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NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - Video released by the correction officers union shows a violent confrontation between a guard and an inmate at Rikers Island.
The Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association said it released the video to the media to highlight the need for more officers at the city's jails instead of building more jails as the de Blasio administration has announced it would do.
The video shot a few weeks ago begins with the inmate shoving the officer in a common area. A fistfight ensues.
The fight moves into a hallway and the inmate hurls a garbage can at the officer.
Other inmates watch the melee.
COBA President Elias Husamudeen issued the following statement:
“This video and others like it are another reminder of why the officer to inmate ratio in the NYC DOC needs to change. The inmate population is lower now than has been in decades.
We are now in a position to go from a ratio of 1 officer to 50 inmates to one officer to 20 inmates, yet the department hasn’t been able to create smaller jails and lower the inmate to officer ratio units inside the jails, even while hiring more Correction Officers.
Building four new jails is not going to reduce violence as long as Correction Officers remain outnumbered and without the tools they need to maintain law and order. This behavior of challenging the law is encouraged in the streets and in jails.
We see videos of citizens fighting with the police and the same thing is happening behind bars. Correction Officers are facing the same difficulties behind bars that police officers are experiencing in streets.
We are dealing with the same population except they are already in jail.”