Rikers guards ditch masks on duty despite COVID impact

AP Photo/Seth Wenig

By David Brand

Though COVID-19 has surged inside the close confines of New York City jails, correction officers continue to flout safety protocols and ditch their masks while on duty, according to Legal Aid attorneys concerned about a second wave of the illness.

At least 1,427 Department of Correction staff members have been stricken with COVID-19 and eight have died, according to city data. More than 260 currently incarcerated individuals have tested positive for the illness as of Sept. 4, the Board of Correction reported.

Nevertheless, public defenders have documented a “persistent failure of DOC staff to wear masks and follow COVID-19 protocols,” Legal Aid’s top criminal attorney, Tina Luongo, wrote in a letter to the agency Sept. 4. 

Attorneys in August compiled more than a dozen examples of maskless officers staffing the buses that shuttle visitors to Rikers Island, working the island security checkpoint, patrolling the various jails and appearing inside small booths for client video conferences. Luongo presented her attorneys’ observations in the letter, which she also sent to officials from Correctional Health Services and the Board of Correction, the jail oversight body.

During an early-September video meeting with a client, for example, a Legal Aid attorney saw two maskless correction officers sitting in the background.

In another videoconference at the Robert N. Davoren Complex, an “attorney observed that the officer who escorted her client from the booth was not wearing a mask.” On a third occasion, an officer with her mask below her nose and mouth poked her head into a “small, confined” videoconference space at the Anna M. Kross Complex where an inmate was meeting with an attorney, Luongo said.

In late-August, an attorney visiting AMKC “saw that most staff were wearing masks under their chins, with their noses and mouths fully exposed,” Luongo wrote. “On the bus to AMKC, the officers riding the bus with him were not wearing masks at all.”

A public defender counted just eight people wearing masks in conditions that made social distancing impossible during an hours-long early-September visit to the George R. Vierno Complex

“He was incredulous to see that two officers were going from bus to bus ensuring that the ‘masks required ’signs were posted, but they themselves were not wearing masks,” Luongo wrote. 

She said the failure to wear masks and follow safety protocols threatens to once again accelerate the spread of COVID-19 inside the city’s jails. 

“Public health authorities are clear that we must remain vigilant, because the danger of this virus is not behind us,” Luongo said in a statement. “The city’s failure to ensure that its employees abide by basic protocols such as the requirement to wear masks causes us grave concern about whether DOC is implementing all COVID-19 protocols with fidelity.”

An inmate who spoke with the Eagle Sept. 11 also said he “almost never” sees staff wearing masks.

COVID-19 surged behind bars beginning March 18, sickening hundreds of staff members and inmates over the next several months. The release of hundreds of vulnerable detainees helped to stem the spread of the illness in city jails, as did stricter cleaning and mask regulations.

DOC officials acknowledged the public defenders’ concerns and noted that there has been no known transmission of COVID-19 inside city jails since July 5.

DOC spokesperson Latima Johnson said the agency regularly communicates with staff about safety protocols, including the use of personal protective equipment, sanitation procedures and social distancing.

“We are committed to ensuring that all those who work and live in our facilities remain safe during the COVID-19 crisis and will continue to impress upon staff the importance of following public health guidelines,” Johnson said.

The union representing New York City correction officers said its members have been victims of city mismanagement, which has led to overcrowding in jails despite an historically low incarceration rate. Correction Officer Benevolent Association President Benny Boscio Jr. said his members have also contended with inmates deliberately trying to spread the illness.

“The reality is, at the height of the pandemic, over 1,400 officers got sick and 8 tragically lost their lives and while all this was happening, inmates were deliberately coughing in our officers faces, trying to get them sick,” Boscio said.

“Additionally, instead of taking advantage of having a historically low inmate population and spreading the inmates out throughout the facilities so we can properly social distance and lower officer to inmate ratios, the DOC is consolidating facilities making them even more crowded and less prepared for a second wave of COVID-19.”