A hotline that operates out of the Bronx is offering legal services to New Yorkers accused of committing criminal offenses.
'Good Call' works when a suspected offender commits a trivial offense like jumping a turnstile or forgetting to pay a ticket, Gabe Leader-Rose, the co-founder of the organization says.
He says the hotline is available to people who have the ability to make phone calls while under arrest.
Leader-Rose says Good Call works with the Bronx Defenders and Legal Aid Society, whose lawyers will answer the phone if a person under arrest chooses to make one of their three phone calls.
Often, he says, offenders can sometimes get in contact with a loved one and almost never get in contact with a lawyer until right before they go in front of a judge.
Leader-Rose says 47,000 people go to jail each year because they cannot afford bail.
He plans on expanding Good Call across the rest of the five boroughs.