Author Archives: JustJust

March 3 2025 JUST Rallies for HALT, Live Report from BC Jail


WIVT report here

On March 3, 2025 activists and formerly incarcerated persons rallied on the steps of the Broome County Building in protest against the murders of incarcerated persons in our state prisons, from the on-camera deathly beating of Robert Brooks on December 9th in the Marcy prison, and the beating to death by COs on March 1st of Messiah Nantwi in the Mid-state prison–as well as a continuing series of deaths in the local Broome County jail.

A series of speakers from Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier, Citizen Action, and the NAACP among others spoke against attempts by striking COs, local sheriffs and elected officials to overturn HALT, the law that limited the use of solitary prions in state prisons and jails. Most powerful and compelling was the last, live by phone testimony from Joshu Vaughn, currently incarcerated in the Broome County Jail, who recounted his personal experience in state prisons including Marchy and Mid-state.

Here is JUST’s press release for the event, the NAACP’s vigorous statement against the murder of Brooks, and Joshua Vaughn’s personal  testimongy, live from inside the BC Jail, of the unchecked brutality and death in state prisons including Marcy and Midstate–and our local county jails.

 

 

https://www.justicest.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2913&action=edit

Broome County, ICE, and the Carceral Crisis

Bill Martin
May 13, 2025
from justtalk.blog

We Need a New Jail!

Expect that call to come soon, for there is no question about it: the Broome County jail is filling up, steadily reversing declines in the jail’s population in recent years from well over 500 incarcerated to less than 300 local residents. While there is little information from county officials, reports from inside recount persons being haphazardly “double-bunked”, a second shift laundry shift being put in place, and buses arriving and departing with waves of new detainees.

What’s Up?

The most immediate cause behind the rising numbers?  From press reports one suspects the new 287g agreement the Sheriff inked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), one of just four Sheriffs to do so out of 62 counties statewide.  After a protest out at the jail and a disastrous public townhall, Sheriff Akshar revealed that eighty-eight ICE detainees had in a short period been cycled in and out of the jail.

Who they were, what charges they faced, how long they were in jail, and where they went is unknown. It’s a bit mysterious. While in the jail ICE detainees were housed in locations without visitation. They were not recorded on the Sheriff’s app’s roster, nor the ICE locator, nor the Federal locator. Family and friends didn’t know where they were.  Was this a momentary surge for a few days or a continuingtrend?

A Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to the NY State Department of Criminal Justice (DCJS) for the daily reports points toward an answer (data attached here).  Here is a plot of the occupancy figures for the jail from January 1 to March 31, 2025:

Overall, the jail population has increased by over 27% in the first 4 months of year and over 30% above the average for 2024 (323).

What’s driving the increase?

What stands out first is the abrupt peak in late March at 450 persons housed in the jail—attributable indeed to the quick influx of persons held for ICE who cycled in and out quickly.  Where did they come from? From outside Broome county, following upon  March 24-28th ICE raids in the Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and surrounding areas that led to the capture of 133 people, overwhelmingly persons without any criminal conviction as has been the case for deportations nationally (ICE reports only eight of the 133  had a criminal record in their past—far below the one third of Americans who have a criminal record).  For Broome County this was an unprecedented surge. While the county sheriff has for over two decades had an agreement to house persons on Federal charges, the daily average in the last ten years was eighteen. The FOIL data shows that in late March there were seventy-six people incarcerated for the Federal government.

Why the Broome jail? And where did they go after their short stay?  ICE has only one detention center in New York, in Batavia outside Buffalo. ICE relies on jails to house detainees when Batavia is full up as it has been lately.  Broome apparently offered up spaces in return for payments of about $100/day per person. From the Broome jail we know some individuals went to Boston, some to other jails (e.g. in Delaware county), and many to Texas for immediate deportation.  It’s a common NY pattern as research published by the Deportation Data Project and mapping by Bloomberg reveal:

Bloomberg, May 1, 2025

While the March ICE surge moved in and out quickly, the number of Federal persons has steadily creeped up since them. The Sheriff for his part repeatedly states he will do all ICE asks of him, and he has sent officers off for extensive ICE training and certification. What they will do when their training is complete is unknown.

A second source for accelerating jail numbers is the state prison crisis driven by violence and strikes by correction officers.  Statewide protests against the on-camera murder of Robert Brooks Sr, followed by the murder of Messiah Nantwi, were accompanied by an illegal strike by thousands of correctional officers who demanded more power, money, and the nullification of the HALT law that has limited solitary confinement. Faced with prisons with no officers, the Governor called in national guard troops to help run the prisons. This was costly, running an extra $100 million per month. Sheriff Akshar and Congressional Representative Josh Riley sided with the officers, joining them on picket lines outside prisons. After extended negotiations 2,000 officers decided not return to work and the Governor fired them–creating a continuing carceral crisis.

The state prison crisis dramatically increased persons in county jails as the transfer of convicted persons to state prisons, or “state readies”, was stopped by prison authorities.  At the beginning of 2025 the number of persons waiting transfer to state prisons from the Broome County jail was less than five. Thereafter the numbers rose inexorably and are now ten times that number, adding to increases in Federal detainees. The upward trendlines in both are unmistakable when charted:

It is tempting to assume the rapid rise in ICE detainees and persons awaiting transfer to state prisons will reverse as staff is rebuilt at prisons and new ICE detention centers.  The latest state budget includes at least an additional $500 million however to cover continuing costs to offset the 2,000 missing officers.  Meanwhile current budget proposals in Congress propose an extraordinary 365% increase in ICE’s current $3.4 billion budget, with $12.4 billion for detention alone.  It is unlikely current either of these trends will be reversed in the near future.

The future?  Build more cells—or empty them?

A simple linear projection of current trends estimates the number of persons in the jail will by late summer hit 500, and by late fall the  maximum capacity of 550 persons will be breached.

Barring any offsetting trends, expect the Sheriff and County legislators to launch a campaign for a major new jail expansion, extending efforts to increase jail populations by rolling back recent bail, parole, and earned time reforms.

What might counter such trends? New York State legislators could pass both the New York for All bill that would prevent all local law enforcement officers from collaborating with ICE, and the Earned Time Act that would extend release to more incarcerated men and women. State Senator Lea Webb and State Assemblyperson Donna Lupardo are among the many who support both bills. County legislators might move funding from jails as medical treatment centers to community treatment centers that have public oversight.  And perhaps we might no longer accept that there is a “staff shortage” at state prisons and recognize–as even the Governor and the NYS Department of Corrections do when faced with the prison crisis–that prisons actually have a surplus of people incarcerated for far too long. It’s time to let them return home.

Broome County Jail’s ICE program part of a system

https://www.pressconnects.com/story/opinion/2025/04/25/broome-county-jail-ice-program-criticisms-due-process/83238076007/

OPINION

Broome County Jail’s ICE program part of a system that ignores due process | Opinion

Ruth Blizard, a Binghamton resident, criticizes the Broome County Jail’s ICE program, which she says could have “unintended consequences for all of us.”

Ruth Blizard
Guest Viewpoint
  • Local law enforcement cooperation with ICE is causing fear and uncertainty among immigrants, regardless of legal status.
  • Immigrants in Broome County jail are isolated, potentially without legal representation, and may be transferred to ICE without a hearing.
  • The Laken Riley Act allows indefinite detention of immigrants arrested for minor theft, even before charges or conviction, based on suspected illegal status.

Local law enforcement officials cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement can have an alarming effect on many immigrants, regardless of their legal status, and unintended consequences for all of us. Many thanks to Jillian McCarthy for her reporting on local immigration issues.

The American Civic Association’s Refugee Program Supervisor, Steve Ordoñez, said the community is already dealing with fear and uncertainty, so when they hear the sheriff’s office is participating in anything involving ICE, he believes it makes this division worse.

“The rhetoric has been that we’re getting criminals out of our neighborhoods and that if you haven’t done anything wrong you don’t have to be afraid of deportation proceedings, but the reality is that programs that qualified immigrants as legal permanent residents under the previous administration have been rolled back,” he said.

Once an immigrant is in the Broome County jail, they are placed in isolation, per jail procedure. They may have no access to legal representation, or even family and friends. Thus, they may be turned over to ICE without any hearing as to their immigration status or right to remain in the U.S.

The recently passed Laken Riley Act, supported by U.S. Rep. Josh Riley, permits the immediate and indefinite detention of an immigrant who has been arrested for a minor theft, whether or not they have even been charged, much less convicted, simply because they are suspected of being in the country illegally. This is contrary to the guarantees in the constitution that persons accused of crimes are “innocent until proven guilty.”

Much of the rhetoric coming from White House and Cabinet officials portrays immigrants as violent criminals. They are conflating misdemeanor theft with “crimes that result in death or serious injury.” Persons charged with dangerous crimes may be held without bail, but they are still entitled to legal representation and a speedy trial. What difference does it make that the accused is an immigrant, documented or not? Shouldn’t all persons have the right to a fair trial?

The truth is that undocumented immigrants are statistically less likely to commit crimes than are citizens. Demonizing immigrants in the U.S. is not much different from debasing Jews in Nazi Germany, or placing U.S. citizens of Japanese descent in detention camps during WWII. All of us who are not Native Americans are descended from immigrants. It was not so long ago that businesses warned immigrants, “Irish need not apply.”

What happens if we round up or frighten away large numbers of immigrants? Who will pick our crops, milk our cows, process our meat and poultry? Who will clean our hospitals or offices at night, care for our elderly parents in nursing homes, do dangerous construction jobs like hurricane cleanup or building railroads, or cook our meals at the Chinese restaurant? We all owe a debt to the immigrants who work long hours for low pay so they can live in safety and send their children to school.

Ruth Blizard is a Binghamton resident and board member of Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier.

How Trump’s immigration policy could impact Binghamton, Broome County

Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin Op-Ed, 11/15/2024

How Trump’s immigration policy could impact Binghamton, Broome County

William Martin, Professor Emeritus at Binghamton University, writes about the implications Trump’s deportation policy could have in Broome County.

William Martin
Guest Columnist
 

Anticipating President-elect Trump’s arrival, they are preparing to close the southern border. Not the United States, but Canada, which is expecting a surge of refugees across its border with the U.S. And New York State is again the passageway from south to north. How will local officials and agencies react?

For Broome County, Trump’s policies portend a bonanza or a disaster depending on where you sit, what forces you control, and whose interests you serve.

The financial benefit is already in place: the county now gets $100 to $300 per day for every federal detainee held in the jail. Indeed it’s a way to maximize county profits by using, as explicitly stated in 2024 County Budget objectives (p153), “available cell space to generate revenue” by housing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees.

Meanwhile, the county has forcefully acted to prevent refugees from settling here. In May 2023, Democratic County Executive Jason Garnar was among the first of over 30 upstate counties to declare a state of emergency, which prohibited local hotels from housing refugees and migrants. Republican Broome County Sheriff Frederick Akshar promptly dispatched deputies to enforce the order.

Gov. Hochul has recently contributed to the effort by allocating over $2 million to Broome County and local city governments to vastly expand policing and surveillance devices. More identification, stops, and searches are on the way. The Sheriff alone is putting in 65 more cameras with his $834,000, adding to the City of Binghamton’s existing and expanding system. SUNY Binghamton has its own system, too.

Much more is coming. Trump promises that money is no object in the effort to track, detain and hold migrants and refugees. Funding will be in the billions — some estimates run to $1 trillion — raising new possibilities and dangers. Finding millions of migrants will require the assistance of state and local police departments. Nearby federal detainee centers, as in Batavia, have little or no room — thus the reliance already on county jails. Broome County’s jail, expanded in 2016 to house 600 persons, now regularly has less than half that number. Will refugees and migrants soon fill it? Empty local dormitories and apartments — as in the still-vacant Bible School Park complex in Johnson City — are other possibilities.

Broome County has a mixed historical record here, welcoming at times large inflows of migrants, most notably from southern and eastern Europe. In the 1920s during the last Great Depression and worldwide trade war, Binghamton became the state headquarters of the Klu Klux Klan, hosting Klan meetings, hillside cross burnings and hooded parades on Main Street, including marches against non-Protestant, most prominently Catholic and Italian, immigrants.

Faced with radical new federal policies and billions, what will county, city, and police officials do? What plans are being put in place now? How will local community leaders, including pastors and the Broome County Council of Churches, and social service organizations, respond? We do not know. Let the conversation begin, in public.

William Martin is Professor Emeritus, SUNY-Binghamton.

***

see also www.justtalk.blog

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.