Why the Brooklyn Courtroom Birth Was the Last Straw for Public Defenders |
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Why the Brooklyn Courtroom Birth Was the Last Straw for Public Defenders
“What occurred in that courtroom was not simply a failure of protocol or preparedness. It was….a devastating reflection of the cruelty embedded in our carceral system.”
Brad Lander, former New York City comptroller and current NY-10 congressional candidate, speaks to hundreds of picketing public defenders and advocates on May 18 outside the Kings County Criminal Court, where Samantha Randazzo had been forced to give birth days before. Lander called for improved treatment of pregnant people in custody, describing Randazzo’s experience as “extraordinarily egregious” and “something that should shock the conscience of all New Yorkers.”
On a recent scalding Monday afternoon, hundreds of attorneys and advocates gathered outside the Kings County Criminal Court to protest the most recent violation of humanity to unfold in the Brooklyn courtroom. The previous Friday, May 15, minutes before midnight, someone waiting to be arraigned had given birth while handcuffed during open court. The woman, Samantha Randazzo, was afforded neither privacy, nor dignity, nor competent medical treatment—which was not surprising to the public defenders assembled. In a system that has all but normalized lives’ ending in custody, a person being forced to give birth there wasn’t so far afield.
“This is not the first time that something like this has happened,” Olga Karounos, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, told me at the demonstration, which was organized by the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys (UAW Local 2325). Three people have died from insufficiently treated medical issues in the 120 Schermerhorn courthouse since early 2025, all arrested for minor charges, and “no changes have happened from that,” Karounos said. “So I think people just really felt like [Randazzo’s giving birth] was the last straw.”
Among the many professionals present during court proceedings, there are no doctors, the public defenders I spoke to noted. They have been trying to change that since last September, when the community of legal advocates issued a 10-step plan calling on the mayor and City Council to implement policy “to Address Growing Crisis of Deaths in NYPD Custody,” including staffing courtrooms with independent EMS personnel. Those workers would supplement existing correctional health staff who sometimes, at the behest of police officers, screen people waiting to be arraigned. The plan also calls for better mental health and substance use services, regular inspections of NYPD policy and central bookings buildings, and the end of custodial arrests for low-level crimes. So far, that 10-point plan is still just a list of unmet demands.
Following the courtroom birth, the news media was quick to craft storybookish narratives about what had taken place, but the public defenders explained in a statement, “What occurred in that courtroom was not simply a failure of protocol or preparedness. It was a profound moral failure and a devastating reflection of the cruelty embedded in our carceral system.”
“People in medical or psychiatric distress are chained to benches or are squashed together in filthy, unsafe holding cells while waiting for their most simple due process rights,” noted another statement.
Low-level arrests have skyrocketed in recent years, according to a John Jay College of Criminal Justice report. Between 2021 and 2024, misdemeanor charges rose 70 percent. One attorney told me they had a client arrested for evading his $3 subway fare, which in his statement he explained was so that he could afford baby formula for his daughter.
These arrests are generating a backlog in an already overburdened carceral system, according to Jane Fox, ALAA’s Legal Aid Society chapter chair. The crisis of accountability lies at every tier: NYPD officers could issue more desk appearance tickets (written notices of an........