Four years ago many of us attended a meeting of the County legislature to argue against spending $5 million to expand the jail.  We lost that argument.

Two years later the new jail opened at a cost of $ 6 million to house 600 persons (it now houses less than 450 Broome residents). The $6 million was just the down payment:  thirteen new correctional officers were immediately hired to staff the new facility. Subsequent additions to the District Attorney’s office allowed the county to prosecute more misdemeanors, particularly by those who have health or drug problems. Build it and they will come.

It’s been costly: the Sheriff’s jail budget alone has ballooned in four years from $23.8 million to over $29 million proposed for 2019, continuing a long acceleration under both Republican and Democratic County Executives:

Correctional Officer positions in the last four years have risen from 169 to 194.

And all this, despite ever lower crime rates.

As a result of these efforts and funding, Broome County now has the highest incarceration rate in the state—yes, in the state.  Reflecting corresponding cuts in health and social services, we rank 55th in health care among the states’ 62 counties.

This year’s proposed budget follows this path:   it’s a mass incarceration, mass policing budget.

How was this year’s increase justified?  In presenting his proposed 2019 budget, Jason Garner, the Broome County Executive, blamed the new Raise the Age bill, which requires some 16 year olds this year, and some 17 year olds next year, to be referred to youth and family courts, and not automatically to be charged and tried in adult courts (until this year New York was only one of two states that considered 16 and 17 year olds as adults).

Local State Senator Akshar, a former Broome County Undersheriff,  had vigorously opposed the bill, falsely charging that it would “compromise public safety by not holding violent 16 and 17 year olds accountable for rape and murder”; the bill did no such thing as local media reported.  Local District Attorney Cornwell was even more violent and fanciful in his opposition, telling the media that Raise the Age would  “lead to the exploitation of children, who drug dealers will prey upon, to sell poisonous drugs, without the threat of criminal prosecution.”

The crippled bill that passed requires, the County Executive tells us, 15 new positions to deal with just a few 16 year and 17 year old youth. This includes it seems:

  • 4 new corrections officers (despite youth no longer being held in the jail)
  • 1 (or 2?) new district attorneys (we need to prosecute more youth?)
  • 3 new probation officers (for whom, what numbers?)
  • 1 more family court judge (are there that many cases?)
  • More e-shackles for youth (and adults? At what price?)

It isn’t clear from the submitted budget what these costs are, but they will surely be high and continue for many years. We’ve seen no justification. Surely, we should ask: in an era of falling youth crime rates, do we really need this?

And: who will pay?  The County Executive assures us Albany will. Really? Have plans for these positions and costs been submitted to the State?  Have they been approved by the State, as they must be, before any financial reimbursement is approved?  Can we see them? Or will we in Broome County end up paying?

Is even the state money there? The Governor put $100 million in the state budget to pay costs by all the state’s counties.  New York City’s costs are alone estimated at $300 million.

What we have, as in the past, is the use of “reforms” to expand incarceration, policing, courts, and district attorney budgets–this time on the back of punishing yet more youth.