Tiffiny Townend Blacknell (born November 14, 1976) is an American lawyer, community activist, and an advocate for

criminal justice reform Criminal justice reform is the reform of criminal justice systems. Stated reasons for criminal justice reform include reducing crime statistics, racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, under-reporting, and ...

. She currently works as a Deputy Public Defender for the

Los Angeles County Public Defender The Los Angeles County Public Defender's (LACPD) office is an agency of the government of Los Angeles County. LACPD was the first public defender agency in the United States. The current public defender is Ricardo García. It provides legal as ...

. In 2018, Blacknell was featured in Macy's “Find the Remarkable You” campaign which featured six women from different walks of professional life, including

Becky Hammon Rebecca Lynn Hammon (Russian: Ребекка Линн Хэммон; born March 11, 1977) is a Russian-American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces of the Women's National Basketball Assoc ...

and

JoAnn Falletta JoAnn Falletta (born February 27, 1954, in Queens, New York) is an American conductor. Biography Falletta was raised in the borough of Queens in an Italian-American household. She was educated at the Mannes College of Music and The Juilliard Sch ...

Legal career

Blacknell currently serves as a Deputy Public Defender in the

's Office. She previously worked for former Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. Following Gascón's defeat in 2024, she returned to the Public Defender's office. As a public defender, she was assigned to represent a man accused of kidnapping

Daisy McCrackin Daisy McCrackin (born November 12, 1979) is an American actress. Early life McCrackin was born in Marin County, California, and raised in San Francisco. Career She made her film debut in the 2001 straight-to-video film ''A Crack in the Floor'' ...

Interim public defender appointment

In 2018, the

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member Board of Supervisors, governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States. History On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Se ...

appointed Nicole Tinkham as interim public defender. Blacknell helped organize an effort to put pressure on the Board of Supervisors to remove Tinkham because of her lack of criminal law experience. Following the protests and public criticism, the Board appointed

Ricardo García (attorney) Ricardo García is an American criminal defense attorney. Garcia is currently the public defender for the Los Angeles County Public Defender's office, the largest public defender's office in the United States. Garcia is Los Angeles County's eleve ...

who worked for years in the San Diego County Public Defender's office.

Wiretap scandal

In July 2018, Blacknell uncovered a secret recording operation inside of an attorney-client interview room. It was later revealed that the operation had been set up by the

Los Angeles Police Department The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

in cooperation with a prosecutor from the

Los Angeles County District Attorney The District Attorney of Los Angeles County is in charge of the office that prosecutor, prosecutes felony and misdemeanor crimes that occur within Los Angeles County, California, United States. The current district attorney (DA) is Nathan Hochma ...

's Office. In response to the scandal, the

voted to send a letter to then sheriff Jim McDonnell to stop the installation of audio-video recording devices inside of lock-up facilities at various criminal courthouses throughout Los Angeles County. The

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

responded to the scandal.

Community activism

Bail reform

Blacknell has engaged in activism in the Los Angeles community, such as on behalf of the National Black Mama's Bail Out Day campaign. This was a part of the National Bail Out collective, a community-based movement striving to end pretrial detention and

mass incarceration Incarceration in the United States is one of the primary means of punishment for crime in the United States. In 2021, over five million people were under supervision by the criminal justice system, with nearly two million people incarcerated ...

. Blacknell believes that the money bail system is unjust and in need of reform. At Community Coalition's People Power Convention, Blacknell said “Ninety-five percent of arrestees plead guilty,” and noted that “studies show that sexual assault and violence happen in the first seven days of an inmate’s incarceration.”

Girls empowerment

Blacknell was the keynote speaker at the “I Matter: Girls Empowerment Conference” at

East Los Angeles College East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is a public community college in Monterey Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. With fourteen communiti ...

, aiming to create more female leaders in the community. In her speech, Blacknell discussed her journey to become an attorney. She spoke of being a child of the

Crack epidemic The crack epidemic was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States throughout the entirety of the 1980s and the early 1990s. This resulted in several social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in Americ ...

surrounded by drugs and gangs and having to overcome feelings of self-doubt.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blacknell, Tiffiny 1976 births People from Inglewood, California Public defenders American criminal defense lawyers USC Gould School of Law alumni California State University, Dominguez Hills alumni Lawyers from Los Angeles Living people Activists for African-American civil rights American civil rights activists Activists from California American anti-racism activists