Director Rachel Rossi of the Office for Access to Justice Delivers Remarks at the Black Public Defender Association Conference

<p><strong><em>Remarks as Prepared for Delivery<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"mh-content-ad"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js&quest;client&equals;ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; crossorigin&equals;"anonymous"><&sol;script>&NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle"&NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;"&NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article"&NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid"&NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1081854981"><&sol;ins>&NewLine;<script>&NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>Thank you&comma; Heather&period; I want to extend my appreciation to you&comma; the National Legal Aid and Defender Association&comma; the Black Public Defender Association and Alaina Bloodworth and April Frazier Camara for your hospitality and leadership&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It really is an honor to be here&period; I am excited to celebrate the public defenders&comma; mitigation specialists&comma; executives&comma; administrators and other professionals in this room&comma; who have dedicated their careers to affirming the dignity and humanity of the people they represent&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This Monday&comma; our nation will collectively commemorate and celebrate Juneteenth&period; This holiday&comma; which recognizes the end of enslavement for Black Americans&comma; also marks the beginning of a long and continuing struggle for equality&comma; equity and justice&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We cannot celebrate Juneteenth without acknowledging the continued and pervasive injustices that continue to impact Black communities in this country&period; From Jim Crow&comma; to disenfranchisement&comma; to redlining&comma; to disparate health outcomes&comma; to mass incarceration – Black Americans&comma; among other people of color&comma; have shouldered a disproportionate burden of inequity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And public defenders&comma; and the professionals who support them&comma; bravely remain at the front lines in this contemporary struggle for equality and civil rights&period; Those here in this room advance the movement forward each day&comma; with commitment and vigor&comma; and usually without accolades or awards&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The reason I chose to join the legal profession was because I wanted to join this very fight&period; From the first day I set foot in a jail lockup in college&comma; to the first day I entered misdemeanor arraignment court as a public defender&comma; what continued to drive me forward every day was seeing mostly&comma; some days only&comma; communities of color&comma; and specifically Black fathers&comma; mothers&comma; brothers and sisters cycling through the justice system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You never had to cite statistics or numbers to me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You didn’t need to tell me that Black Americans make up 38&percnt; of America’s incarcerated population despite representing only twelve percent of the population&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You didn’t need to tell me that Black litigants receive&comma; on average&comma; 4&percnt; higher court fines and lower rates of charge reductions in civil-infraction proceedings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And you didn’t need to tell me that according to some studies&comma; Black people receive sentences that are almost 10&percnt; longer than those of comparable white people arrested for the same crimes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I saw it in the faces of my clients&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I know that many in this room have had this same experience and endured the unique toll of both belonging to and serving communities disproportionately impacted by the criminal legal system&period; How do we endure that contrast&comma; that racial trauma and move forward in our work for social and racial justice&quest; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We must first recognize that Black defenders occupy a unique position in the movement for transformational and systemic change&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Second&comma; we must rely on community&comma; collaboration and strong collective organizations like BPDA for training&comma; mentorship&comma; and most critically – refuge&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And third&comma; we simply must fund public defense&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As we evaluate where we are&comma; 60 years after <em>Gideon<&sol;em>&comma; I am inspired by how public defenders have answered the call&comma; responding directly to the needs of their communities&period; You’ve expanded your services beyond traditional criminal representation&comma; adapted&comma; and leveraged innovative client-centered programs to serve your communities&period; You’ve done this despite incredible challenges and with limited resources&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Dr&period; Martin Luther King Jr&period; once said that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Indeed&comma; this is why your fight matters&period; Your perspectives&comma; strategies&comma; and expertise are critical not only within the confines of the criminal legal system&comma; but within the broader struggle for equality&comma; equity and justice&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So as I conclude&comma; I charge you all as I charge myself&comma; to continue to be bold and stand firm in an unapologetic demand for systemic change and equity&period; Because if we abandon hope — for fear&comma; exhaustion or apathy — the truest ideal of equal justice won’t ever be within reach&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thank you for your service&comma; and Happy Juneteenth&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> Speaker&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;atj&sol;staff-profile&sol;meet-director" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener" >Rachel Rossi&comma; Director<&sol;a>Topic&lpar;s&rpar;&colon; Access to JusticeComponent&lpar;s&rpar;&colon; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;atj&sol;" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener" >Office for Access to Justice<&sol;a> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> Updated June 15&comma; 2023<a href&equals;https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;opa&sol;speech&sol;director-rachel-rossi-office-access-justice-delivers-remarks-black-public-defender> Original Article <&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;