NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A 67-year-old Rikers inmate detailed rampant abuse at the island prison and addressed how attempts to speak out about it led to further mistreatment, the New York Daily News reported.
The detainee, who remains anonymous to avoid further retaliation, testified at a Manhattan supreme court hearing Friday on whether he should be allowed supervised release for a fight he participated in at a homeless shelter in Harlem last summer.
He explained how younger inmates would steal his food and extort him for his phone time, leaving him hungry and isolated.
When he tried to bring the harassment to the attention of the correctional officers, he was attacked.
“You get labeled as a snitch,” he said. “You walk around with a bullseye.”
He was attacked four times by the same person in the span of eight minutes on Aug. 4.
Security footage obtained by the Daily News showed how the older man was beaten while guards stood by and watched — occasionally intervening with pepper spray, but never permanently separating the two men.
In the end, it’s the victim that gets led away in handcuffs. The attacker did not face charges for the assault.
One officer and a captain were reprimanded for their failure to protect him.
He described to Judge Ellen Biben how he was beaten over the head with chairs and mop buckets.
He spoke about how after the attacks were publicized, he was targeted even more viciously — this time for “stirring things up.”
Biben scheduled the hearing to continue March 4, but ordered medical attention and a suicide watch for the beleaguered inmate in the meantime.
This isn’t the only instance of prisoners facing a lack of services, poor living conditions and abuse from guards and fellow detainees.
New York County Defender Services, a criminal defense legal group, filed a series of cases alleging conditions at Rikers violate the constitutional rights of the inmates there.
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