JUST statement to Broome County Legislature
March 21, 2019
We stand here, once again, to demand the county legislature act against the county’s policy of mass incarceration, mass abuse and death in the county jail. Most immediately, we protest the attempt to cover up the death of Mr. Robert Card, a local artist, carpenter, and family man. Incarcerated for a minor offense, he was incarcerated despite a brain tumor and lived, with no treatment but Tylenol, for but 13 agonizing days in the jail. His sisters, Jackie and Denise, are here, presenting what remains of Rob to the assembly. They are not alone in their grief and love of their brother. For Rob’s death was the ninth since 2011 that we know of, a rate far above state and national norms.
We ask for the following:
- An independent outside investigation of Rob Card’s death,
- Independent oversight of the Broome County Jail,
- The resignation or termination of those found responsible for unnecessary deaths and abuse in the jail, and
- A policy that recognizes substance use disorders as a disease, leading to treatment in the community, rather than criminalization and incarceration.
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These demands are not new. There is a long dirty public record here—one well known to county officials:
- In 2014 the jail’s private medical provider was charged with medical malfeasance and fined by the State Office of the Attorney General. The promised investigation by the county never took place.
- In the same year Alvin Rios’ family won a lawsuit against the county and its medical provider, validating their charge that Alvin had been left in an “emergent, life-threatening status without appropriate medical attention” leading to his death.
- In 2015 Salladin Barton, developmentally disabled and well known and liked on the streets here, pleaded with his family: “The guards are going to kill me. You gotta get me outta here.” He died, like Robert Card, shortly thereafter. His family’s lawsuit continues.
- In 2017, after another three deaths, community groups rallied outside these legislative chambers, beginning a series of public protests, including regular presentations at county budget meetings.
- In 2017 a lawsuit was filed against the county and sheriff for the abuse of youth, including teargassing, stripping them naked and leaving them in medical isolation cells— and
- In 2018 the county and sheriff lost the lawsuit, with scathing accounts of abuse being revealed.
- In 2018 nurses working in the facility charged they were required to falsify records, claiming persons with serious injuries were treated—but were not.
- In the same year the State Comptroller reported that filed grievances are simply ignored.
The County’s response over all these years? To expand the jail in 2014—in the face of a protest in legislative chambers—to 600 beds, and increase steadily every year the number of correction officers and funding for the jail. Today only 400 are used for local residents, the vast majority unconvicted–leading the county to become a prison profiteer, raising revenue to cover bloated costs by boarding in federal, ICE, and other detainees to fill all the empty spaces.
What does the record show: callous medical abuse, murder and death, and the use of county dollars to expand mass incarceration despite declining crime rates.
This is not just a shameful record: it is willfully immoral and corrupt.