Why does the Broome County jail, which incarcerates 4% of the statewide county jail population, have almost 4 times that number of the reported positive COVID cases?  We were told in May there were no more cases in the jail, and yet now we learn from a freedom of information law request that positive tests keep occurring.  Why don’t we have more information on this admitted “hotspot”?

Here are the figures:

In July there were 7,248 persons incarcerated in county jails outside New York City.  After much pressure, the State Commission on Correction has at last reported a slim set of statistics on COVID cases in county jails: they report 291 positive cases to date among incarcerated persons. 

Broome County, which has 4% of the persons incarcerated in county jails using the July 2020 data, has 15% of reported cases—a figure available only after a persistent FOIL request finally got a response.

On April 20th it was declared a “hotspot” for Broome County along with local nursing homes. By early May the public was told told that all cases there were resolved, and no public comments or the data have been released since then. 

We now know that positive test result cases continue in the jail, with over dozen positive cases in quarantine/isolation among both staff and the incarcerated since late April. New cases keep cropping up right until the present.

And this is only a partial count:  we don’t know how many tests have been conducted, and how many persons have been put in solitary due to possible contact with others in the jail who have COVID. Many,  many persons report being put in lockdown, from all new arrivals to persons who live in pods with one infected individual.  As for contact tracing of staff and persons they come into contact with, there has been no information at all.