March 8, 2021
Via email
Dear Assembly Member Lupardo,
Like many in Broome County and around the state, we are deeply concerned about COVID infections and the lack of vaccine for incarcerated persons, specifically those in the Broome County jail. Given the impact of COVID on the judicial system and the closure of the courts, many linger in the jail for years, literally, where no social distancing is possible and test positivity rates are extremely high. About 70% of those in the jail are unconvicted, largely awaiting trial, as last reported by the state–January 2021, http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/jail_population.pdf (page 3/23). Unlike 39 other states, NY State has not placed the incarcerated anywhere on the vaccine priority list.
After the Legal Aid Society filed a lawsuit, the Governor did say on February 4th that the incarcerated aged over 65 would be given the vaccine. We ask you to follow up and determine why this has not begun in Broome County. Here is one example: a 73 year old incarcerated Black man, in poor health, recently reported to us that he asked for the vaccine and was told there was none available and none scheduled. A call to the Sheriff’s office returned the reply that there is no vaccine and any future vaccinations depend on the state and county health departments. As you can see below, we wrote the County Health Department and County Executive a month ago on vaccinations for the elderly, and have yet to receive a reply.
Can you please make inquiries and see the Governor’s rulings at least are followed at the county level? If the CDC guidelines were to be followed, everyone in the jail would receive the vaccine as should be the case.
Sincerely,
Bill Martin, Toni Norton, and Sue Ruff
for Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier
justice.southern.tier@gmail.
From:
Sent: Friday, February 5, 2021 12:34 PM
To: Broome County Health Department <BCHealth@broomecounty.us>; CountyExecutive@BroomeCounty.US
Subject: Cuomo & Vaccine for the Incarcerated: Why Not Broome County?
Importance: High
Jason T. Garnar, Broome County Executive
Broome County Office Building
60 Hawley St
Binghamton NY 13902
CountyExecutive@BroomeCounty.US
Rebecca Kaufman, Director
Broome County Health Department
225 Front Street
Binghamton, NY 13905
BCHealth@broomecounty.us
February 5, 2021
Dear County Executive Jason Garnar and Director Rebecca Kaufman,
We write to urge that the county follow the Governor’s edict yesterday providing the COVID vaccine to all incarcerated persons 65 years and older. We are in regular contact with persons in the jail over 65, even 70, who are desperate to get the vaccine. Can you tell us of current plans to provide the vaccine to those in the county jail? We attach below an article from POLITICO NY detailing current state plans.
We anticipate lawsuits and the public outcry will lead shortly to everyone in congregate state prisons, county jails, and detention facilities being provided with the vaccine. We await that good news for the county.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Sue Ruff and Bill Martin, for Justice and Unity in the Southern Tier
State begins vaccinating inmates after Cuomo hit with lawsuit
By ERIN DURKIN
02/04/2021 11:10 AM EST
Updated 02/04/2021 07:27 PM EST
Public defenders filed a lawsuit against Gov. Andrew Cuomo Thursday, seeking to force him to allow prisoners to get the Covid-19 vaccine — and just hours later the state announced it would begin doing so for some inmates.
Two men currently locked up at Rikers Island who want to get vaccinated are named as plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, brought on behalf of everyone incarcerated at Rikers and other city jails. Legal advocates have demanded that Cuomo allow access to the shot behind bars, where the coronavirus is raging, but the state so far has not budged on expanding eligibility.
While Rikers is a city jail, vaccination policy is set by the state.
“The past year has been the scariest of my life. I have asthma, and every day that passes without being vaccinated leaves me anxious that I might be the next person to get sick, or that I may pass COVID onto other people,” one of the plaintiffs, Alberto Frias, 24, said in a statement released through his attorneys.
Rikers Island, he said, “is very unsanitary and risky. It is impossible to stay six feet apart. You eat together, you use the same showers. DOC does not supply masks within the housing area, so people are walking around without masks.”
The state had authorized correction officers to get the vaccine but not prisoners. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that inmates and correction officers get vaccinated at the same time.
Hours after the suit was first reported by POLITICO Thursday, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision announced it would begin the process of vaccinating inmates over the age of 65.
“There are 1,075 people who are in the system who are 65 and older, and DOCCS is in the process of preparing to vaccinate that population consistent with statewide guidance for that age group,” said spokesperson Thomas Mailey.
State rules already allow the vaccine for residents at homeless shelters and nursing homes, where residents live in a group setting and the disease can spread rapidly. The current eligibility phase, 1B, also includes people 65 and older and certain groups of frontline workers.
The suit, filed against Cuomo and Health Commissioner Howard Zucker in state Supreme Court in the Bronx, argues that excluding prisoners from vaccinations violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
Since the pandemic began, there have been more than 2,000 Covid-19 cases and 18 deaths among staff and incarcerated people at city jails.
The lawyers asked a court to order the state to offer the vaccine to inmates at local jails and state prisons.
A judge ruled last month that the state must administer the coronavirus vaccine to a 65-year-old inmate with chronic lung disease.
The other plaintiff, Charles Holden, 52, said he sleeps in a dorm with almost 50 other people. “The virus is getting worse and numbers are going up. People around me are getting sick,” he said. “My dorm is nearly full, we sleep in beds that are inches apart and people are unable to wear masks …We need the vaccine now or it will get worse.”
The suit was brought by the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, Bronx Defenders, Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services and NYCLU.
The defenders argue that refusing to administer the vaccines in jails, whose populations are overwhelmingly Black and Latino, is also exacerbating racial disparities in the vaccination push. Incarcerated people and their attorneys said Thursday afternoon they will continue to press for vaccine access for the rest of the prison and jail population.
“New York’s current vaccination policy discriminates against our clients on a basic level. It says that their lives, their families, and their neighborhoods matter less than those of other New Yorkers,” said Libby Fischer, the managing attorney of the criminal practice at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem.
The state corrections department said the entire incarcerated population has been tested for Covid-19.