The ‘system has failed everyone’ in Rikers Island prison and now inmates are essentially running the notorious jail, a former corrections officer has said.
A woman who used to work on the island, in New York, has spoken out about her horrific experiences at the complex.
She said inmates regularly masturbated in front of her, threw faeces and urine at her and tried to rape one of her colleagues.
The ex-officer, who did not want to be named, told : ‘It’s just an island filled with gangs that are constantly trying to kill each other. Almost all of them have weapons – knives or sharp objects. Officers would be assaulted daily.’
Describing how inmates openly masturbated in front of staff, she recalled opening the slot to one cell and screaming when the inmate shoved his penis through the hole.
Another officer on the same floor made it seem ‘like it was normal’ and told her: ‘Oh, he does that to everyone.’
The ex-guard said: ‘I felt violated. I felt disrespected. I felt scared.’
The officer also told how she believes one of her colleagues was almost assaulted when an inmate being held for rape got into the guard station and ‘ripped off’ her belt and trousers.
Women officers were then advised to wear Spanx under their uniforms ‘just in case’.
The former guard explained how the whole of Rikers is ‘rampant’ with drugs brought in by ‘officers, people in charge of programs, doctors, nurses, and civilians visiting inmates’.
Prisoners have access to ‘any drug you can think of’ because the value of a drug in prison is worth so much more than whatever dealers can get for it on the street.
The ex-officer said: ‘I was hired to provide custody, care, and control of the inmates,’ she added. ‘The system has definitely failed everyone involved – the inmates, the officers. Everyone involved is suffering.’
She explained how there are 50 inmates per one guard. Some of the prisoners are used to pepper spray and are undeterred by it while others threaten to ‘cut’ any staff member who uses it.
The woman eventually had to quit her ‘draining’ job because she felt like she was ‘going to have a heart attack at 21’ after working back-to-back 16-hour shifts in such a stressful environment.
She said: ‘If I could talk to an officer that was looking to join corrections, I would tell them, “Don’t do that. It’s not worth your quality of life, it’s not worth your mental health. Until there is some sort of structure and safety, you shouldn’t even consider it.’
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