A Rikers Island guard’s jaw was broken by an inmate facing attempted murder charges, the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association said Monday.
The guard at the beleaguered jail complex detected contraband on the inmate during his shift Friday, and while the officer was walking the suspect back to a housing area at the Anna M. Kross Center, he was attacked, COBA said in a news release.
“The inmate, who is being held on a Murder in the Second-Degree charge, punched our officer in the face, breaking his jaw. He will need to undergo surgery and yet his assailant was simply transferred to another facility and remains in general population and has not been re-arrested,” the union said in a press release.
“This is the environment our officers must endure day in and day out, while we are labeled as being AWOL and scapegoated for the crisis Mayor [Bill] de Blasio’s criminal negligence has caused,” the union said, referencing a staffing crisis at the jail that the mayor and the Department of Correction have blamed on officers failing to report to work.
The union noted the latest Mayor’s Management Report found 1,200 correction officers have been assaulted by inmates over the past year and that they continue to be victimized by “unprovoked” attacks.
“Before [the mayor] visits Rikers this week he should pick up the phone and personally apologize to our officer who was victimized by both this inmate and the Mayor’s failed Policies,” COBA president Benny Boscio Jr. said in the statement.
“Every day that [de Blasio] remains in office puts more of our brave officers’ lives in grave jeopardy. He cannot leave office soon enough!”
The DOC did not immediately return a request for comment.
