Social Worker – Adolescent Defense Project 

Overview

The Bronx Defenders (BxD) – an innovative, progressive, holistic indigent defense office in the South Bronx – seeks a passionate Social Worker to join the Adolescent Defense Project.

Founded in 1997, The Bronx Defenders is a public defender nonprofit that has developed a nationally recognized model of representation called holistic defense, which provides people with teams of lawyers, social workers, and advocates to defend them zealously in court as well as to address the underlying drivers and enmeshed penalties of legal system involvement.

Since opening our doors, we have grown into an organization of more than 400 staff members defending nearly 20,000 New Yorkers each year in criminal, family, civil, and immigration proceedings who face incarceration, family separation, eviction, and deportation, among other devastating consequences.

Today we are reimagining the role of public defense even further, using community organizing and engagement, legislative advocacy, and impact litigation to partner with the communities we represent to bring about long-lasting systemic change.

We also share our model and lessons learned with current and future public defenders. We run two legal clinics at NYC law schools and train public defenders from one end of the country to the next on how to move to a holistic model of representation.

The Adolescent Defense Project

The Adolescent Defense Project (ADP) is a specialized division of Criminal Defense Practice (CDP) which provides representation for our youngest clients, 14-17-year-olds who are charged with felonies. Every youth receives the expertise of a trained adolescent defense attorney, social worker, and education attorney/advocate. Our team works together to mitigate the consequences of youths’ arrests, provide youths with holistic support in addressing issues that led to their legal involvement (such as special education needs, mental health, substance use, and trauma histories), and prepare them to attain their future goals. The Adolescent Defense Project not only provides zealous and holistic defense for the youth we represent but also advocates for youth justice reform at both the local and state levels. The Bronx Defenders’ holistic representation model provides the youth we represent with access to advocates who can support them across the immigration, civil, and family regulation systems.

Social Work Practice

Effectively fighting for people facing legal charges requires knowing and understanding their goals and needs beyond those related to a single case or legal matter. Our Social Work Practice provides an understanding of people’s lives and the challenges that are connected to their involvement in the various legal systems. The expertise of our Masters-level social workers and non-legal advocates helps people secure positive case outcomes and address the issues that drove them into the legal system in the first place.

Responsibilities

Strategizing with attorneys and other advocates, Adolescent Defense Project Social Workers are integral members of interdisciplinary defense teams and play critical roles in court and community-based client advocacy. Social Workers identify, investigate, and contextualize the life circumstances of the youth we represent to humanize them before the court, mitigate sentencing exposure, and address the underlying drivers and enmeshed consequences of criminal legal system involvement.

In close collaboration with holistic team advocates, Social Workers engage in bail and release advocacy, conduct oral advocacy, coordinate with treatment programs and social service providers, develop and implement legal strategy throughout the life of a case, author written mitigation reports, and support the youth we represent as they navigate each stage of the legal case, including supporting and advocating for youth in detention.

Responsibilities include:

Holistic Team Collaboration

• Collaborate with attorneys and other advocates on holistic defense teams to identify and advance the legal goals of the young people we represent.
• Collaborate with attorneys to support early client engagement at the initial phase of the case, including meeting clients at arraignment to begin initial assessment and planning.
• Assist attorneys in educating clients about the criminal legal and family court systems while assisting them in overcoming barriers they may encounter navigating those systems.
• In close consultation with attorneys, support clients through difficult decision-making related to pleas, court mandates, and service engagement.
• Work collaboratively within interdisciplinary teams and participate in case conferences, strategy meetings, and practice-wide meetings and trainings.

Client-centered Advocacy

• Engage in oral advocacy with judges and prosecutors in the Bronx Supreme Court Youth Part, and Family Court, Department of Probation, Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), and community-based programs.
• Gather, review, and synthesize records—including medical, mental health, educational, ACS and foster care, and detention records—along with social-science research to contextualize life experiences and inform mitigation theory.
• Prepare persuasive written mitigation memoranda for judges and prosecutors utilizing psychosocial interviews of clients and collateral sources, medical and mental health records, and social science research, advocating for reduced sentencing or alternative outcomes.
• Advocate for and coordinate clients’ access to medical care, mental health services, medications, education and programming while incarcerated and in the community.

Comprehensive Case Management

• Interview and assess clients to identify strengths, resources, and behavioral health needs.
• Provide supportive counseling and de-escalate clients in moments of crisis related to their case.
• Collaborate with clients’ identified support network to encourage clients’ achievement of their legal goals.
• Identify appropriate referrals to community-based and alternative to incarceration programs, social services, and provide case management support and advocacy for engagement.
• Visit and maintain consistent contact with clients at NYC jail facilities, youth detention centers, and treatment programs.
• Prepare clients for court-ordered or defense-initiated behavioral health evaluations and assist in interpreting external assessments.

Administrative and Professional Duties

• Maintain timely and accurate case documentation in Bronx Defenders’ case management and client file systems.
• Cultivate relationships with community programs and social service providers.

Qualifications

To be eligible, candidates must have:

• Master’s in Social Work (MSW) from an accredited School of Social Work.

Not required but preferred:

• Spanish language fluency or proficiency (validated objectively) and the ability to conduct client interviews in Spanish

Applicants must demonstrate:

• Deep commitment to holistic public defense, racial justice, and advocacy for people ensnared in the criminal legal system.
• Experience working with racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically marginalized communities targeted by carceral systems.
• A demonstrated interest in working with adolescents.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to quickly build trust with clients and their families in high-stress, high-stakes circumstances.
• Ability to collaborate respectfully and effectively with attorneys, investigators, social workers, other advocates, and external service providers.
• Commitment to fierce, client-centered advocacy and willingness to strategically challenge authority in defense of the people we represent.
• Strong analytical skills and capacity to integrate non-legal, psychosocial information into strategic advocacy and mitigation strategy.
• Knowledge of mental health, substance use, trauma, domestic violence, parenting, and related service systems.
• Ability to conduct crisis intervention, including de-escalation, and provide grounded, trauma-informed support during moments of distress.
• Ability to conduct social history interviewing with individuals experiencing trauma, mental-health symptoms, cognitive limitations, or other vulnerabilities.
• Strong assessment and program matching skills
• Strong oral advocacy and written advocacy skills, including the ability to draft persuasive mitigation reports and sentencing submissions.
• Ability to manage multiple competing priorities, meet deadlines, and work effectively in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment.
• Meticulous attention to detail and strong organizational skills.
• Ability to think critically and creatively, finding innovative solutions to unique obstacles.
• Ability to exercise sound professional judgment, discretion, and confidentiality with sensitive matters.
• Openness to feedback, demonstrated introspection, and willingness to adjust practice accordingly.

This position requires 5 days per week in-person.

Salary is commensurate with experience. For candidates with 1-10 years of directly relevant experience, the salary range for this position would be approximately $87,177 to $120,139. Full-time employees are also eligible for a comprehensive benefits package including but not limited to medical, dental and vision coverage; a 403(b) plan with employer contribution; a generous vacation, sick leave, and parental leave policy.

Approximately 70% of The Bronx Defenders' staff, including attorneys and non-attorneys, are represented by UAW Local 2325 - Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (AFL-CIO). This position is within the bargaining unit.

This position is exempt. By law, nonexempt employees are compensated hourly based on their annual rate and therefore are entitled to overtime, whereas exempt employees are not.

To apply, combine your resume and cover letter into one document, please label it with your first and last name and upload to Idealist.org. Your resume will be used to determine your salary based on the number of years of directly relevant professional experience and should include all relevant professional experience. Applications without a written cover letter will not be considered.

The Bronx Defenders is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining a workplace that embraces staff with a diversity of backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We acknowledge the ways in which systemic oppression and injustice can undermine access to professional opportunities and are committed to conducting hiring and promotion processes that are equitable and accessible to those commonly excluded from the workforce. We do not discriminate against and in fact specifically encourage applicants from marginalized communities to apply, including those who identify as Black, Indigenous, people of color, queer, transgender, gender non-conforming, disabled, neurodivergent, and those directly impacted by criminal, civil, family, and immigration legal systems. We value lived as well as professional experience and particularly welcome applications from the Bronx community that we serve.

Full-time employees are also eligible for a comprehensive benefits package including but not limited to medical, dental and vision coverage; a 403(b) plan with employer contribution; a generous vacation, sick leave, and parental leave policy.

Spanish (validated objectively) preferred but not required