Court Advocacy Services

Community-based sanctions for people convicted of crimes protect public safety while allowing people to keep their homes and jobs, stay in school, meet family responsibilities, and address issues that led to their criminal justice involvement. Osborne’s mitigation specialists work alongside defense attorneys to design and propose individualized, community-based sentences whenever appropriate. We provide these services in all five New York City boroughs from our Brooklyn office. Additionally, our staff serve Westchester County through a satellite office in White Plains, as well as Albany, Columbia, Greene, and Rensselaer counties through our Troy office.

Forensic social workers prepare pre-plea and pre-sentence reports, as well as reports in support of defense counsel motions to secure pretrial release. Our staff appears in court advocating for customized sentencing alternatives that allow people to stay at home while they address the consequences of a felony or misdemeanor conviction. When alternatives to incarceration are not possible, we advocate for reduced prison or jail terms. We seek responses to criminal charges that give individuals the tools and resources they need to build secure and stable lives, including substance use disorder treatment, education, job training, and housing.

Our advocacy to secure pretrial release focuses on people who are in jail mainly because they cannot pay bail or do not have community resources. In addition, we advocate for the restoration to community supervision of those arrested for Technical Parole Violations (TPVs), which are actions — such as changing residences or missing a curfew — that violate the terms of their release but don’t amount to new crimes.