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Save the Date: Celebrate 30 Years of NDS with Cardi B
For 30 years, NDS has fought for our neighbors’ justice and dignity in the face of systems that would deny it. On November 19, we're celebrating that work and those who fight alongside us.
NDS Harlem Managing Director Alice Fontier Address Joint Session of NY State Legislature on the Disparate Impact of COVID-19
This week, NDS Managing Director addressed a joint session of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate about how COVID-19 compounds the injustices our neighbors and clients in upper Manhattan face every single day.
NDS Harlem Managing Director Alice Fontier on How Communities of Color Are Particularly Vulnerable to COVID-19
This March, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem welcomed Managing Director Alice Fontier to helm our office. In her first weeks on the job, she worked across our practices to fight for justice for our clients who were under extreme threat. In doing so, she witnessed firsthand the immense disparity [...]
Victories in the Fight for Justice During COVID-19
All of our communities face this same elevated threat, and NDS has fought for justice in every forum. Our family defense practice has left no stone unturned in its efforts to reunite families during this already stressful time, when they need each other more than ever. Our immigration defense team has sought to stand in the way of a deportation machine that seeks to churn on amid a pandemic. And our civil team has fought to keep our clients and their families safely housed.
Support Heroic Work on #GivingTuesdayNow: A Letter from the Executive Director
On Tuesday, May 5, Neighborhood Defender Service is participating in #GivingTuesdayNow, a global day of giving to meet the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19. Our clients are vulnerable in the best of times; facing a crisis, they need us more than ever. And we need you. Give to NDS today and make our indispensable work possible.
Coronavirus policy must account for those in Michigan jails and prisons
By Chantá Parker, Amanda Alexander and Jonathan Sacks Originally published in Detroit Free Press Tens of thousands of people are held in Michigan jails and prisons that leave them particularly vulnerable to public health crises. Every day that passes during the COVID-19 outbreak puts them at heightened risk — [...]
NDS’ Emily Ponder Williams Testifies to City Council on NYC Human Rights Law
Emily Ponder Williams, Managing Attorney of NDS' Civil Defense Practice, testified before the New York City Council's Committee on Civil and Human Rights this week on amendments to the NYC Human Rights Law. The amendments would prohibit discrimination against New Yorkers on the basis of open criminal charges, violations, [...]
NDS’ Chantá Parker Talks the Power of Public Defense with American Black Journal
This week, NDS Detroit Managing Director Chantá Parker spoke with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Stephen Henderson about the arrival of world-class public defense in Wayne County. Henderson hosts American Black Journal, which airs on Detroit’s PBS affiliate. He sat down with Parker and Wayne County Executive Warren Evans to discuss [...]
Support Our Clients With a Gift This Holiday Season
Dear Friends, It is a challenging time for public defense. Our communities from Harlem to Detroit are under threat. Poverty is persecuted at the subway turnstile, at bail hearings, and in family court. Our neighbors are threatened with eviction while public housing is under siege. Protections for immigrants are [...]
NDS’ Chantá Parker Talks Public Defense with Deadline Detroit’s Craig Fahle
NDS Detroit Managing Director Chantá Parker appeared on the Craig Fahle Show on Deadline Detroit to discuss the arrival of world-class public defense to Detroit.
Albert Woodfox, Nicole Austin-Hillery Call for Robust Public Defense and Movement- Building at Conversations with NDS 2019
On Monday, November 18th, Neighborhood Defender Service welcomed the leading minds in the criminal legal community for its annual benefit, Conversations with NDS. This years event, titled Mobilizing Against Mass Incarceration, brought together Albert Woodfox, a member of the Angola Three who spent 43 years in solitary confinement, and [...]