A Democrat running for Congress in New York recently promoted in a campaign ad his family ties to a prison despite it being ranked as one of the “most problematic” facilities in the Empire State.
Francis Conole said in an Oct. 3 ad that he was “proud” to appear in front of the Onondaga County Justice Center, a Syracuse prison named after his grandfather. But what Conole failed to mention is that New York’s Commission of Correction, an agency that investigates jails, issued a comprehensive 2018 report detailing how the justice center was one of the “worst offenders” among prisons in breaking the law — applying “cruel and inhumane treatment” of inmates that was “in violation of their Constitutional rights.”
“I’ve spent my life fighting to keep Americans safe,” said Conole in the ad. “And I’m proud to be standing in front of the justice center. It was named after my grandfather, the former sheriff of Onondaga County.”
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The justice center has been plagued by “overcrowding,” according to the report, which described the facility as lacking “sufficient housing.” Due to such overcrowding, for instance, New York taxpayers footed a $100,000 bill in 2014 for a new facility, CNY Central reported.
In 2016, civil rights groups on behalf of six 17-year-olds alleged in a lawsuit against the justice center that between 2015 and 2016, it unconstitutionally held over 80 teenagers, many of whom were minorities, in solitary confinement. The teenagers were threatened to be doused “in feces and urine” and even sexually assaulted, said the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was settled in 2018, at which point county officials agreed to dish out $270,000 in taxpayer dollars to the plaintiffs for attorney’s fees. The county also agreed to confine teenagers no longer unless they pose an “imminent threat.”
“It’s disturbing that Francis Conole marched with Black Lives Matter pretending to care about injustices while now shamelessly campaigning in front of his grandfather’s namesake jail that holds the record as one of the most mismanaged jails in New York disproportionately impacting African American youth,” a spokesman for Brandon Williams, the Republican candidate running against Conole, told the Washington Examiner.
The justice center also notably destroyed personal items belonging to inmates, according to the report. Inmates were restricted in 2017 “from participating in congregate bible study and Quran study programs,” the report said.
Staffing has been an issue at the Onondaga County Justice Center, with “mandated officer posts” being “routinely abandoned.”
“This situation is horrible,” the spokesman for Williams added.
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Conole similarly promoted the justice center when he ran for Congress in 2020. Republicans have sought to align Conole with what they say are “soft-on-crime” Democrats, given the candidate has received support from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has defended bail reform, a policy critics say has contributed to a violent crime spike.
The race between Conole and Williams in New York’s 22nd Congressional District is a “toss-up,” according to Politico’s midterm elections forecast. Williams led Conole by 5 points in a Spectrum News and Siena College poll released Oct. 4.
Conole’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the Onondaga County Justice Center.
