NPR's Joseph Shapiro Honored by Defenders Association

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (07/22/2014)(readMedia)-- For bringing hidden, systemic injustice into view, Joseph Shapiro received the highest honor the New York State Defenders Association (NYSDA) can bestow. On Monday, July 21, 2014, NYSDA presented its Service of Justice Award to Shapiro for his National Public Radio reporting. In particular, he was recognized for revealing key findings – "Guilty and Charged" – about poor people being locked up for failure to pay increasingly onerous court fees.

The letter notifying Shapiro of the award stated, "[y]our reporting showed public officials and the public what defense counsel see every day - that the criminal justice system fails to provide the poor with equal treatment under the law."

NYSDA Executive Director Jonathan E. Gradess, who wrote those words, also observed that Shapiro's report, which followed a year-long investigation, "sympathetically portrayed those harmed by the harsh and unfair treatment that is the hallmark of today's criminal justice system." Shapiro, Gradess said, "persuasively demonstrated how relatively minor criminal infractions can result in fines and fees that continually and unfairly mount," and showed how "cash-strapped municipalities impose excessive user fees on typically low-income defendants to fund courts, probation departments, and jails."

Shapiro's analysis rested on research about common court fees nationwide, conducted with help from New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. It described in stark terms the failure of courts to uniformly and fairly apply the United States Supreme Court case, Bearden v Georgia, that says a judge must consider whether a person has the ability to pay, and can only send someone to jail for nonpayment if they willfully refuse to pay. Shapiro movingly described the plight of individuals affected by courts' failure to follow Bearden. Shapiro found Danny Bearden, whose identical plight made it all the way to the Supreme Court three decades ago; Bearden was not surprised at the current problems Shapiro had uncovered, noting "These are poor people, OK?"

NYSDA thanks Shapiro for telling the story of Danny Bearden's modern counterparts.

The Service of Justice Award is presented to individuals and organizations who support the New York State Defenders Association and its mission, which is to improve the quality and scope of publicly supported legal representation of low income people.