- Over $50 million has been taken from the Indigent Legal Services Fund (ILSF) and transferred into the state's general fund in the past few years according to this editorial in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. According to section 98-b of New York State Finance Law, the purpose of the ILSF is to "assist counties...in providing legal representation for persons who are financially unable to afford counsel."
- New York must raise its age of criminal responsibility to 18 according to Chief Justice Jonathan Lippman, writing in the Cardozo Law Review. "Our system of juvenile justice in New York is broken and must be changed," he wrote, recommending the establishment of a "Youth Division" within the state's superior courts. Another article in the same issue by Nancy Ginsburg discussed a special project at New York City's Legal Aid Society to provide representation to teenagers charged in adult court. Relatedly, on April 9, Governor Cuomo announced the members of the Commission on Youth, Public Safety & Justice tasked with drafting recommendations on "New York's criminal and juvenile justice systems" by the end of 2014.
- Allegany County will hire a fourth public defender using funds obtained from the Office of Indigent Legal Services under its recent grant program, according to this report from the Olean Times Herald.
- Robin Steinberg discussed holistic representation in this recent piece on NPR. Host Michel Martin interviewed Steinberg, Executive Director of the Bronx Defenders, and a client, Anthony, as part of a series on the impact of poverty produced to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
- Federal attention is desperately needed to resolve the crisis indigent defense as ILS Director Bill Leahy argued in a speech delivered to the European Association of American Studies in the Hague last week, and discussed here on the Sixth Amendment Center blog.
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