Legal Services of Central NY on July 25 2017 filed a class action suit on behalf of youth detained in the Broome County Jail. As the opening statement noted, “This class-action civil-rights lawsuit challenges the solitary confinement of 16- and 17-year-olds, most of whom have not been convicted of any crime, at the Broome County Correctional Facility (“Broome County Jail” or “the Jail”). Despite an emerging consensus that solitary confinement places juveniles at risk of serious harm-including suicide, psychosis, and post-traumatic stress disorder- and despite a national abandonment of solitary confinement of juveniles, the Broome County Sheriff’s Office has embraced the frequent and arbitrary use of solitary confinement. As the Sheriff’s Office is well aware, these practices are exposing the young people held at the Jail to serious harm. Compounding the profound consequences of the Office’s wanton use of solitary confinement, Sheriff’s Office officials also are denying juveniles basic educational services and denying students with disabilities access to special education supports and services.”
The Sheriff and County resisted settling the lawsuit.
On April 4, 2018 the judicial decision came down: a complete victory.
Congratulations to Legal Services and all who worked so hard. In the future: similar actions to stop the medical maltreatment and deaths in the jail.
The text of the original lawsuit is at: BCJComplaintFile.
As part of the suit, scathing expert testimony was provided by Andrea Weisman, a licensed clinical psychologist with over 25 years of experience in juvenile correctional settings. Her full testimony is Weisman Decl; some citations:
page 5:
Based on my review of the allegations in the Complaint, the declarations of multiple juveniles, the Sheriff’s Office’s written policies and other documents, it is my opinion the policies and practices guiding the placement of youth in solitary confinement are extraordinarily harsh and are extremely damaging to youth so confined. The Sheriff’s Office’s adherence to these policies place all juveniles who are, or will be, incarcerated at the Jail at substantial risk of serious harm.
Page 7
The conditions of solitary confinement at the Broome County Jail are some of the most severe and restrictive I have ever encountered in my over 30 years of professional experiences. These deprivations of human contact and environmental stimuli would be substantial for anyone, but for juveniles they are devastating.
Page 16
The Sheriff’s Office’s system of inadequate care, in which youth are placed in isolation, causing trauma and suicidal ideation, then stripped naked and placed in another kind of isolation on suicide watch, puts youth at a higher risk of experiencing harm, including morbidity and mortality.
Page 20
All the juveniles spoke of the harsh and abusive practices the Correctional Officers (COs) with many identifying in exquisite detail the beatings they endured at the hands of the COs’. One youth spoke of the CO taking his clothing and flushing it in the toilet. Another
youth spoke of an incident in which he was restrained in a restraint chair and then pepper sprayed while he was restrained. Still another youth spoke of the COs carrying batons they used to beat the kids; they reported that the COs refer to the baton as their “nigga beaters.”