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Stories
A Brooklyn Public Defender and Her Family
Stoop Stories first profiled Sarah, Ben and their children, Betsy and Jack, in May 2020. Betsy remembers learning at home, and coming out on the stoop every night at 7 pm with her tambourine. Sarah shared what the pandemic was like as a criminal defense attorney, and where the family is now, two years later.
“Obviously we are affected by the anxiety and stress and just general trauma that everyone else has dealt with. We did get COVID, right away back then. Otherwise, we've been very fortunate. We maintained our health. We've kept our jobs. We've kept our home.
“I'm a Brooklyn criminal defense attorney for those who can't afford counsel. I was just returning to work from parental leave when the pandemic started. A lot had just changed, for the better, in terms of bail reform and discovery reform. Along with the pandemic has come a rise in the number of shootings and gun possession cases. The politicians and the papers would have you believe that it's because of the reforms. Evidence shows that it’s more to do with the outcomes of the pandemic, where people are losing their jobs, losing family members, and are incredibly confined to communities that are underserved.
The pressure is there for the gun cases to be prosecuted, and I get that guns are scary. There's all kinds of other crimes that we've watched occur and nothing's happened. I guess it makes some people feel safer, but it doesn't address the real dangers that a lot of people in the city face day to day.
Judges have made sure that most individuals charged with guns or violent crime face pretrial incarceration. These are people presumed innocent and they have faced pure horror on Rikers, from terrible COVID conditions to unchecked violence. Most of my clients who have been at Rikers for even a month have been stabbed or assaulted. I spoke to someone yesterday who was stabbed 15 times. He's in protective custody now and that's solitary confinement. When I see my clients walk away from me in arraignments to go to Rikers, I know their lives are in danger and it is an incredible weight on their families and, and us.”
📷 : Marj Kleinman
📝: Kathleen Donohoe / Marj Kleinman
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