12
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JAN. 13, 2019
BY COLIN MIXSON
Talk about throwing the book at
‘em!
Do-good attorneys with the
Legal Aid Society are stocking
a Kings County courtroom with
books of all sorts, giving young defendants
an opportunity to entertain
— and educate — themselves
during the sometimes hours-long
waits for their cases to be heard, according
to a local judge.
“What better way to help stimulate
a mind than to provide a book,”
said Kings County Supreme Court
Justice Craig Walker, who worked
with the Society to launch its new
reading program.
The legal eagles installed the
bookshelf at Brooklyn’s Young
Adult Diversion courtroom inside
Downtown’s Criminal Court building
on Schermerhorn Street, where
some defendants between the ages
of 16 and 24 are given opportunities
to perform community service to
avoid criminal convictions.
The new stacks hold some 200
books, whose titles include comedian
Trevor Noah’s “Born a
Crime,” rapper Jay-Z’s “Decoded,”
and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s award-winning
“Between the World and Me,”
which picked up the 2015 National
Book Award for nonfi ction among
other honors.
The hundreds of titles came
free of charge from generous bookworms
at publishing company
Penguin Random House, which
partnered with the Society on the
project.
And defendants who get lost in
a good story needn’t worry about
fi nishing it during their time at the
courthouse, because the books are
free to take and keep, according to
an attorney that helped get the effort
off the ground, who said Penguin
Random House will regularly
replenish the stacks’ selection.
“We are excited to partner with
Penguin Random House on this pilot,”
said Society staff lawyer Noor
Ahmad.
Getting the books into the courtroom
didn’t simply require installing
a shelf for them, however. Attorneys
with the pro-bono Society
spent nearly two years winning support
for their scheme from judges,
many of whom have strict policies
outlawing books — and cellphones,
newspapers, and other forms of casual
entertainment — within their
chambers.
And the jurists weren’t the only
ones who needed convincing. Many
court offi cers worried bringing
books into a courtroom might result
in some unruly defendants using
them as a weapons, according
to Society spokesman Redmond
Haskins, who said the reading program
fi nally got green-lit in October,
and that bailiffs were some of
the fi rst to recognize its benefi ts after
the stacks arrived.
“A court offi cer said the books
are fl ying off the shelf,” Haskins
said.
The Society is already looking
to expand the program to courtrooms
across the city following the
successful debut of the Brooklyn
bookshelf, according to Ahmad.
MADE IT HAPPEN: Justice Craig Walker
worked with the do-good Society to
install the bookshelf.
File photo by Stefano Giovannini
BOOK ‘EM: The courtroom bookshelf is stocked with titles defendants can freely
take. Legal Aid Society
The right to read
Courtroom stacks offer free books to defendants