Judge Lippman's State of the Judiciary Address...

Really proud of this.

Today, the chief judge of the highest court in the state talked about the work we've been doing over the past few years......

This, from his state of the court's address.

"At the same time, we should also be testing whether we can take the profit motive out of bond making. State legislation passed last year allows not-for-profit organizations to act as bail bond agents, provided they are licensed by the State Insurance Department. This legislation was prompted by the work of The Bronx Defenders, an institutional defender office, that created a special fund to help low-income offenders post minor bail amounts. The fund reports a 93 percent appearance rate for participating defen- dants. In the days ahead, we should be considering approaches like this in other parts of the state and with larger bail amounts."


 It took me three long years to get the law changed, and this is the first inkling I've gotten that the ripple effects we've been hoping for may actually appear...

Sweet.