Yesterday Broome County Executive Jason Garnar approved death sentences for scores of Broome County residents. There is no other way to state it. In an interview with Bob Joseph on WNBF radio, he insisted he would not approve any releases from the Broome County jail. He refused to answer any real questions: has anyone in the jail, guards or inmates been tested? Are there any cases of coronavirus there? He would not say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheriffs, District Attorneys, and County Executives from\nCleveland to California, from Texas to New Jersey and Brooklyn, are releasing thousands\nof persons for good reasons. Jails are\ndeadly for those inside them, guards and prisoners alike. As we have seen in China,\nIran, and Italy, it is perfectly predictable that coronavirus clusters incubate\nin crowded cells and then spread into surrounding towns. Releasing persons is sound\npublic health policy, a necessary measure to prevent death inside and outside\njails and prisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Broome County is no exception. Who is incarcerated? It\u2019s not dangerous local criminals.\n Broome\u2019s jail houses 346 persons,\nincluding 29 under federal and state custody (held only to make money for the county). Of the 346, only 89 are sentenced\u2014and for\nminor crimes since persons convicted of serious crimes go to state prisons. The simple truth is that almost all persons in\nthe jail are innocent, awaiting trial, or charged with misdemeanors. At last\npublic count only 6 percent of those arrested in the county were arrested for\nviolent felonies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is impossible to protect those living and working in the\njail from the virus. Sheriff Harder brazenly postured for the press yesterday,\nstating that the jail was the safest place to be. Even a child can figure out that following\neven the most basic rules to prevent infection is simply impossible. Self-distance yourself from others in a\ncrowded pod or a double-bunked cell? Use\ntissues when you cough or sneeze, when there is no ready tissue supply? Wash your hands when you have been given 4\nounces of liquid soap a week for all bathing and hand washing? Isolate yourself\nwhen you are in a dormitory with bunk beds and shared and unclean bathrooms, toilets,\nshowers? Wash your hands with alcohol-based hand sanitizer when none exists\nsince it is contraband? Cover your mouth when you cough when your hands and\nfeet are shackled while in transport of because of security status? Eat food\nprepared by forced labor in a distant, unsterile, unsupervised kitchen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are the ghastly conditions under which we keep poor local\nresidents, from women and men suffering from terminal illnesses, to youth who\nare parole violators due to smoking marijuana, to a majority of the\nincarcerated suffering from substance use disorders, disabilities, and health\nproblems. The incarcerated and the workers who move among them are, quite\nsimply, under a coronavirus death watch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It need not be so: Broome needs to follow the example of other\ncountries and radically reduce the jail population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier is running a social\nmedia campaign to force elected officials, the District Attorney, and local\njudges to release as many persons as soon as possible–and provide the resources\nfor them to self-isolate in the community. \nLink\nto the campaign here<\/a>. And for more\nnews, head to the JUST webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday Broome County Executive Jason Garnar approved death sentences for scores of Broome County residents. There is no other way to state it. In an interview with Bob Joseph on WNBF radio, he insisted he would not approve any releases from the Broome County jail. He refused to answer any real questions: has anyone in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,24,14],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-broome-county-covid","tag-broome-jail","tag-sheriff-harder","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":400,"href":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions\/400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justtalk.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}