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 29th 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 21st 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.