Below is a list with links to blog posts on COVID in the Broome County Jail and wider area. Click on the title to get to the full text. Further information, especially on protest and rallies, may be found here with links to related JUST social media.
Recent press coverage and postings on COVID in the jail (January 14, 2021)
Press Coverage of COVID and related matters
Bill Martin. December 11, 2021
How to Spread COVID-19 in Broome County
May 4, 2020 / Bill Martin / 1 Comment
If you had to design a system to spread COVID-19 in Broome County, how would you do it? Follow the sheriff and county officials in three, easy steps. Step One: Local officials have sought to isolate the county, terminating all bus service into and out of Binghamton, closing hotels to visitors, and demanding that any […]
Go Figure: Broome County Covid Infection Rates
April 25, 2020 / Bill Martin / 0 Comments
Sheriff Harder: “they’re safer inside the jail” County Executive Garnar: “He has done a really good job in preventing the spread of the virus” There are at least 22 positive COVID-19 tested persons in the jail with a population of approximately 450 persons (COs and incarcerated), and 290 positive cases in the county with a […]
COVID Denialism and Media Complicity
April 21, 2020 / Bill Martin / 1 Comment
Why is it so hard to get basic facts about the extent of COVID-19 infections and their spread in Broome County? Weeks and weeks of protests and public pressure have finally produced a few details and the naming, reluctantly, of a few local hotspots. Prime among these is the jail, as predicted for months by […]
Broome County COVID Know Nothings
April 2, 2020 / Bill Martin / 0 Comments
Do they really not know? Or why won’t they tell us? When posed the simplest questions at his daily press conference, Broome County Executive Jason Garnar has a standard answer: “I don’t know” How many tests are there in Broome County? “I don’t know” How many ventilators are there in the county? “I don’t know” […]
How Police Reforms Fund the Police
July 1, 2020 / Bill Martin / 0 Comments
President Trump, Governor Cuomo and local officials in Binghamton, Broome County, and the State University of New York at Binghamton have all conceded that we need police reform–if only to quell unrest in the streets. But what to do? They have one time-tested response: propose costly reforms that extend policing ever deeper into our lives […]
Jail Protest Explodes, County Officials Dither and Deny
April 15, 2020 / Bill Martin / 0 Comments
Activists from three community organizations rallied in public on April 14th to demand that local officials release as many persons as possible from the Broome County jail. Filling the parking lot outside the Taste New York store where County Executive Jason Garnar was holding a press conference, members from Justice and Unity for the Southern […]
Who’s Exempt from Social Distancing?
April 13, 2020 / Bill Martin / 0 Comments
Social Distancing? They do it at the Pentagon President Macron does it in Paris Chancellor Merkel does it in Berlin President Ramaphosa does it in Johannesburg Prime Minister Conte does it in Rome But in Washington, not so much: And locally? Officials preach it, but practice it not so much. Broome County Executive Jason Garnar […]
Denialism: Infecting First Responders
April 6, 2020 / Bill Martin / 0 Comments
Broome County Sheriff David Harder repeatedly tells the media there is no safer place to be than in his jail. How safe? Flouting COVID-19 state regulations, he puts his own officers and recruits in deadly danger. We now hear directly from inside that at least two officers have tested positive for COVID-19. At least 9 […]
Open letter to BC Health and Emergency Services: Who is infected?
April 1, 2020 / Bill Martin / 0 Comments
April 1, 2020 Broome County Emergency Services Director Michael A. Ponticiello michael.ponticiello@broomecounty.us Broome County Health Department Director Rebecca KaufmanBCHealth@broomecounty.us Dear Directors Ponticiello and Kaufman, I write to request that you track and inform persons, including myself, who have been in close spaces within the Broome County jail over the last month and who may have […]
Virus Denialism in NYS
March 28, 2020 / Bill Martin / 0 Comments
US Attorney General Barr: Prisons = “petri dishes” for the virus, releases at risk prisoners NY Governor Cuomo: Silence NY Attorney General James: Silence Broome County Executive Jason Garnar: Never! Broome County Sheriff Harder: Got virus? Jails are the safest place! We’ve been down this road before. Amidst an explosion of AIDS deaths we had […]
Coronavirus: Closing out the BC Jail
March 12, 2020 / Bill Martin / 0 Comments
Where’s the Sanitizer? Go to visit someone in the Broome County jail and you confront a large sanitizing station right before you enter the metal detector. It makes sense: trying to control the flow of illnesses into and out of crowded public institutions is basic preventative medicine. The only problem? Watch: persons headed inside place […]
How will county jail handle coronavirus?
March 8, 2020 / Bill Martin / 1 Comment
Op-ed, Press and Sun Bulletin, Binghamton, March 8, 2020, p. A12 There is little doubt now that the coronavirus, COVID-19, will come to Broome County, if it isn’t here already. Are we ready? It will be a challenge. Broome County ranks 57th in health outcomes among the state’s 62 counties. The County Health division tasked […]
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