Jail capt.’s groin grab hurts guard

A TRAINING AREA for correction officers on Rikers Island recently turned into a nutcracker suite.

Correction Officer Mike Lynch was treated at a hospital last week after Capt. Shaseannia Pittman grabbed his privates during a training session gone bad, the Daily News has learned.

Lynch (photo below) was demonstrating how to get out of the chokehold Pittman had him in. That’s when she became agitated and yanked his crotch, according to multiple sources familiar with the incident.

The painful confrontation took place inside a jail complex known as the West Facility on Rikers.

Lynch went to the hospital to seek treatment and was back on the job Wednesday, instructing fellow officers, according to sources.

The union representing correction captains said the incident never would have happened if the department used same-sex instructors to teach evasive moves.

“The academy needs to get up with the times,” said Patrick Ferraiuolo, president of the Correction Captains Association. “If they are going to do simulated self-defense moves and be physically touching one another, they need to do it by gender.

“They should never have had a male staff member touching a female or vice versa because only bad things can come of it,” Ferraiuolo added.

The Correction Department declined to comment.

The training was part of a settlement agreement in a class action suit designed to reduce attacks by officers against inmates.

Pittman, like other supervisors, was receiving three days of training when the incident occurred. She repeatedly asked if she could pass on participating, a source told The News.

“The training that they are giving is kind of ridiculous,” Ferraiuolo argued. “You can’t teach somebody a martial arts move by going to the academy for three days and expect them to apply that. Martial arts is taught over years. It’s really a total waste of time.”