Rikers inmate repeatedly bashes correction officer in face, head amid fiery debate to ban solitary confinement
A Rikers jail inmate repeatedly bashed a corrections officer in the face and head on Thursday amid the fiery debate between the mayor and City Council over legislation to ban solitary confinement.
Suspected gang member Richard Faulk was being transported back to his housing unit in the Otis Bantum facility on Rikers at around 11:30 a.m. when he suddenly attacked the officer from behind.
“My head is lopsided right now,” the officer told The Post during a phone interview from the hospital. “He attacked me from behind. He took the opportunity to assault me.”
The officer, who requested anonymity for security reasons, received stitches for cuts to his scalp and has a swollen face. He appealed to the City Council to preserve the option of solitary confinement to help curb the rampant violence at the facility.
“The violence is out of control. We need to keep punitive segregation,” the officer said. “We have to get between the violent inmates and the peaceful ones. If we don’t have accountability for violent inmates, they’ll keep doing it. There are no consequences for the violent ones.”
The Department of Correction echoed the injured officer’s concern that City Council members shouldn’t override Mayor Eric Adams’ veto of legislation that would ban solitary confinement or punitive segregation.
Faulk will be processed for rearrest, the rep said.
It was the second serious assault against correction officers in the past five days. Last week, a Rikers inmate suspected of attempted murder broke a correction officer’s arm during an unprovoked attack at the beleaguered jail.
The Department of Correction confirmed the attack on its officer.
“One of our Correction Officers was assaulted today at approximately 11:30 this morning in the Otis Bantum Correctional Center,” said DOC spokesman Frank Dwyer. “The Officer was struck repeatedly – in the back of the head and then when he was on the ground. The Officer was transported to Mt Sinai Hospital.”
Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said, “This was a violent, unprovoked assault on one of our officers. The department will seek prosecution for this senseless act.
“No one deserves to be assaulted while at work, especially the heroic men and women of NYC DOC who put themselves in harm’s way to protect others,” the jail boss added.
The head of the union representing jail officers said the latest assault is more proof of the need to separate violent inmates from the general inmate population.
“Instead of moving forward with their reckless ban on punitive segregation, NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Public Advocate Jumanne Williams should come with me to the hospital to speak with my officers after they have been brutally beaten in an unprovoked inmate attack by the same gang members who are terrorizing our communities,” said Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association president Benny Boscio.
“I urge all New Yorkers who care about the safety of everyone in our jails to tell their council members to stand with us and say no to Intro. 549, which would prohibit us from separating violent offenders from the general population before one of us gets killed,” the union leader said.
Mayor Eric Adams last week vetoed the Council legislation that outlaws solitary confinement in jails. But Council members have dug in their heels and barring last-minute defections, may have the votes to override the mayor’s veto to make the ban law.
The Council members argue that such confinement is inhumane.
