https://nypost.com/2021/08/23/...mid-staffing-crisis/

Inmates are running wild on Rikers Island amid an ongoing staffing crunch that’s left charges free to stab each other, answer the phones and run through corridors destroying maintenance equipment, The Post has learned.

On Sunday morning, three inmates from the Folk Nation gang jumped a Bloods member and slashed him in the face inside of an unmanned housing area at the Anne M. Kross Center, the jail’s largest facility, internal records obtained by The Post show.

At the time, 26 corrections officers were working quadruple shifts, 35 were on triple shifts and 30 patrol posts across the AMKC were unmanned as the jail grapples with an ongoing staff shortage, internal communications show.

A day earlier at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center, another Rikers facility, a group of inmates ran wild through the corridors and destroyed a slew of fire safety equipment before officers could stop them, according to an internal email seeking “emergency maintenance.”

“Numerous inmates were running through the corridors. They [sic] inmates broke the fire cabinets and numerous exit signs throughout the corridors. They also removed the hoses and nozzles from the cabinets,” the email, sent by an assistant deputy warden, states.

On Monday, the chaos continued, according to Patrick Ferraiuolo, the president of the Correction Captains’ Association.

“One of my captains in AMKC called a housing area and the inmates answered the phone,” Ferraiuolo recounted.

“[The inmate] said ‘Hey how you doing captain? The officer went home, he was tired, he was going into his triple or fourth tour and he left, he left us here alone.’ So it’s a housing area with no correctional officer watching over them… this is an everyday occurrence,” he continued.

“It’s just been a nightmare.”

Last month, The Post obtained pictures of a corrections officer’s log book that’d been filled out by an inmate who lamented the lack of supervision when he was left in an unmanned housing area.

“No officer on post. No fan on post. This is outrageous. Something needs to be done. Now!” one of the entries in the book, signed “inmate,” stated.


A gate control booth at the Rikers Island Correctional Facility , left, and entries made in a stolen log book.
Rikers inmate steals official log book — to complain about ‘outrageous’ lack of guards
“All inmates are stressed… No officer for 2 days… Department of Corrections needs to get it together. Please!!”

Last week, corrections officers and captains protested outside of the jail and lambasted what they called the worst working conditions in the jail’s notorious history — conditions DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi admitted were serious.

“We are deeply concerned about the safety of our staff, medical staff, and incarcerated people in our facilities and are working hard to improve conditions,” Schiraldi said in a statement Monday.

“We have been taking extensive measures to encourage staff to return to work, to relieve those who have been heroically working extra shifts to compensate, and to make this an environment where any parent would feel like their own son or daughter was safe working or living here.”

The DOC has blamed the staff shortage for the issues and said approximately 3,000 out of 8,800 staffers either called out sick in July or weren’t working with inmates and “thousands more” went AWOL. As a result, the agency recently implemented a stringent new sick policy that required staffers to get a doctor’s note if they were going to be out.

An additional 400 officers are set to be hired by the DOC but until then, the agency is in a catch-22.

“The officers are not coming to work because they can’t, they’re doing three tours and then they’re expected to come back ten hours later because the guidelines give them ten hours between tours to come back and do three more tours,” Ferraiuolo explained.

“They’re physically exhausted, that’s why they’re calling in sick and quitting on a regular basis. It’s terrible.”

Vincent Schiraldi promised to end triple and quadruple shifts.
Schiraldi, who took over the DOC in June, promised to end triple and quadruple shifts as soon as possible earlier this summer and in the meantime, offered free cab rides home and meals to staffers working multiple tours.

Ferraiuolo said the staffers’ issues can’t be fixed with cab rides and the concerns present a major safety issue for both staffers and inmates alike.

“You’re basically admitting that they’re not coherent enough to drive but they’re allowing people to go into quadruples and work housing areas with inmates and you’re supposed to stay up on a midnight tour and make sure no one commits suicide or anything else?” Ferraiuolo railed.

“You’re coherent enough to stay there but you’re not coherent enough to drive? That doesn’t make an ounce of sense.”

Lovely place

♫ Start spreading the news, I'm bleeding todayyyyyy... ♫

Snake anyone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ZkKBaa1Co

Air strike

Under staffing is a serious problem in the DOC.
Department heads love to save a few bucks.

A Prison riot when Inmates cause millions in damage will get the Politicians attention and taxpayers will foot the bill.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Air strike

It's the only way to be sure.

The Rotten Apple is a festering chancre.

So you're saying Rikers is just like Times Square now?

Perhaps they should call them "Residents" instead of "Inmates".

What a Charlie Foxtrot! Crap like this is exactly why stiffer prison sentences and the need for NY to reinstate capital punishment.

Good luck to New York $hitty.

I think it’s time…

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:


26 corrections officers were working quadruple shifts, 35 were on triple shifts

“One of my captains in AMKC called a housing area and the inmates answered the phone,” Ferraiuolo recounted.

“[The inmate] said ‘Hey how you doing captain? The officer went home, he was tired, he was going into his triple or fourth tour and he left, he left us here alone.’ So it’s a housing area with no correctional officer watching over them… this is an everyday occurrence,” he continued.

“No officer on post. No fan on post. This is outrageous. Something needs to be done. Now!” one of the entries in the book, signed “inmate,” stated.

Wow. Just wow.

I started my career at age 19 working the Dept of Corrections in my state. It was bad. But nothing compared to what these NY Corrections Officers are going through.

I was asked to work a double shift, or 16 hours straight, on several occasions. Asking someone to work 3, or 4 shifts straight?! What the fuck!!!!

Leaving your post in the middle of your 3rd or 4th shift in a row, without a relief officer? Just abandoning the inmates to themselves? This is end of the world shit right here!

This will be very hard to fix and recover from. It will spiral out of control, everyone will quit, and they will have no choice but to send in the state police and local law enforcement, who are not trained for those conditions, and will raise hell, and themselves, likely quit. The end result here is they just release all the inmates. They will keep like the 25% worst inmates, and dump 75% out of the jails. Crime sky rockets as a result. Mark my words....

These are terrible, terrible working conditions and any officer working those conditions will have PTSD in short order.

I would never, ever step foot back into a jail or prison as an officer. I vowed when I left the place that I would rather live in a cardboard box under a bridge, than be a corrections officer again. I have mild PTSD from my years inside...

I really want to know what “three tours” and “triple shifts” and “quadruple shifts” mean. In the jail I work in a standard shift is 12 hours, we work 3 or 4 a week, but half of those turn into 16 hour shifts.

Even still, we have a significant amount of “mandatory” posts go unfilled.

The statements made in that article are unfathomable.

Following the Pennsylvania Prison riot at Camp Hill, in October 1989, resulting in many officers and support staff quitting, the Governor mandated an emergency order and a 12 hour work shift for all staff. No double shifts for anyone, 12 hour work, period.

The Pa. state Police worked 12 hour shifts along side us. Also, some inmates were bussed to other institutions, both state and federal.

This order lasted one year.

Some one in high authority in New York must take charge before many officers and Inmates are killed of injured.

I have the solution: https://www.google.com/amp/s/s...georgia-prison-riot/

Can they not just lock them down 24-7 until staffing can be restored?

I'd like it if the article was clearer on what triples and quads mean too, but there's no way that's safe, ethical, or sustainable period. The article also says they work a triple, get 10 hours off, and they are expected to be back to start another triple shift. It's been going on for months at best.

What surprises me more than anything is that they still have that many people showing up for work.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Can they not just lock them down 24-7 until staffing can be restored?

The right administration could.....and would.

Just have to feed them a bag meal three times a day.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by wcb6092:



will be very hard to fix and recover from. It will spiral out of control, everyone will quit, and they will have no choice but to send in the state police and local law enforcement, who are not trained for those conditions, and will raise hell, and themselves, likely quit. The end result here is they just release all the inmates. They will keep like the 25% worst inmates, and dump 75% out of the jails. Crime sky rockets as a result. Mark my words....

These are terrible, terrible working conditions and any officer working those conditions will have PTSD in short order.

I would never, ever step foot back into a jail or prison as an officer. I vowed when I left the place that I would rather live in a cardboard box under a bridge, than be a corrections officer again. I have mild PTSD from my years inside...

i believe this is known as the Chicago model.

As you call for the execution of these inmates, keep in mind Riker's is a jail, not a prison. Inmates typically housed in jails are pre-trial, or misdemeanants. Someone shouldn't be executed before trial, or for, say, a little weed. Part of the problem with corrections today is lack of public support and apathy. When you don't care if a prisoner lives or dies, you have problems.

There are still some locked up in DC for January 6, you know.