When it comes to dealing with the infernal horror on Rikers Island, Mayor Bill de Blasio doesn’t want to challenge his assumptions that he knows nothing of.
In response to The Post that published photographs last weekend of the inhumane conditions in the island’s prisons, de Blasio claimed that Washington Post’s reporting on what happened weeks ago “doesn’t reflect what it is now.”
Entire setting changed. More space [has] He said – and then went on to blame corrections officers’ failure to show up for duty due to overcrowding at the Otis Bantum reception centre.
The federal comptroller who oversees Rikers told the court: “Delays in moving detainees off the INTAC list also led to significant delays in providing required medical services.
New admissions are not supposed to remain in intake for more than 24 hours, but at least one inmate has been stuck there for 6½ days. Others were recorded for eight, nine, or 10 days.
It took a month after the mayor declared essential services (including food and medicine) “at risk” in the prison before his followers stopped using the OBCC as the primary reception facility. Understaffed guards ended up pressing 26 men into single cells where they had no choice but to soil themselves and take turns sleeping on stinky floors.
In the first 10 months of 2021, 14 prisoners committed suicide – more than the previous two years combined. De Blasio barely mentioned those tragedies.
Correctional officers are also at risk, with one of them recently being beaten up by two alleged Bloods members. The guards’ union says about two dozen workers in the correctional department were sexually assaulted, including 16 female guards and one man, as well as a correction captain and six civil servants.
When asked about these incidents by Julia Marsh of The Post, de Blasio referred to them as “new information about sexual harassment.” huh? He then insisted that the Bronx DA office and the Department of Correction were “too aggressive” in responding, with “Already . . . nine arrests in these harassment cases, more to come.” He did not once mention the rapes or express his concern to the traumatized officers.
After praising the correction commissioner, de Blasio said, “The ultimate solution is to get Rikers off, period.” As if a shortage of guards wouldn’t be a problem in the multiple prisons he envisions replacing Rikers.
How does he sleep at night?
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