before their court appearances, with virtually no opportunity to talk to them about their lives or the accusations they faced. These defenders were also concerned that they had no real understanding of the communities where their clients lived. Most of all, they understood that these circumstances prevented them from coming even close to providing their clients the quality of representation they would receive if they were able to hire an attorney -- and they wanted to do something about that.

Through a series of innovations NDS has successfully addressed these problems, with the goal of providing for its clients a service closer to the one would receive if he or she were able to afford private counsel. We offer our services upon request, and are prepared to begin representation immediately after arrest, or as soon as a family thinks it might need a lawyer. Through our team defense approach, we devote significant resources to investigators to help our lawyers vigorously defend our clients, and to social workers who assist clients in dealing with the underlying problems that brought them into court in the first place. Our community-based office is located in Central Harlem, in the heart of the communities we serve, and we work hard to establish meaningful relationships not only with our clients, but the members of their families who are also affected by their problems.

defensaNDS

defensaNDS addresses a significant obstacle to providing quality representation in the immigrant, Spanish speaking communities in our service area. Clients who cannot speak English frequently are unable to communicate directly with their attorneys. As a result, attorneys often provide legal advice and information via constantly changing third parties with often varying degrees of fluency. Language and cultural barriers also limit the capacity of these clients and their families to comprehend fully how the justice system in the United States operates as compared to their countries of origin. This inhibits their ability to secure equal access to justice.

In the style of our traditional model of team defense representation, defensaNDS is a bilingual unit composed of lawyers, a social worker, an investigator, and a paralegal to allow us to provide fully bilingual services to our Spanish-speaking clients. In addition, we have developed bilingual materials and community education workshops to help Spanish speaking clients and their families better understand the criminal justice system and the service NDS provides.

Social Services

The NDS social work staff supports our attorneys in their representation of clients by assessing their resources and their needs, thereby assisting attorneys in better presenting our clients at trial and helping to advocate for individualized dispositions, where appropriate. NDS social service staff also supports clients and their families throughout the life of a criminal matter, and even after the case is resolved. They help clients get drug programs, find a doctor, obtain health insurance, and find a place to get counseling. NDS social workers help clients determine their eligibility for public or subsidized housing, find job training or employment programs, or re-enroll in school or obtain a GED. NDS continues to work with clients and their families during a period of incarceration and when client clients return home.

Civil Justice Project

The NDS Civil Justice Project seeks to help clients and their families address the broad range of civil legal problems they face as a result of criminal justice system involvement. Over the past twenty years crime reduction has been a major policy goal in New York, as in most municipalities. In conjunction with increased numbers of arrests, we have seen an escalating level of “civil prosecution” of our clients. In public and New York City owned housing, laws that permit the eviction of drug dealers are being applied to their families. In family court accusations of "abuse" that would have resulted in social services intervention now result in the removal of the children. And the police have used increasingly violent and threatening tactics to achieve their goals, with little fear of reprisal. The barriers to employment, housing and education for individuals who have had some contact with the criminal justice system impede any chance our clients have of fully reengaging in their communities as productive citizens.

The NDS civil team represents clients in a broad range of civil matters, principally housing matters, family court child protective proceedings and police brutality and misconduct matters. The team also assists individuals with criminal records with a variety of reentry services to assist them in overcoming the impediments to fully reintegrating into their communities.

Volunteer Attorney Project

Through our Volunteer Attorney Project NDS has begun to expand resources available to meet a variety of legal needs, while also providing support and training for lawyers in private practice interested in providing pro bono services. The practice areas in which we are currently receiving support for our clients from our law firm partners include criminal court advocacy, immigration practice, school disciplinary hearings and police misconduct matters.

Diligent Dads

Diligent Dads, funded through the Fatherhood Initiative of the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, is designed to provide an array of services to fathers in order to strengthen their relationships with their children and to enhance their ability to care for them both financially and emotionally. The project targets non-custodial fathers who have had past involvement with the criminal justice system, and provides them with a range of services, including individual and family counseling, educational and employment services, parenting skills, peer mentoring, and assistance with visitation and child support issues.

Community Education

Through educational workshops with tenant associations, social service agencies and youth programs, NDS informs community residents of the array of services available to them, discusses the myths and realities of how the criminal justice system operates, and explores the rights and responsibilities of ordinary citizens and members of law enforcement,. Community members ranging from teenagers to senior citizens want advice on how to deal with police who stop them on the street; parents and grandparents want to know how to help children who get in trouble; and everyone wants help navigating a criminal justice system that seems foreign and hostile. Our education and outreach programs respond directly to these needs, helping people cope with the daily frustrations and occasional crises of life in heavily policed inner city neighborhoods.

NDS workshops are principally aimed at economically disadvantaged and other minority groups who are at a disproportionate risk of arrest, incarceration, and incumbent deprivation of civil rights. Conflicts with Cops is an award-winning ten-class high school curriculum that uses lectures, videos, and role-plays to educate young people about how to manage conflicts and diffuse encounters with the police. Know Your Rights is another workshop designed to test knowledge and understanding of the criminal justice system and is conducted for youth and adult audiences at community centers, religious organizations and other community locations. NDS is also a regular participant in community resource fairs, summer street festivals and other venues that provide an opportunity to provide information to community residents.

STATE - Student Taking Action Towards Empowerment

The Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (NDS) developed the Students Taking Action Towards Empowerment Program (STATE) in 1999 to educate young New Yorkers about their legal rights, help them develop safer methods when interacting with the police and courts and increase the dialogue between the community and officials of the law. Over its eight-year life, STATE has evolved into a comprehensive youth leadership development program which includes an Executive Internship, After-School and Summer Program, more fully described at www.ndsny.org\state.