{"id":299,"date":"2020-03-12T13:26:31","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T13:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.justtalk.blog\/?p=299"},"modified":"2020-03-14T10:47:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T10:47:07","slug":"coronavirus-closing-out-the-bc-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/2020\/03\/12\/coronavirus-closing-out-the-bc-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus: Closing out the BC Jail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Where\u2019s the Sanitizer? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 their hands under a spout–and nothing happens. They shake the spout and it rocks loosely. The sanitizer has been dry, unplugged, and empty for as long any visitors can remember. It\u2019s the state of care and preparation for a flu pandemic in the Broome County jail, as in many upstate areas.  Even the most basic healthy practices are impossible in the jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start with sanitizer inside: guards and the incarcerated have no access to any in the pods where up to 60 persons are housed together. The guard sits at a station without sanitizer. \u00a0Guards do <\/em>have it in their separate bathrooms and in the visiting room, and it exists in the medical pod for staff use. Everywhere else, everyone remains unprotected. Persons incarcerated ten years ago recall that sanitizer was then widely available. Where did it go, and why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Update: the day after this post was published online, sanitizer appeared in the visitors’ waiting room. There is still none in the pods where people live and work.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And soap to wash your hands? Incarcerated persons are given\none \u201cindigent hygiene pack\u201d that supplies one 4 oz bottle of liquid soap a\nweek\u2014imagine trying to shower, wash your face, and have any left over for daily\nhand washings? Impossible. And social\ndistancing? Well, try to avoid other persons when you are in a double occupancy\ncell (even as there are empty pods and cells). Cover your mouth when you sneeze\nwith a tissue\u2014when there are no tissues to be had? What do you do if you are\nshackled or handcuffed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And food and nutrition? Coerced and incarcerated kitchen workers report that for years food has been prepared for both the incarcerated and guards without the private food contractor enforcing basic sanitary regulations.  Little hand washing is said to ever take place in the kitchen, shared dishes and utensils are not sanitized properly in dishwashers, food trays are moldy, meals are served with live insects, and food, staff, and the incarcerated travel everywhere. This not news: the current private food provider has a terrible record as community organizations<\/a> long ago told the County Executive and legislature. Persons boarded in from surrounding counties are shocked at the quantity and quality of the food. Sick and healthy persons mingle constantly, without care or concern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are signs of a broken system that has long been brought to county and state officials\u2019 attention<\/a>. Public protests at the jail<\/a> and at county legislative meetings<\/a> have been constant. Statistics and news reports show excessive death rates, medical shortcomings<\/a>, and financial malfeasance<\/a>. Families have filed wrongful death lawsuits with growing numbers and success<\/a> as in the cases brought by the families of Alvin Rios<\/a>, Salladin Barton<\/a>, Rob Card<\/a>, and now Thomas Husar<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is to be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arrival of the coronavirus in our jail threatens not only those in the jail but those in the surrounding community, as we know all too well from brutal and diffusing infection rates China\u2019s prisons<\/a>, the release of prisoners<\/a> in Iran to avoid further infections, and ongoing prison revolts and family protests<\/a> in Italy due to overcrowded conditions and the termination of visiting rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What should we do? We can <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Improve medical and health care inside immediately<\/li>
  2. Reduce the numbers in the jail substantially<\/li>
  3. Fire jail administrators and begin a transition to end the mass incarceration system in the county <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \n

    1. Improve conditions immediately: for those inside, providing sanitizer, soap and better food (and finally some fruit, any fruit) will help. So too would opening access to worried family and friends, many of whom cannot visit due to work or distance from Binghamton. The county might finally consider having weekend visiting hours. It might open up use of unused, non-contact visiting rooms that allow separation between people. The county should also stop making gross profits from phone calls<\/a>, and immediately lower prices and allow free calls for indigent persons in need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    2. Reduce the number at risk: short-term measures will not prevent the pandemic from sweeping through the jail and into the community. This calls for more direct action. County jails like Broome\u2019s have tens of thousands of persons who cycle in and out, on short stays, over the course of year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Locking the jail down is no\nsolution. Family visitors will rightly panic over the fate of loved ones. And\nthat will not stop movement into and out of the community: hundreds of lawyers,\nservice workers, guards and even judges move in and out every day, not to\nmention persons going back and forth to court every day. And those released are\ncoming home every day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The most critical action is to reduce\nthe number vulnerable to the virus in the jail and thus reduce the coming\ndemand for complex medical care in the jail and in the community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     How? We should dramatically reduce the number of persons by these actions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n