New York County Defender Services

“ People like Mr. Madigan who are sleeping on the train or taking up more than one seat — no one would be doing that if they had another option,” said Maggie Bergmann, Madigan’s defense attorney with the New York County Defender Services. She said officials should focus on connecting people like her client with housing, mental health care and substance use treatment — not arresting them.

Standing in solidarity with Raju, public defender organizations across the country organized a Day of Action for Public Defense on Thursday to call on state and federal governments to better fund public defender organizations. Participants in the day of action, which included The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, The Bronx Defenders and New York County Defender Services, dressed in black to signify their support, and said that years of underfunding has undermined the integrity of the courts.

Natalie Fiorenzo, a corrections specialist with New York County Defender Services, called the system a “cop-out,” in which the jail’s authorities use the 311 system to bury people’s concerns rather than address them. “An officer or captain will tell you to have your client put in a 311 complaint,” she told THE CITY. “And everyone knows those complaints don’t go anywhere.” Fiorenzo also pointed to issues for inmates in restrictive housing, where they are only allowed to use the phone for six minutes a day.

“It’s like their biggest cop-out is to just say call 311,” said Natalie Fiorenzo, a corrections specialist with New York County Defender Services. “An officer or captain will tell you to have your client put in a 311 complaint. And everyone knows those complaints don’t go anywhere.”

Salaries for public defense attorneys in places like Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Oakland and San Francisco begin at upward of $100,000. The same is true for public defenders in at least seven counties in upstate New York, according to Stan Germán, the executive director of New York County Defender Services.