July 29, 2023
BATH, NY – From Steuben County Government: One of the state’s highest recognitions, the Jonathan E. Grades’s Service of Justice Award, will be awarded to the Steuben County Public Defender’s Office Monday (July 31) by the New York State Defenders Association. The award is presented annually to individuals and organizations that have uniquely supported NYSDA and the defender community, which includes every single indigent defense provider, governmental, private and not-for-profit agency in the state.
“This award is being given in recognition of your Office’s unrelenting efforts to ensure that the intent and letter of the discovery reforms are fulfilled,” said Susan Bryant, NYSDA Executive Director, in a letter to county Chief Defender Shawn Sauro. “You and your staff have faced constant efforts to prevent those reforms and you have achieved successful outcomes for your clients. Our legal staff are proud to support you in this fight. For these reasons and more, we are privileged to honor you.”
Sauro noted the award has been given to his entire team. “This is huge,” he said. “For Steuben to be awarded this top achievement over all the other providers in the State? I have no words. “They typically give this award to an outstanding individual. This year they are awarding my whole office because of their excellence.”
Sauro noted the award recognizes the achievement of the rigorous requirements of the State Office of Indigent Legal Services and development of an office of the highest caliber in a time of crisis level legal professional shortages across the state. It also exponentially increases the quality of Steuben’s services and care for our clients with innovative strategies to change the face of public defense, he said.
“This is one of the highest honors from NYSDA. I couldn’t be more proud and grateful that I have had the opportunity to work with my team and witness firsthand the excellence they bring each and every day,” he said. “Throughout my career I never envisioned being able to say I get to work with an entire organization that is the best of the best. It should be an impossibility that such a thing exists…but here it is.”
The award will be presented Monday at the association’s 56th annual conference in Saratoga.
The executive director of New York State Defenders Association, Jonathan Gradess died in 2019. He was considered the one of the staunchest advocates of the criminal justice reforms, devoting himself for decades to helping society’s most marginalized.
