When visitation to those inside the jail was closed off on March 30, 2020, JUST’s extensive visiting program was curtailed.  Relations to those inside shifted to thinner telephone and video links.  Family desperate to organize became to write JUST in larger numbers, leading to the creation of Broome Inside/Out,  a support, discussion, and information group of family members and friends of those inside that meets and shares information, suggestions, problems.  If you have family or friends inside and want to join, email justice.southern.tier@gmail.edu with the subject line ‘Broome Inside/Out request’

BCJ Pandemic Update: A Periodic News Round-up on the Broome County Jail during the COVID-19 Crisis

From Andy Pragacz, for JUST

Early this morning Legal Services of Central New York (LSCNY) attorney Josh Cotter filed a writ of habeas corpus in an effort to have five people incarcerated in the Broome County released due to elevated risk of death from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Two are over 60 years old. Three others have serious respiratory, pulmonary, heart, and/or liver problems. The five men are either pretrial detainees held for minor offense charges and/or parole violations or sentenced on similarly minor offense. Justice and Unity in the Southern Tier and other organizations worked with LSCNY to identity at risk people incarcerated, seeking to realize our collective demand to release vulnerable people from inherently dangerous jails. The motion is supported by declarations of three doctors with specifies in correctional health, internal medicine, and infectious diseases. See attached legal filings for more information. Josh Cotter is available to talk with the press my emailing jcotter@lscny.org. 

The immediate release of people held in the Broome County jail, especially those who have serious medical conditions or are aged, is increasing necessary. At Riker’s Island alone, 321 staff members and 273 incarcerated people have tested positive for COVID-19 with hundreds more in the state prison system, including the heard of the state corrections union. At least two incarcerated people have died in New York State, according to an email from the Releasing Aging People in Prison (RAPP) who held a vigil at Sing Sing last week, due the virus and at least one correction’s officer. In Broome County at least one corrections officer has tested positive and reports from inside the jail note the rising number of people shifted to medical quarantine. 

As the virus spreads rapidly throughout jails and prisons across the state prison and jails have instituted lockdowns and restricted movement to uncleaned showers and one daily phone call only. While these seem like commonsense precautions, longtime prisoners note that social distancing in carceral facilities is “impossible” due to poor ventilation or cells connected through the ventilation system, sharing of facilities, common kitchens, and generally tight quarters. Terrified prisoners have reported abuse at the hands of security staff facilitated by decreased communication access to the outside, in addition to poor health precautions.

The only solution to the this public health emergency for incarcerated people, corrections officers, and the community at large is decarceration and rehousing in clean facilities outside the jail. 

BC Jail News Roundup. These data are taken from various reliable contacts whose identities will be kept anonymous out of fear of retribution. Information is also taken and supported/verified by online informational sources. News agencies that wish to use this information but require confirmation or people who have more information about jail conditions and releases should contact justice.southern.tier@gmail.com. We encourage the dissemination of the information listed below. 

1. At least one more identifiable person was removed from general population housing units over the weekend, with some reports that as many as eight were removed to medical quarantine. 
2. The first person moved to quarantine has a medical condition that puts him at greater risk to death due to COVID-19. He as reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. 
3. Reports have not indicated that no incarcerated has been removed to local hospitals.
4. At least one general housing unit is on full lockdown as of Friday, with incarcerated people only able to exit their cells to for daily shower and phone call. They are not allowed outside the facility for fresh air nor to use video calls. 
5. Showers are not being cleaned after each use. 
6. Incarcerated people are not being notified by jail staff if they were in contact with infected corrections officer after he test positive and before the Friday lockdown. This is one way that virus could have spread to the incarcerated population. 
7. Prior to the lockdown it was reported that social distancing directives were not being enforced in the jail amongst the staff or incarcerated populations. 
8. Prior to Friday, jail staff was testing incarcerated people who worked in the kitchens and in other parts of the jail. Generally, incarcerated workers are sentenced people represent a minority of people (only 76 of 286 people held in the jail on a daily average were sentenced in March 2020, according to NYS data). 

Denalism=Death

#FreeBCJ

[From justtalk.blog]

US Attorney General Barr: Prisons = “petri dishes” for the virus, releases at risk prisoners

NY Governor Cuomo: Silence

NY Attorney General James: Silence

Broome County Executive Jason Garnar: Never!

Broome County Sheriff Harder: Got virus? Jails are the safest place!

We’ve been down this road before. Amidst an explosion of AIDS deaths we had a president who could not say the word “HIV”. When the opioid crisis hit, it took local Truth Pharm activists months and months to get county officials to recognize we had an opioid crisis, and then many more months to force the county government to record and release the number of deaths locally.

History repeats itself with the coronavirus. As reports around only the second death in the county reveal, the county government can’t seem to track the number of persons with covid-19, tell families of a death, or follow up and track those in contact with the person that died. Writing on county facebook pages, local residents are puzzled why so little information, by comparison to other counties and even the federal government, is forthcoming. What is there to hide?

And the deaths are coming. As JUST and other activists have continuously warned, the virus will predictably blow through the unclean and overcrowded dorms, double-bunked closed cells, and kitchen of the jail, felling the incarcerated and their keepers alike.

The county response? Worse than denialism. While even Trump’s Attorney General begins to release at least some at-risk prisoners, Broome County Executive Jason Garnar says never. Broome County’s Sheriff Harder is even more brazen: jail is the safest place to be if you have the virus. As before, it is more than denialism: it’s a death sentence for those inside and outside the jail.

**************

Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier is running a social media campaign to force elected officials, the District Attorney, and local judges to release as many persons as soon as possible–and provide the resources for them to self-isolate in the community.  Link to the campaign here, #FreeBCJ and #Letthemgo. And for more news, head to the JUST webpage.

On March 26^th at 2:30 pm community organizations in Broome County had a car protest rally outside the grounds of the shared county jail and emergency service facility.  A press conference was held on site, and a speaker shouted out to a rousing crowd in their cars, one person to a car.  A  media video report is here.

The pressing demand: “Release Them Now”

Confronted by the coronavirous, community organizations, sheriffs, and public prosecutors across the state and country are calling for jails to release and safely rehouse as many persons as possible.  They know that jails are deadly incubators of the virus, and that it always spreads out into the community. Individuals from Citizen Action, Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier, and Truth Pharm called on the county to:

• Immediately release anyone at high risk for infection
• Release anyone held on non-violent charges
• Provide testing, sanitation supplies, medical treatment, and adequate nutrition
• Make phone/video calls free and end predatory commissary pricing
• Ensure those coming home have a discharge and treatment plan, including medical and housing resources
• Implement fully bail reforms, no roll back
• Provide transparent, public dissemination of these measures

Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier
#FREEBCJ

Justice.Southern.Tier@gmail.com
   www.justicest.com
 @BingamtonJUST
FB: tinyurl.com/JUST-ST

May 23 2019 Rally for Medical Justice

Who Wrote Rob Card’s Death Sentence at the BC Jail?

Harder Falls, Salladin Barton Vindicated

Nov 7: Public Hearing: “The BC Jail on Trial: Voices from Inside”, media report and JUST objectives & demands

JUST statement n Coronavirus 3 14 20 

Bail Reform Barely Began and now in Albany they are trying to take it Away !

Join Us to Stop this ! 

Stand Up for the For the New Reform

Pack the Courts Action –

 Kick Off for the Court Watch 2020 

  Wednesday January 15th – 8:30 AM (yes in the morning)

In Front of County Court -65 Hawley St Bing

   Court Watch Kick-Off 2020 – #DemandJusticeBC    

We want to have a big crowd so we can demonstrate that we support the new Reforms! We will begin our Court Watch that day to assure that Broome County courts are implementing the new reforms ! (see info attached) 

 Court Watch Kick-Off 2020 – #DemandJusticeBC

Kick-Off is Wed, 1/15/20 @ 8:30a – BROOME COUNTY COURT

New York State implemented sweeping reforms eliminating cash bail in majority of non violent offenses. We need to be in the courts to hold all accountable to assure the new laws are being implemented fully.

Fear and Loathing among Mass Incarcerators

(reposted from www.justtalk.blog, August 28, 2019)

County Sheriff David Harder can hide no more.  The chickens can, it turns out, come home to roost.

For years Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier (JUST) and allied community organizations have been documenting, publicizing, and protesting medical abuse and deaths at the Broome County Jail.  In 2017 over a dozen community organizations issued an action plan calling for an immediate investigation into medical abuse at the jail, arguing that

Too often, death is how incarceration ends in the Broome County Jail. In 2011, Alvin Rios died “face down and shaking” in his cell. New York State faulted Broome County’s medical provider, Correctional Medical Care (CMC), which between 2009 and 2011 was implicated in nine deaths in jail facilities state wide. Since then, conditions have not improved: death has become even more common.

The County and CMC would eventually lose the lawsuit brought by Rios’ family.  Questioned about multiple deaths and the lawsuit, County Sheriff David Harder kissed it off, telling the media that deaths “will happen.” The county’s response:  it gave an award for excellence to CMC in 2014 and renewed its contract.  By the next year Harder was unwilling to even acknowledge yet another death, brazenly repeating he didn’t have to report it. As for changing any practices at the jail, there was “no reason to.” 

And so the deaths and abuse continued. In 2015, Salladin Barton, developmentally disabled and well known and liked on the streets of Binghamton, pleaded with his family: “The guards are going to kill me. You gotta get me outta here.”  He died shortly thereafter.  In 2018, the Sheriff and the County lost a class action suit filed by Legal Services of Central New York on behalf of abused youth. Early this year, Rob Card, denied basic medical treatment, told his family he was going to be killed in the jail, and died in mysterious circumstances.  Secretly released from custody by an unknown legal and court order, Card was removed from the jail, on a gurney and in coma, so he could die in a hospital–and off the books of the jail.

The families of the incarcerated have never accepted this, and never stopped pressing forward. Barton’s family filed a lawsuit.  JUST and other organizations joined in, forwarding continuous evidence of abuse to the County Executive, County legislators, and New York State officials.  Rallies and protests were organized outside county offices, the jail, and, most recently the UHS offices of Dr. Butt, the jail’s longstanding doctor.

On August 29^th over a dozen local community groups, propelled forward by Progressive Leaders of Tomorrow, will be rallying outside the jail to protest rampant abuse, racism, and deaths in the jail.

Harder’s response to all charges of medical abuse and specifically the lawsuit brought by Barton’s mother:  “It’s a bunch of crap.”

Well, this week Harder and the County can hide no more.  For on August 21^st a Federal Court judge issued a blistering judgement in favor of Salladin’s Barton’ mother, Rose Carter. Turning back County lawyers’ calls to dismiss the suit, Judge David Hurd bluntly noted that the county had “supplied precious little material” in support of their claims. 

The judge’s conclusion is stark: “as a result of the ongoing failure by CMC to provision appropriate medical care to inmates at the County Jail, and the failure by these policymaking defendants to intervene to correct it, Barton died while in the County’s custody.”

The Judge went much further, showing that that CMC’s medical problems had for years been reported to the Sheriff and County by both the State Commission of Correction and the Office of the Attorney General.  This was a legal breakthrough: this wasn’t the treatment of one person at issue but the knowing maltreatment of everyone caged in the jail.

Listen to the court:

“Sheriff Harder and/or Administrator Smolinsky, in their roles as policymakers for the Jail, possessed abundant knowledge about CMC’s egregious misconduct, knew that CMC was actively engaged in this misconduct at the County Jail, and yet failed to take any corrective action to prevent the substantial risk of harm those policies and practices posed to the inmates in their custody.

Among other things, Carter’s evidence shows that Sheriff Harder in particular

(1) knew CMC’s medical practices had caused at least one prior inmate death at the County Jail;

(2) was aware that the state’s investigation concluded that CMC’s improper medical practices caused or contributed to that death;

(3) had plenty of notice that CMC had not changed its medical policies or practices in any meaningful measure following that death; and nevertheless

(4) continued to approve of the County’s use of CMC without any modifications to its practices.”

Unlike in past cases, Sheriff Harder, Administrator Smolinksy, and Drs. Butt and Tinio are now personally liable.  

As the lawsuit now goes forward, Salladin Barton, on behalf of those who came before and after him, may at last get a measure of justice. The county and our elected officials may, at last, be forced to act.

As for Sheriff Harder, his departure, by impeachment or indictment, is long overdue

On Thursday August 29th over 125 people rallied against deaths and abuse at the  Broome County Jail.  The press release with the list of demands is here: Broome Jail Rally Press Release 8-20-2019.  Pictures from the rally are below; the media coverage includes this story:

Local organizations demand action, call for removal of prison administrators

Binghamton residents, students organize protest over prisoner mistreatment at Broome County Jail

By Erin Kagel and Jackson Galati – September 5, 2019

Jackson Galati/Contributing Photographer

Ten inmates in the Broome Country Jail have died in the past eight years. On Thursday, Binghamton community members, advocacy groups, University students and faculty gathered for the third year in a row to protest the deaths and call for better conditions in the facility.

The rally, held at the jail, is the most recent effort by community organizations to raise awareness and demand action in response to allegations of abuse, medical malpractice and negligence toward inmates of the Broome County Jail at the hands of corrections officers and Dr. Mahmood Butt, the jail’s health administrator.

Alexis Pleus, founder and executive director of Truth Pharm, one of the organizations coordinating the demonstration, said the removal of Sheriff David Harder and jail administrator Mark Smolinsky would be the only way to begin to solve mistreatment of inmates at the jail. Pleus cited examples of inmates being denied medications, proper nutrition and privacy behind the facility’s walls.

“They’re not taking care of inmates — they’re letting people die inside that jail,” Pleus said. “It’s about four times the national average of deaths in a jail of its size. We need somebody in there who recognizes human rights.”

In the past, Harder has vigorously denied claims of mistreatment within the jail, which he directly oversees. His only comment on the protest was that it had disappointed him.

“It’s unfortunate because the people had no idea what they were protesting,” Harder said. “This is not unusual for the organizations involved to spread false information. The people there had no idea what they were saying, and they were believing lies.”

Nearly 200 protesters held signs and stood along the road leading up to the Broome County Jail, periodically breaking out into chants of “No justice, no peace” and “Black lives matter.” Then, on a stage made of wooden pallets stacked on top of milk crates, paired with a PA system, several speakers shared their stories and thoughts on the jail.

One of the speakers, Talon Thomas, 27, of Binghamton, was incarcerated with Salladin Barton, a 35-year-old man who died in solitary confinement at the Broome County Jail in January 2015 while waiting two years for his day in court. Because his cell walls were made of glass, Thomas was able to see Barton in an adjacent cell, and said Barton would often not receive his food or medication because he would be asleep during the times guards brought them out. On another occasion, Thomas said he witnessed Barton being restrained in a stretcher with a straightjacket and propped up behind the corrections officers, who left him there for hours without contact.

“People say ‘[Barton] had this problem, he had that problem’ and he may have had some mental issues, but he didn’t need to be in the Broome County Jail,” Thomas said. “He should have gotten some different type of treatment. He didn’t need to be in the box.”

In a lawsuit filed in the Broome County Supreme Court in 2015 against Harder and Smolinsky, Thomas claimed that throughout his 19-month incarceration, Barton was subject to beatings, deprived of medical care and verbally abused by officials.

“A court document came out [last] week where a judge held them responsible for the past death of Salladin Barton, so we know that even courts are holding them responsible for what goes on inside of the jail,” Pleus said. “They need to leave. We can’t trust them.”

In an Aug. 21 order given by U.S. District Judge David Hurd, the allegations of excessive force and intentional infliction of emotional distress were dismissed, while other allegations, including those of medical mistreatment, are still under review.

Dheiva Moorthy, a student organizer for both BU Progressives and the Frances Beal Society and a sophomore double-majoring in environmental studies and sociology, said she encouraged student involvement in the protest and was there to support the need for alternative reform for inmates.

“The level of neglect for people inside jails is insane,” Moorthy said. “I can’t even begin to tell you how much that hurts my heart, but what’s worse than that is that we don’t have a system of restorative community based healing justice for people. People do not need to be in cages for society to function effectively. People need to be given community healing and people need to be given radical love.”

After the speakers finished, the crowd marched up to the jail and continued their chants. Throughout the day, the prisoners who heard the chants would yell back to acknowledge the protesters. Once they were next to the jail, the group sang “Happy Birthday” for a friend of an organizer who is currently incarcerated in the facility.

“That fact that they heard us, that was the goal,” Pleus said. “Being able to give them a sense of hope is the best thing that we could have accomplished today. They heard us and that was the name of the rally, ‘When They Hear Us.’”

Roderick Douglass, social media coordinator for Progressive Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT), another organizing group, closed the event by encouraging people to stay involved, find more events and programs to participate in and attend meetings for the involved organizations to continue building a stronger community.

“We’re not trying to get senators to pass laws necessarily — we’re trying to get people on board so that we can force and demand change,” Douglass said. “I promise you, no one is going to die in jail this week and that’s because a lot of people were out here complaining about it. The more people who shed light on what’s happening here, the safer the people are inside.”