Senior Supervising Policy Counsel Jacqueline Gosdigian testified on the need to expand community-based alternatives to policing and incarceration before an oversight hearing of the New York City Council Committee on Children & Youth.

Today, the New York State Assembly passed the Anti-Harassment in Reporting Act, which would reduce false and malicious reports of abuse and neglect made by anonymous callers to New York’s State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR). The New York State Senate passed the legislation on June 9th.

The PromPT Stability Act codifies the recent Crawford ruling, which guaranteed people accused of crimes the right for a court hearing to consider the appropriateness of a protective order. The bill allows judges to evaluate the specifics of a particular case or relationship with more evidence than is available at an initial court appearance, before extending a TOP. The bill clarifies the structure of the hearings, ensuring that courts uniformly follow proper procedure statewide.

Reporting in The Markup reveals that New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) has been using an algorithm to flag families for heightened scrutiny, without informing parents, attorneys, or even caseworkers. The tool, which weighs factors like neighborhood, mental health history, and number of children, raises serious concerns about racial and socioeconomic bias. Nila Natarajan, Associate Director of Policy & Family Defense, confirmed that this system has never been disclosed in discovery, stating: “We get discovery in individual investigations and prosecutions when we represent parents, and nothing in the discovery we get suggests or implies, and certainly doesn’t lay out, use of any of these tools.”

Brooklyn Defender Services, alongside lawmakers and other advocates, rallied in Albany to demand passage of the End Predatory Court Fees Act, which would eliminate mandatory surcharges, fees, and minimum fines that trap low-income New Yorkers in cycles of debt and incarceration. “As a public defender, I have seen firsthand how mandatory court fines and fees trap New Yorkers in a cycle of economic instability and further criminalization and incarceration” said Jackie Gosdigian, Supervising Policy Counsel in the Criminal Defense Practice.

Brooklyn Defenders joined a coalition of New York City public defender offices, immigrant and civil rights organizations, other advocacy groups, and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams to file a joint amicus brief in support of the New York City Council’s lawsuit challenging the Adams Administration’s Executive Order 50, which would allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to return to Rikers Island.

The Alliance to Protect Kalief’s Law, a statewide coalition of impacted New Yorkers, public defender offices, civil rights organizations, leading advocacy groups, clergy, labor, and many others, issued a statement on discovery rollbacks included in New York’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget.

Brooklyn Defenders issued a statement urging all stakeholders be included in discovery negotiations: “For decades, New York’s previous discovery statute was commonly known as the ‘Blindfold Law,’ as it allowed law enforcement to withhold evidence until the eve of trial, effectively ‘blindfolding’ people accused of crimes and their attorneys."