Who’s the Lawbreaker? State Laws vs. County Jail Accounts

Bill Martin May 8, 2019

[reposted from justtalk blog]

On any given day there are hundreds of local families with loved ones caged in the Broome County jail. Talk to any of them and you quickly find out how costly it is to sustain the lives of those inside.  Want to call your neighbor locked up?  A recent call of less than 7 minutes to my local phone ran $11.00. Want to keep your young friend fed, when he, like others, tells you of the thin meals leaving him hungry all the time?  You need to send in money so he can buy Ramen from the jail commissary.  Want your partner to have soap or shampoo?

The incarcerated have to pay for it, one way or another.

Dig a little deeper, and you find out one reason for all these cross-cutting costs:  the corporation that profits from commissary deposits (Access Corrections) provides the food services (Trinity) and care packages (Access Securepak): it’s a vertical monopoly.  Try to bypass all this and mail in a bra, as permitted by state law? Forget that:  it is returned to Amazon, rejected by jail authorities.

Deposit money in your young Black friend’s account and you think he will then get to buy Ramen or shampoo?  Don’t count on it, for if he is sent to solitary for an unknown reason (as is often related to be the case), that’s a $25 charge, for each solitary trip, even if the charges are years old. Puzzled by why so many inmates have unkempt, wild hair?  Well, if your son needs a haircut and you have put money in his account, that’s a $10 charge.  He’d rather forego the haircut and spend the $10 on food, stamps or soap. Want the clothes, wallet and cell phone your daughter came into jail with mailed back to you? That’s a $20, $30, $40 charge. And so it goes.

Deposit $50 or $100 in their jail account, and your friend or loved one may not see a penny of it.

And hundreds of local residents linger for months and months in the jail, with 80% of them unconvicted.  Even if there are no fees or charges, many families don’t have the money to support and stay in contact with their loved ones.  This is a poor person’s, a debtors’ prison, particularly for Black and Latinx residents of the county.  Most inside are trapped by high bails, coming as they do from Binghamton, with a poverty rate (33%) much higher than New York City (20%).

Profiting from Hunger, Profiting from Inmates

But where does the money friends and family send in to jail accounts go?  It is hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. How much is charged in fees, and who uses the money? We don’t know. Some basic facts can however be uncovered, leading to yet more questions about the jail’s finances and the lack of local or state oversight.

The State Commission of Corrections mandates that jail and prison commissaries must be organized to produce “a modest return above costs.”  This doesn’t seem to apply to the Broome County Jail. The prices the Sherriff pays for goods are hidden, but surely must be bulk rates from what little we can find out. Compare jail prices to similar food and hygiene purchases at the local Walmart/Sam’s Club, where the profit rate is 2.1% on sales, and what does one find?

The jail’s profit ranges from 230% for a Bible to 560% for Ramen to 600% for a towel

And what was the” modest profit” produced? It’s hard to tell: we need more information on kick-backs from contracts and overall profits.  But records obtained in response to a freedom of information act request on profits show disbursements from commissary of over $102,000, on sales of $318,000.

If Sheriff Harder was Sam Walton, this $100,000+ would be reduced to less than $7,000.

Has the Sheriff not read state laws and regulations?

Such vampire profits contravene state law. The State Commission of Corrections sets clear regulations for county jails, including the provision of hygiene items, accounts for the incarcerated, and the handling of commissary sales and profits.  It is hard to see how Broome County follows them.

Consider the following, starting with commissary regulation 9 CRR-NY 7016.1.  The state is clear, “The prices of any items offered for sale shall be set by the sheriff… and will provide a modest return above costs.” So why are prices 2, 3, 4 times higher than costs, and profits so massively excessive?

Where do the profits go?  The state is clear here too: “Profits resulting from commissary sales shall be… utilized only for purposes of prisoner welfare and rehabilitation” (emphasis added).  That sounds good. But are they? Where did the profits from selling over $45,000 of cheap Ramen go? Were they spent on education materials?  Job training? Books?

It isn’t easy to tell. But here are a few of the items that the Sheriff reported being spent from commissary funds last year (taken from a Freedom of Information request):

Three garden tractors                       $ 9,357

Indigent hygiene, intro packs          $ 24,000

Agway lawn & garden supplies:        $ 2,238

Flares                                                 $ 2,523

Haircuts                                             $ 1,800

Copier lease:                                         $ 960

Tires and parts for a trailer                  $ 700

Garden tractors and lawn supplies as meeting welfare needs of the incarcerated?  There is no food garden, although one could be used.  Flares to light the way to further rehabilitation? Copier leases to provide for the incarcerateds’ welfare support, when persons inside already pay 25 to 50 cents per copy in the law library? And $24,000 for hygiene/indigent packs given to people when they are processed into the jail? Has anyone read state regulations 9 CRR-NY 7005.6NY-CRR and 9 CRR-NY 7005.4 that require the facility to provide  food, hygiene, and indigent haircuts at facility expense?

It gets worse.  This year the jail withdrew from commissary, for reasons that local citizens and even legislators cannot discern, the ability to buy from the commissary clean underwear, bras, and thermal shirts (necessary in the underheated cells of the jail where the use of blankets is banned during the day)–and this even though the most recent commissary list provided by the county shows them on sale.

Persons working in laundry confirm that underwear is old, stained by body fluids, and not adequately cleaned.  Bras, laundry workers have stated, are so old, torn, and dirty that they are almost unrecognizable as they go through the wash.  State regulation 9 CRR-NY 7005.7 clearly states that bras are permitted to be sent to women from outside vendors. But when even this was attempted from Amazon, an approved outside vendor, the jail refused delivery.

These miserable situations have been reported to the county executive and local legislators to no avail.

Who will enforce state rules and a common sense of decency for women and men in the jail?

What happened to the County Auditor?

It isn’t the county, which says it is fully aware of state regulations.  State regulations require regular audits of the jail.  And year after recent year the Broome County Department of Audit and Control, headed by Comptroller Alex J. McLaughlin and the Chairman of the Legislature, has dutifully fulfilled this responsibility to ascertain, in their own words, “whether commissary funds are being used and accounted for properly in accordance with State Corrections Law.” The findings?  “Based on the results of our examination, it is our opinion that the Sheriff’s Office is in compliance with State Law regarding the commissary fund.”  Is there something missing in the jail records and accounts that might sustain such a conclusion?

Ask the County and the Attorney General

It is time to ask county and state authorities, including the New York State Office of the Attorney General which oversees jail operations, and the State Comptroller which oversees contracts, to investigate–and ensure the county and Sheriff follow state law, if not common standards of humane treatment for those suffering in the jail.  There are too many anomalies, too many accounting irregularities.  We need to know:

• Why are jail prices for commissary items so high, and profits so excessive?
• Why are profits not spent on “rehabilitation and welfare” as required by state law?
• Why does the jail not provide basic food and hygiene needs as required in state law?
• Why have not annual audits by the county not enforced state laws?
• Where does the money sent to inmate accounts go? How much is charged in unaccounted fees?
• What is the return on jail contracts for food, telephone, and commissary purchases—and why aren’t contracts posted on the county purchasing website like other contracts?

May 8, 2019

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Note:  this post will be updated and corrected as as more information arrives, particularly regarding county contracts with private firms operating in the jail.  Updates at www.justtalk.blog from which this is reprinted.

Bill Martin

How can we best educate Broome county’s kids and protect them from harm?  The choices are tough for parents, teachers, and school principals. Do we spend thin funding on more teachers or nurses?  Or a guidance or a mental health counselor? Or when it comes to safety, hardening the schools against armed attack and hiring armed police? Unfortunately fear, and not a rational calculation of where dangers lie, drives today’s calculations.

Fear is a powerful motivator.  In the Cold War years, children were drilled to “duck and cover” under their classroom desks to avoid the effects of Soviet atomic bombs.  Today students and teachers practice turning off lights, locking classroom doors, pulling down window shades, and huddling quietly in closets to hide from active shooters. Surprise lockdown drills have become the norm, reproducing a climate of insecurity and anxiety. One in three parents nationwide fear for the safety of their child at school, fed by lurid media coverage and politically calculated calls for more state security.

Living in fear imposes costs and choices.  Most prominent is the cost of police in our schools. In Broome County, as across the nation, the number of armed School Resource Officers (SROs) and civilian security staff has grown steadily.  What does this cost?  And has this reduced, prevented, or increased harm to our youth?

There is neither transparency nor much discussion here. School, city, and police budgets provide little help.  Incomplete responses to freedom of information requests to local towns, police departments, and the county, in addition to a survey of press and website listings, produce an incomplete total for Broome County schools of $1.3 million per year.  It looks like this:

These are very incomplete figures, given that SRO costs remain hidden in many budgets, and even these tabulations do not include in most cases civilian security staff, costs of “hardening” school facilities, staff training, consultant fees, drill practices, etc.

For many of our elected representatives this is not nearly enough. State legislators, led by our Senator (and former Undersheriff and current police officer) Frederick Akshar, have long advocated putting armed officers in schools. Senate Bill S1330 cosponsored by Akshar proposes that the state directly fund a force of retired police officers in all public and private schools outside of New York City—while raising school security officer (SRO) pay over 60 per cent.

The cost? Close to $200 million a year.

As an employment program, adding 4,000 part-time retirees to the state payroll is impressive. Nationwide, we’ve seen billions now spent on policing and hardening schools. Yet glaringly absent are other resources:   14 million students go to a school with a police officer but no counselor, nurse, psychologist or social worker.

Even more critical is the simple fact that adding armed police to school hallways does little to protect youth from the dangers they may face.  As multiple reports by security firms,[1]  research scholars,[2] and the Congressional Research Service[3] tell us, deaths in schools from active shooters are a minuscule subset of school fatalities, less than 5 percent,[4] and an even smaller percentage of youth homicides or suicides by firearms.[5]  Shootings in and around schools are also exceedingly rare. Students know this: their fear of attack or harm while in school has been falling for over two decades.[6] Students in schools do face harm but from sources armed police can do little to prevent or resolve:  transport accidents, suicide, bullying, and hate crimes among other causes.

Indeed armed police may exacerbate these problems. They certainly increase the danger of kids ending up in what is commonly called the school-to-prison pipeline. For what we do know is that more policing in our schools is associated with more detention and arrests, particularly of African-American and Latinx students.  Incidents previously addressed by teachers, principals, and parents are increasingly turned over to retired police officers, who by training rely upon force and the criminal justice system.  Recent protests against Binghamton High School security staff beating down a Black student on Court street, and the strip searching of four young Black girls at East Middle School highlight the problem and the fear some students have of the police and security staff.

Indeed, as local statistics and national surveys indicate, policing in schools reinforces racial disparities, with racially dipropionate rates of detention and arrest feeding directly into the prison pipeline.  African-Americans, for example, compose 10 percent of Broome County’s students, but account for 43% of juvenile detentions and 50% of those on probation supervision. Where are the precursors?  In the Binghamton School District, which spends the most on armed and private security, African-American students are suspended at 2.5 times the rate for white students and suffer a 26% drop out rate.  County-wide, African-American are 10 percent of youth but 43% of juvenile detentions and 50% of those on probation supervision.

It is simply too costly a system: too many police in schools, too many poor, disabled and students of color channeled into the criminal justice system, and too few counselors, nurses, and mental health workers in our schools to really help kids resolve the conflicts and troubles of growing up in these difficult times.

Twenty years ago DARE, the police program in schools to prevent drug use, was shown to be a total failure and it collapsed.  We should do the same to its successors, and end, finally, unaccountable mass policing in our schools

May 4, 2019

Notes

A shorter version of this post appeared as an op-ed in the Press & Sun Bulletin, May 4

[1] Stephen C. Satterly Jr., “Report of Relative Risks of Death in U.S. K-‐12 Schools” (Safe Havens International, August 1, 2014).

[2] James H. Price and Jagdish Khubchandani, “School Firearm Violence Prevention Practices and Policies: Functional or Folly?,” Violence and Gender, March 19, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1089/vio.2018.0044.

[3] Authors Redacted, “School Resource Officers: Issues for Congress” (Congressional Research Service, July 5, 2018).

[4] Authors Redacted, 18.

[5] Price and Khubchandani, “School Firearm Violence Prevention Practices and Policies,” 2.

[6] Lauren Musu-Gillette et al., “Indicators of SChool Crime and Safety 2017” (Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics, March 2018), 105.

Arnold on Grievances at the Jail

http://www.justtalk.blog/index.php/2019/03/12/broome-county-is-killing-me/

Yet another grievous death at the BC Jail.

Demand more answers: sign the petition!

Stay tuned here for more action updates in the coming days.

On January 8th, Robert Card entered the Broome County Jail in handcuffs on a probation violation stemming from low-level charges. Less than 13 days later, he was secretly removed unconscious on a stretcher. Rob, a 48-year-old Broome County resident, father, brother, son, and friend was being treated for a brain tumor before incarceration, a condition known to the probation and jail officials. While incarcerated he was given only aspirin and denied further treatment even as he experienced seizures, repeated falls, and began losing the ability to walk. After a stroke cut off oxygen to his brain—rendering him brain dead—he was mysteriously released from custody and transferred to a hospital. Let’s be clear: Rob died due to the Broome County jail and its private medical provider—CMC— neglectful treatment and disregard for his medical condition.

This is the ninth death at the Broome County Jail since 2011, giving Broome County a jail death rate 43% higher than the national jail mortality rate. 80% of US jails do not report a single death in any given year. Medical neglect and abuse are rampant in the Broome County Jail, despite local and state officials ignoring extensive documentation and protest by community organizations including Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier, Truth Pharm, and Progressive Leaders of Tomorrow.

A fuller account is available here: Who Wrote Rob Card

The New York State Commission on Correction, appointed by the Governor, oversees county jails (as well as prisons) and has for decades demanded counties build larger and newer jails.  The total amount spent and coming online as of January 2019 is over $700 million outside NY City, $11-20 billion for new jails planned in NY City, and roughly $500 million for new youth jails coming online with the Raise the Age “reform” legislation. The table attached here estimates costs outside NYC under Governor Cuomo’s watch.

Combating Carceral Humanism in Upstate New York

[reading list]

from the Cortland Voice

Cuomo’s “Carceral Humanism”

Elections November 2018
Who Calls for Justice?
Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier

Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier (JUST) is a non-partisan community group.  We don’t endorse candidates.  Yet we would be negligent if we did not highlight electoral races where issues of justice appear most seriously.  In some key cases there are no contests this November.  State Senator Akshar most notably stands unopposed. He has consistently opposed criminal justice reform and advanced greater funding of local jails, policing, and the criminalization of poor and Black populations.

There are however two contested races of note in our local area.

Sheriff’s race:  David Harder (R) vs. Matt Ryan (Working Families)

As we have often noted and protested, the county jail is a site of medical abuse, excessive death, racial inequities, and a massive drain on the county budget.  Sheriff Harder rejects these charges as can be seen in campaign statements and interviews.  Matt Ryan, the previous mayor of Binghamton, promises in his statements to change the administration of the jail, its medical services, and support substantive alternatives in the community for those with mental health and substance use disorders.  There is clear marked contrast in this race.

Governor’s race:  Andrew Cuomo (D) vs. Marc Molinaro (R) vs. Larry Sharpe (Libertarian) vs. Howie Hawkins (Green)

Many advocates for criminal justice reform have been deeply disappointed by the lack of support from Governor Cuomo and the stifling of reform bills through the Governor’s relations with conservative State Senators.  Republican Marc Molinaro would impose even harsher penalties and parole than exist today, and accelerate mass incarceration.  Libertarian candidate Larry Sharpe supports shrinking the carceral state and expanded social services on fiscal grounds, and for similar reasons supports the use of yet more e-shackles.  Green candidate Howie Hawkins offers a contrast, with carefully considered positions on bail, speedy trial, parole and related key reform measures.  He has made these signature items in his campaign, including his statements during his appearance in Binghamton.

The JUST general meeting for Thurs Oct 25 at 5pm is at STIC, and NOT  as originally planned at the United Presbyterian Church.

After some agitating by JUST members, the Broome County Board of Elections has now posted a note on its website  noting that parolees with new pardons by the Governor can vote.  Many County Boards of Election across the state incorrectly state that those convicted of felonies cannot vote while on parole.  This is untrue, and is repeated on the local newspaper’s guide to how to register to vote. Persons on parole in NY State should have received notes from their parole officers on how to re-register to vote if they are among the 24,000+ persons now permitted to vote. See this link for how to do this.  Some surrounding County Board of Elections still state on their websites that anyone on parole cannot vote (e.g. Tompkins County, which incorrectly states “You may not register or vote if you have been convicted of a felony and : you are currently incarcerated; or you are under parole supervision.”  http://tompkinscountyny.gov/boe/For_Voters/How_to_Register/Index_How_Do_I_Register).  We need more work on this.

Several JUST members spoke up at the October 11th public hearings on the Broome County’s proposed 2019 budget: Kevin Revier tackled the mis-allocations and poor policies re substance use disorders, Rozann Greco lambasted the cuts in health and human services, and Bill Martin attacked the county exec’s proposed budget as a mass incarceration, mass policing budget. The cost of the jail alone has accelerated continuously as can be seen in the figure below.  Bill Martin’s comments are here: Build it and they will pay

On the afternoon of Saturday, August 11th, at the corner of Laurel Ave and Schubert St (Between Rec Park and Horace Mann Elementary School), several white police officers stopped and detained two young Black teenagers.

A 13-year-old girl was a placed in handcuffs, with witnesses at the scene describing officers forcefully lifting her off the ground after she was restrained. She was accused of spray painting a nearby wall. The girl was in distress, which prompted multiple residents to stop and document the interaction. She was later released to her parent after spending nearly a half hour in handcuffs.

A 14-year-old boy with developmental disabilities was also inexplicably stopped, searched, and taken into custody while observing the event. He was pinned down by three officers before being handcuffed and locked in a police van, where he repeatedly banged his head on a security panel as officers stood by.

Additional officers arrived on the scene, escalating the situation with the children and frightened witnesses observing the incident.

A first-hand account of the incident can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10212830878591140&id=1364063380 

video is here: https://facebook.com/BingPLOT/videos/2060104890689388/

A community rally demanding justice for these two children abused and assaulted by Binghamton Police was held on Aug 17th at 5:45pm at 104 Laurel Ave.

[Details and updates from the PLOT facebook page]

PLOT (August 16)  demands and Media Advisory:

August 16, 2018

MEDIA ADVISORY 

BINGHAMTON, NY — On the afternoon of Saturday, August 11th, in the parking lot of Horace Mann Elementary School (on the corner of Laurel Ave and Schubert St), several white Binghamton Police officers confronted and detained two Black children, arresting one. A handful of concerned residents and bystanders stopped to document the interaction.

One of the children, a 13-year-old girl, was handcuffed for allegedly spray painting a nearby wall. While restrained, the child exhibited signs of distress—crying for her parents and shrieking in pain. The child was eventually released from police custody upon her parent’s arrival, after having spent nearly half an hour in handcuffs.

The second child, a 14-year-old boy with various cognitive and developmental disabilities, was inexplicably stopped, detained, and searched twice while witnessing the event. He was eventually pinned down by three officers, handcuffed, and confined to a mobile police unit—where he proceeded to bash his head on a security panel without intervention.

Throughout this ordeal, Binghamton Police officers repeatedly harassed and intimidated onlookers documenting the incident.

The highly disturbing use of force and escalation on the part of Binghamton Police officers to restrain and detain children has led concerned community members to gather in protest. We will convene Friday, August 17th, to demand justice for the trauma imposed upon the two children. In response to the officers’ failure to conduct themselves appropriately after having been made aware of the age and mental state of the children—in addition to the unnecessary provocation of children and bystanders alike—we issue the following demands:

1. Immediate termination of all officers involved in the 8/11/18 incident in the Horace Mann Elementary School parking lot in Binghamton
2. Immediate implementation of a Civilian Police Review Board with subpoena power, to allow community members to hold law enforcement officials accountable when they commit crimes against residents
3. Immediate compensation from the City of Binghamton Bureau of Police to the families of the two children involved in the 8/11/18 incident, for counseling and mental health services and related expenses
4. Timely and transparent public access to statistical demographics and data collection on ALL vehicle and pedestrian stops in the City of Binghamton
5. Adjunct De-Escalation and Disability Awareness & Intervention Training for Binghamton Police officers who engage with the public

In addition to these demands, PLOT (@BingPLOT) is releasing video documentation of Saturday’s incident to the public, and will be hosting a public meeting and Bystander Intervention Training, Monday August 27, 6pm to 8:30pm, at United Presbyterian Church, 42 Chenango St, Binghamton.

a few pictures of the rally: