Alvin J. Bronstein (June 8, 1928 – October 24, 2015) was an American lawyer, and founder and Director Emeritus of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.[1][2][3] According to his ACLU biography, 'he has argued numerous prisoners’ rights cases in federal trial and appellate courts as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. He was a consultant to state and federal correctional agencies, appeared as an expert witness on numerous occasions and has edited or authored books and articles on human rights and corrections'.[1]
Bronstein's Ukrainian-Polish Jewish family had moved to the United States to seek refuge from the pogroms. He was born in Brooklyn to Louis and Lillian (née Spielman) Bronstein, who both worked in sales. Bronstein attended Erasmus Hall High School, then the City College of New York before graduating from New York Law School with an LL.B.[4][5]
He began his career working in the American South during the Civil Rights Movement, becoming the Chief Staff Counsel of the Lawyers’ Constitutional Defense Committee from 1964 to 1968 in Jackson, Mississippi. He litigated civil rights cases during that time in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, and represented the major civil rights organizations in the South.[1] He was a Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, from 1969 to 1971.[2][6] He was Pace Law School’s Practitioner-in-Residence in 2009.[7]
He served as the director of the National Prison Project from 1972 until 1995. During this time, he argued three cases in the United States Supreme Court, Hudson v. McMillan (1992), Block v. Rutherford (1984) ([1]), and Montanye v. Haynes (1976) ([2]). After his departure from the National Prison Project, he has been a consultant for the ACLU. He also served as a board member of Penal Reform International (London) and a member of the Assembly of Delegates for the World Organization Against Torture (Geneva).[1]
He had three children from his first marriage to Kate Ransohoff- Lisa Snitzer of Philadelphia, Susie Renner of Piedmont, Calif., and Laura Zatta of Lowell, Mass.; a daughter from his second marriage to Julie Bronstein- Sarah Bronstein of Berkeley, Calif. He is survived by his wife of 33 years, Jan Elvin. Their son, Benjamin Bronstein, lives in the District of Columbia. Bronstein also had seven grandchildren- Ian, Zoe, Sasha, Daniel, Ava, Corinna, and Sadie.
Bronstein died of Alzheimer's disease on October 24, 2015, in Centreville, Maryland.[4]
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