People come out to protest against abuse at Erie County Holding Center: Sheriff and County Official provide asinine response.

This afternoon, in the midst of a blizzard, about 30 Buffalonians came out to protest conditions at the Erie County Holding Center. Today's protest was exceptionally emotional as it comes the weekend after another inmate committed suicide, the 5th hanging suicide since 2007 and the 11th overall in the center since 2003. The inmate was a 26 year old heroin user in withdrawal named Dan Nye.

Among the people of this town the holding center is almost universally reviled as a horrific place where jail officials will do as much as legally possible to make inmates and suspects stay as miserable as possible, and often will cross the line into illegal territory by doing things such as denying prisoners federally mandated toiletries. Friends and family of people detained at the center often report being subject to harassment and disrespect when they arrive at the jail to provide for their love ones during their time awaiting trial.

These testimonies are not only well known among people in Buffalo but have reached the ears of Federal officials who are expressing interest in entering the downtown holding center in order to investigate. The recent death of Dan Nye highlights another concern that the Erie County Sheriff’s department is derelict in it’s constitutional duties: why would a detainee in clear danger of committing suicide be allowed to have items in his cell that he could use to kill himself? The items in question are shoelaces, which Mr. Nye reportedly used to hang himself. One of the protestors today silently held out a pair of shoelaces for passing traffic to see. In the words of Rev. Eugene Pierce, former Deputy Superintendent at Alden Jail and a member of the Erie County Prisoner’s Rights Coalition: “Take away the show strings, take away the belt, take away the means for an individual to harm him or herself.”
Press was out in full force today (well sort of, as explained below), as were various members of the Buffalo community. On top of the ECPRC being present there were members of the Western NY Peace Center and PUSH-Buffalo, including Delores Powell. Press coverage is still ongoing, and links will be provided as they are put up.

Here is Channel 7’s live coverage from 5:30 PM. For some reason they did not come to the corner of Church and Delaware as did other stations, but asked the protestors to walk down a block to Church and Upper Terrace St., where the Holding Center and WKBW’s office face each other. ECPRC’s Jordan Gerow explained that they were having technical difficulties. It wasn’t clear if they were rolling tape at all until this reporter checked online; it turns out they were. In the confusion with the pres however, the protesters decided to take advantage of the detour and testify to the heavy traffic at the intersection, spreading out as to be visible along an entire block.

http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/84641047.html

In the meanwhile, Sheriff Tim Howard and County Attorney Cheryl Green finally sat down to be interviewed by a member of the press. When the reporter opened with the issue of 11 suicides in 7 years, Sheriff Howard and Cheryl Green had the gall to play with the statistics and say that according to the county’s methodology, 7 suicides in 11 years is well below the average, considering that the holding center turns out many more prisoners than the average “standard” prison. If that is the case, it brings to mind one of the chants from the protests over the past few months, the one that goes “Money for Jobs and Education, Not for Mass Incarceration!” Could it be that Buffalo and Erie County, by divesting from essential social programs and turning away from smart growth, have creating a society in which imprisonment is a fact of life for most families plagued by poverty and lack of schooling? If mass incarceration is a fact, then 11 suicides in 7 years would then be, in Cheryl Green’s own words, not a problem the holding center has.

Read Sheriff Howard and County Attorney Cheryl Green deny that the holding center has a suicide problem, and reject assistance from federal suicide prevention experts, in their interview with WGRZ:

http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=74484&catid=13

A reporter, most likely Aaron Saykin, pressing on the issue of the “Hotel” comparison:

http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=74560&provider=gnews