Author Archives: JustJust

Housing Forum Oct 26th!

Come join the One County Many Faces coalition of community organizations, and local church leaders, to discuss solutions to the local housing crisis. The forum will be held on Saturday, October 26th at the United Presbyterian Church at 42 Chenango St. from Noon to 3 pm. where local and regional leaders will be leading a wide-ranging discussion including speakers from

  • BC Urban League
  • Family Enrichment Network
  • CNY Fair Housing

And more!

We hope to revive a public voice on housing needs and develop long-term programs.

The forum is open to the public and food will be provided. 

Those of us in Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier (JUST) bring to the discussion extensive experience with the needs and stigma of the formerly incarcerated, particularly around coming home and establishing a long-term transition to family and community life.

Please inform and invite your friends and congregants to attend. A flyer is attached below.

Questions? Write to us at justice.southern.tier@gmail.com or call Rozann at 607 348 3868

FINAL BC Housing Justice Flyer

 

Forum on Racial Justice & Social Justice: Aug 24 2024


One County Many Faces coalition invites you to a forum on Embracing Racial Justice and Diversity in Broome County. Hear from people building equitable communities. Connect to resources. Strategize for an inclusive future. 

When: Saturday August 24. Music starts at 11, with the forum going from 11:30-1pm. 

Where: Cheri Lindsay Park

Over 10 organizations and programs will do short presentations on the impact of exclusionary policies in our community and strategies for overcoming it together. The forum will examine the impact of structural inequalities in different areas, including education, voting, economic development, mental health, housing, and the criminal justice system  Each organization will discuss the ways they are working to combat racism and inequality in Broome County and will be present after the event to connect and strategize with attendees. 

Oh, and don’t miss the kids empowerment, T-Shirt decorating activity with the Astor D. Rice Foundation following the Forum! 

One County, Many Faces highlights and addresses the ways community members are systematically excluded from full participation in our civic, social, and economic life. As a collection of groups representing different parts of Broome County we advocate for an inclusive county, free of racism and other forms of discrimination. Our goal is to build community, get to know one another, and share our stories and knowledges to ensure every person in Broome is respected and has access to the resources they need to thrive. 

JUST Lobbies in Albany May 16 2023

On May 16th, 2023 members of JUST joined over 40 activists from Cortland, Ithaca, and around the state, gathered together by the Jails Justice Network, to lobby in Albany for oversight, humane conditions, and reduction in county jail operations.  Three legislative bills focused on jails were particularly pushed in meetings with legislators;  a brief is here.  A TV news story is here:  https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/capital-region/politics/2023/05/16/legislation-would-give-county-officials-unrestricted-access-to-local-jails . And here is a picture of some of the members and activists from Cortland, Broome, and Tompkins counties outside Senator Lea Webb’s office.

I Can’t Breathe in Binghamton 2023

I Can’t Breathe in Binghamton 2023:
Press Conference, Speak Out at City Council Meeting,
Protests Continue….

 

Shortly after 3AM on January 1st, 2023, Binghamton Police assaulted Hamail Waddell, 24, on State Street. Waddell, who is Black and Asian, was a bystander attempting to de-escalate a fight when police seized him and threw him to the ground. Officer Brad Kaczynski then proceeded to kneel on the back of Waddell’s neck, which is illegal under New York’s Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act and barred in BPD’s use of force policy. Waddell sustained injuries to his face, head, neck, and back, and required stitches in his chin.  Community rallies began immediately see video here, fuller story here, and local news reports here and here) and continue:  read the full press release with demands here. At the Binghamton City Council meeting on Jan 10th over 100 local people spoke out in support of Mr. Waddell, one after another, for near on two hours.  City council members made no supportive comments, with  members Giovanni Scaringi and Council President Sophia not attending. New story here.

Sheriff Akshar: Visitation Limited, Again (Press Release)

January 30, 2023

Sheriff Akshar today issued a press release celebrating a return to full visitation hours.  If only this were true.

Here is the real situation:

In 2019 the jail offered 45 hours of visitation hours every week as documented in the jail’s own handbook.

Sheriff Harder eliminated visitation completely in 2020 and refused to reopen visitation even as nursing homes, jails and prisons reopened their doors to family visits. In response to our lawsuit, he was forced to reopen visitation—but then dictated but 15 hours (and far fewer for women for example in select jail units).

Sheriff Akshar now proposes that families of the incarcerated have 30 hours a week to visit their loved ones.

This is unacceptable: there are still 50 % fewer hours than available before COVID.  The county needs at the very least to return to pre-covid jail visitation hours with a full  five days and 45 hours as posted in the jail handbook in 2019/2020.

The county also needs to remove new limits on visitation that the Sheriff does not mention but family members and people awaiting trial know all too well. These include new rules that cut 50 % of visitation hours as a punishment for alleged disciplinary infractions, and the imposition of new hour-long visitation blocks (versus earlier 30 minute blocks) which limits the numbers and hours family may visit. There are no weekend hours as well.

Visitation under current conditions makes families rely on expensive video and telephone calls that generate super-profits for the Sheriff and his corporate contractor.  We endorse what families of the incarcerated repeatedly demand:  that they be paid back the excess $millions they have spent due to these restrictions.

Why do these problems continue, year after year?

The Sheriff continues to maintain control over the mechanisms of mass incarceration, independent of community control.  Operating with an ever-growing county budget and over 200 employees, there is no effective oversight of the Sheriff, jail conditions, or financial operations. Unilaterally reducing visitation further removes and isolates the jail from public observation. It allows the county to continue past patterns, despite legal rulings and lost lawsuits, in covering up wrongful death and abuse, while ignoring even the minimal state regulations on the operation of jails, in sum, denying basic human rights.

A Joint Press Statement on Binghamton’s Derek Chauvin

A Joint Press Statement on Binghamton’s Derek Chauvin

Press Conference: January 10, 2023, 2PM, Binghamton City Hall

Shortly after 3AM on January 1st, 2023, Binghamton Police assaulted Hamail Waddell, 24, on State Street. Waddell, who is Black and Asian, was a bystander attempting to de-escalate a fight when police seized him and threw him to the ground. Officer Brad Kaczynski then proceeded to kneel on the back of Waddell’s neck, employing the same hold Derek Chauvin used to murder George Floyd in Minneapolis in May of 2020. Kaczynski’s restraint is illegal under New York’s Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, which makes aggravated strangulation a class C felony. The maneuver is also clearly barred in BPD’s use of force policy. Waddell sustained injuries to his face, head, neck, and back, and required stitches in his chin.

Waddell, a young father in our community who has never before been charged with a crime, was not under arrest at the time he was attacked by police. Nevertheless, in an all too familiar abuse of power, Waddell was charged after the incident with “resisting arrest,” and police added a charge of “disorderly conduct” to cover up the fact that there had been no arrest for Waddell to have resisted in the first place. Police also confiscated hundreds of dollars worth of belongings and cash from Waddell and have refused to return them. When Waddell went to the police station on the morning of Monday, January 2nd, to file a complaint, officers locked the doors in a blatant attempt to prevent him from entering the public building. After Waddell and a number of his supporters finally obtained access, officers went so far as to threaten a mass arrest.

As if these outrages were not galling enough, it turns out that Kaczynski, a school resource officer (SRO) at East Learning Center, had been an SRO at Binghamton High School when Waddell was a student there. For years, whenever school board members, City Council representatives, and the mayor’s office have insisted on having police in our schools despite overwhelming public opposition, they claim that SROs help ensure the long-term safety and stability of the community by forging lasting bonds with the children who grow into the adults who interact with police in Binghamton. Let the image of SRO Kaczynski kneeling on a Black former student’s neck in the street put that hollow fiction to rest once and for all.

In the summer of 2020, following George Floyd’s murder, public officials were compelled to face the grim reality of policing in Binghamton. After thousands marched in Binghamton in a historic protest against police brutality, an Executive Order required cities and counties across the state to “reform and reinvent” policing. Hundreds gave feedback in public meetings, demanding that police power be constrained, oversight increased, and portions of their budgets reallocated to things like housing, mental health services, and youth programs. 

Yet political leaders have steadfastly refused even to consider making any substantive changes to policing. Mayor Jared Kraham, like Mayor Rich David before him, and the City Council majority continue to dump funding into the Binghamton Police Department. Funds meant for critical COVID-19 relief from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), for example, were funneled into “police retention.” Their own city-funded reports found people of color are overpoliced and the use of force is underreported. In a city run by and for landlords, who leech off the Binghamton University resort economy and drive locals out of secure housing, police routinely harass our unhoused neighbors while servicing the more affluent and predominantly white student clientele. They lock police station doors on frigid nights to prevent unhoused people from coming in to warm up, and conspire with the code office, water department, sheriff, and other public entities to protect slumlords and dismiss, disempower, and displace tenants.  

There is no injustice or social misery in our community that is not perpetrated or enforced by the BPD. In response to yet another outrageous incident of police brutality in Binghamton, we the people make the following demands:

  • We demand that all charges against Hamail Waddell be immediately dropped, and that his confiscated belongings be immediately returned to him.

  • We demand that Brad Kacszynski be immediately fired from the Binghamton Police Department, and promptly charged with aggravated strangulation (class C felony).

  • We demand that officers who were present and did nothing to stop the illegal chokehold be investigated and forbidden from serving as SROs in BCSD schools. 

  • We demand the immediate removal of all SROs from BCSD schools.

  • We demand that the State of New York immediately discontinue any state funding to the City of Binghamton used for policing, in accordance with Executive Order 203 of June 2020, which authorizes the state budget director to withhold state funding from localities failing to adopt meaningful police reforms.

  • We demand the immediate closure of the Law Enforcement Academy operated by the Broome County Sheriff’s Office.

We are also calling on all concerned members of the Greater Binghamton community to join us in holding police accountable by attending the following upcoming events:

  • City Council Speak-Out, Wednesday January 11th, 5:30PM, 38 Hawley Street

    • Challenge the Council’s unconditional legislative support for BPD brutality

  • Pack the Court for Hamail, Wednesday January 18th, 9:00AM, 38 Hawley Street

    • Show up to Hamail’s arraignment and demand all charges be dropped

  • School Board Meeting, Tuesday January 24th, 7PM, 164 Hawley Street

    • Insist on getting SROs out of our schools NOW

Follow our orgs on social media for updates and any scheduling changes. #JusticeForHamail 

No Justice, No Peace. 

In solidarity,

Divestment, Accountability, and Reinvestment in Our Community (DAROC)

Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier (JUST)

Stakeholders of Broome County (SBC)

Binghamton Tenants Union (BTU)

Citizen Action of New York, Southern Tier Chapter

Riot Act Books

Binghamton University Student Tenants Union

Zero Hour Binghamton

Intellectual Decisions on Environmental Awareness Solutions (IDEAS)

Powerful United Ladies Striving to Educate (PULSE)

Relevant Links

Video of Assault:

www.tinyurl.com/BPDAssault

Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act:

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/S6670

Police Reform & Reinvention Collaborative: https://www.binghamton-ny.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/998/637581533902630000

BPD Use of Force Policy:

https://www.binghamton-ny.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/2926/637605553987130000

Executive Order 203 Letter:

https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/GAMC_Reimagine_Policing_Letter.pdf

Where’s the Sheriff? In Contempt of the Supreme Court


By

NYS Supreme Court Judge Blaise had a straightforward question: Where is the Sheriff? In his defense of County Sheriff David Harder, Broome County Attorney Robert Behnke had no adequate answer. Charged with contempt of court in the motion brought by Justice and the Unity for Southern Tier (JUST), Harder failed to appear.

Law and Ill-Order in Broome County

The members of JUST packing the court knew the answer: as part of a long legal contest, the Sheriff had lost the lawsuit they had brought on behalf of families and friends of those incarcerated in Harder’s jail. In his ruling on July 29th, Judge Blaise ordered Harder to reopen visitation on the pre- COVID schedule posted in the jail’s own handbook. Harder’s officers in the jail had long been telling the incarcerated that Harder wouldn’t let this happen. When the County’s appeal to delay re-opening was denied on September 22nd, Harder was thus forced to finally reopen visitation.

Yet when the County finally opened up the jail doors on September 29th, Harder defied the Judge’s ruling. To the surprise of family members knocking on the door of the jail, visitation hours were posted for highly restricted times. Harder had unilaterally reduced visiting from the pre-COVID schedule of 44 hours a week, to 15, and visiting days from five to three—with none on the weekends for persons who work or live out of town.

On the threshold of retirement, pending election of one of his former deputies, Harder was again refusing to obey state laws–and now the State Supreme Court. To observers of justice in Broome County it was another case of law and ill-order.

The JUST Response

On October 7, on behalf of JUST, Josh Cotter of Legal Services of Central NY, filed a motion and affidavits charging Harder with civil and criminal contempt of court, with personal and financial penalties.

Before the contempt hearing on October 29th, JUST members and supporters rallied in the chilly morning on the steps of the county courthouse. The gathered families and friends of the incarcerated  told numerous stories of their inability to visit daughters, sons, fathers, partners, and friends under the posted hours.

Meanwhile, fees for telephone and video calls remained exorbitant. Many of the county’s poorest residents were spending close to $1000/month to maintain contact with family in the jail and provide necessary food and hygiene products.  Banning visitation held a warped, punitive, financial logic here: the Sheriff had reaped $ millions in profits from his share of expensive calls and commissary purchases,  outside any county control. And he spent it on personal diversions, among them his second, armored personnel carrier.

Statements from incarcerated persons and family members unable to attend the rally due to work or distance repeated these complaints:

“Does this mean my mother can’t visit me?”
“I can’t visit since I work and live in Syracuse”
“I keep calling but can’t get through to book a visiting hour”
“I’ve spent $800-$1000 every month to talk to my husband awaiting trial”
“I booked a visit with the Sheriff’s office but when I came was refused the visit”
“We need to be paid back for the $ thousands we’ve spent due to him denying visitation”

Demands

JUST’s demands addressed the problems, calling for

  • Full five days with regular hours for visitation, extended to weekends for those who work
  • Pay back of exorbitant profits from video & telephone calls, and commissary purchases
  • Food that meets basic nutrition requirements, including that item never seen in years: fruit!
  • An end to the incarceration of persons with disabilities and health crises
  • Penalize Sheriff & County for defying state supreme court and violating the state constitution

At 11 am, after the rally, over 30 JUST supporters went through metal detectors to attend the hearing, where they were faced down by a phalanx of grim, armed court security.

The Court Hearing

At the hearing, Judge Blaise questioned both Josh Cotter of Legal Services of Central NY, acting on behalf of JUST and families, and Broome County Attorney Robert Behnke, defending Sheriff Harder. In earlier legal briefs, the County had defended continued denial of visitation on grounds of COVID precautions. This was, however, increasingly implausible, given that visitation had long since returned to nursing homes, all state prisons, and jails across the state. Indeed, the Sheriff had long shown indifference to COVID, never requiring his staff to get vaccinated. And when visitation opened up on September 29th, there was no social distancing or masking.

The excuse for the Sheriff’s actions put forth submitted in court by Behnke on October 28th was thus a new one: Harder’s restricted hours were said to follow a formula provided by an official of the State Commission of Correction (SCOC). This formula had never been seen before, and certainly wasn’t in any posted regulations of the SCOC. The Commission had not met and approved this application either, as is required for variances or modifications of jail practices. Nor had one of the three SCOC Commissioners, all previous Sheriffs or Wardens, signed off on it. It was, rather, a SCOC administrator who had negotiated the new visitation regime directly with Harder. This was, as the Judge suggested, a last minute invention.

As JUST’s lawyer rightly pointed out: visitation rights are guaranteed in the state constitution, and rights can’t be limited by county officials.

The Judge’s ruling is expected in a week.  Stay tuned.

***

All court documents may be found at https://bit.ly/3fdmQET.

Further information and media coverage can be found the JUST website (www.justicest.com ), Facebook page, and Instagram pages. A report by WIVT is here and WSKG here.

JUST vs Harder Court documents

May 13, 2022 document: class action suit filed by Joshua Cotter of Legal Services of Central NY filed on behalf of JUST and local family members

July 29th, 2022, decisive ruling  by Judge Oliver Blaise III of the State Supreme Court

Oct 7th court documents, calling on the State Supreme Court to hold and sanction Sheriff Harder for contempt of the court: the Memo of Law (filed), and supporting affadavits by Martin Aff (Full File) and Cotter Affirmation

Oct 11th documents, including filings by JUST, the Sheriff’s office, the County lawyer, SCOC exhibit

October 27th submission by Broome County, just prior to court hearing on 28th (see WIVT report here)

SCOC denies any correspondence on visitation hours/days:  in its filings of Oct 27th (see above) and in court on Oct 28th, the Sheriff and County lawyer justified severely shortened hours and days of visitation by saying that they had negotiated their visitation plan with the State Commission of Correction.  The SCOC in a belated (after the court hearing) response to a freedom of information request on correspondence related to visitation and staffing replied they had no such records of any converstatiosn on the matter with the Sheriff.  The response to the foil is here.

 

Pack the Court Rally Oct 28th 10am

Pack the Court Rally!
Oct 28, 10 am
BC Courthouse
92 Court St

Open the Doors of the Jail!

Join JUST as we meet to hold Sheriff Harder in civil and criminal contempt of court as he defies our winning lawsuit:   on Oct 28th  at 10 am we will rally on the steps of the County courthouse at 92 Court St and proceed to pack the court for the contempt hearings (the court facing the Court St traffic circle, NOT the Hawley St county courthouse).

Why?

In May JUST and families of the incarcerated filed charges against the Sheriff and County, demanding they reopen visitation at the county jail.  Harder and the County resisted visitation despite the fact visitation has long returned to all state prisons, county nursing homes, and jails around the state. Families had not been allowed to visit their loved in over two years. 

Having lost the lawsuit to keep the doors of the jail locked, the Sheriff backed by County lawyers now defies the court ruling to reopen according to the pre-covid visiting schedule. He has unilaterally  reduced visitation from over 40 hours, 5 days a week to a bare 15 hours/3 days.  For many of our folks, especially distant family members, this means no or very rare visits to their sons, daughters, partners, and close friends. The Sheriff’s and County’s brazenness apparently knows no bounds.

In the face of this defiance, JUST has filed civil and criminal contempt of court charges against the Sheriff, with the assistance of Josh Cotter of Legal Services of Central NY.  At stake is the ability of family members to finally, fully, visit their loved ones.  

Let the Love In!

We look forward to this hearing and yet another, hopefully final, ruling against the Sheriff and County. But popular pressure is needed. Turn out to rally and pack the court with us.

To repeat: we will hold a rally on the court house steps on Oct 28th at 10 am  and then send people in to pack the 11 am court hearing  (clearing metal detectors may take some time, thus the early start).

 Court documents and further information may be found on our website www.justicest.com ). 

 

JUST sues Harder: contempt of court (10/7/2022)

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.

Daddy I love you: Visitation returns to BC Jail 9/29/2022

“Daddy I love you”

“Daddy I love you” Those were the words of a young girl excitedly aimed at her smiling, beaming father.   One person was heard to say to her friend over the partition, “You are looking good handsome, I love you,” met by the warm response “I love you too.”  Another young Black man was heard to say “please call my mother and tell her to visit now that she can”.  There were smiles of joy all around:  people once again, after 2 lonely years, could visit loved ones in the Broome County jail — long after visitation had returned to local nursing homes, hospitals, all state prisons, and most county jails across the state.

The Sheriff and County lawyers resisted and continue to resist in court visitation in any form. They were forced to open the jail only due to a successful lawsuit filed by Josh Cotter of Legal Services of Central New York on behalf of Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier. A judge ruled in JUST’s favor, the County appealed, and a judge stayed the appeal and ruled that visitation had to begin today (see the JUST website for details www.justiceST.com ). 

It was however limited visitation, a testimony to the Sheriff’s and County’s persistent, unethical violation of basic human rights.  The Sheriff set a schedule of his own, and not one proposed by the court. There were 40 hours a week of visitation in pre-covid days across five days of the week; the current schedule is 15 hours across three partial days (for days/times to visit see file here). JUST will be filing a contempt of court order against Sheriff Harder.  Stay tuned for more action in the courts and outside the jail.

JUST met family members coming and going to visitation with coffee and donuts outside jail (see below).  It was a warm, celebratory day despite all the difficulties and obstacles that remain in front of us.

9/29/2022

Bill Martin, for JUST

 

JUST Press Release vs. Harder/County Appeal Visitation Lawsuit 8/31/2022

Press Release
For Immediate Release
Justice and Unity in the Southern Tier (JUST)
August 31, 2022
Contacts: Jackson Hengsterman 518-779-5899, jhengsterman@gmail.com; William Martin 917 340 0468, wgmartin1@gmail.com

Sheriff Harder and Broome County Attack Supreme Court Ruling
JUST Demands a Return to Family Visitation

Broome County and Sheriff Harder have now appealed the ruling of State Supreme Court Judge Oliver Blaise III that Broome County must return to in-person visitation at the county jail. Judge Blaise’s ruling affirmed Broome County residents’ basic constitutional and human rights to visit their loved ones in the jail. Sheriff Harder’s and the County’s appeal is an affront to the community and basic human decency.

JUST and families of those held in the jail will contest the County’s actions, and we look forward to a rapid confirmation of the original ruling. Meanwhile many will suffer unnecessarily alone, in isolation, and at great personal and financial cost.

It is well past time to reopen the jail. As COVID has eased, in-person visitation with social distancing has long ago returned to all state prisons.  County jails upstate and downstate have done the same. County nursing homes now permit visitors.  People now attend Broome County courts without restriction: judges, security officers, defendants, lawyers, and attending family and friends all now attend and sit together without even masks required.

Yet the Broome County Sheriff tells the press he will not permit visitation now due to concerns with COVID. Given the jail’s faltering response to COVID—as testified by family and community activists’ protests over the last two years (see the JUST website, www.justiceST.com) —this is a shameful and misleading statement. Sheriff Harder has not required vaccinations of his staff, and has resisted reporting vaccination rates. He has supplied sanitation and basic preventative measures only under pressure. Is his new concern only because denying visitation generated extraordinary revenues from new video and telephone calling, with his profits now reaching well beyond $1 million?

It is, quite bluntly, shameful of county officials and legislators to provide the legal resources and funding to support Harder’s last stand. 

Our demand is simple: JUST and the families and friends of the hundreds of persons in the jail call upon the state courts to reject the Sheriff’s delaying legal maneuver. We call upon county officials to withdraw support for the Sheriff’s costly brutalities.

JUST with the support of Legal Services of Central NY will be filing to overturn the appeal. Sheriff Harder’s and Broome County’s actions should be rejected for what they are: delaying tactics forestalling the inevitable, the reopening of in-person visitation as has taken place around the state. 

We look forward to a definitive defeat of Harder and his allies.