Today Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier (JUST) filed a motion in the Supreme Court of the State of New York against Broome County Sheriff David Harder for civil and criminal contempt of court (the filing and supporting affidavits may be found here). Having lost his appeal to stop the return of visitation, Sheriff Harder blatantly and knowingly refused to obey the Court by restarting visitation with days and hours of visitation drastically reduced from what the court had ordered. By our count, visitation was reduced from five days a week to three, and from over 40 hours per week to 15. This dramatically restricts families and friends from visiting loved ones in jail.
Sheriff Harder and Broome County lawyers have continually argued against visitation citing the dangers presented by COVID– even as visitation has long been reintroduced in county nursing homes, all state prisons, and many jails across the state. The validity of this concern was evident when limited visitation began last week with no safety measures in place: no temperature checks, no social distancing, no masks by correctional officers or others, and no requirements for staff to be vaccinated.
JUST demands the Sheriff and County stop their repeated attempts to stop visitation as ordered by the courts, and calls on the court to impose sanctions on Sheriff Harder.