Rikers gets a brig

Military vets will be housed in special ‘barracks’

MILITARY VETERANS behind bars will soon have their own specialized unit on Rikers Island.

The city Correction Department unveiled the 50-bed housing facility inside the Anna M. Kross Center Thursday.

Those in the unit will be visited by a social worker from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs each week, and inmates will get additional services provided by a host of community organizations.

Veterans have to ask for the special accommodations in order to be placed in the area outfitted with Armed Forces emblems.

“These are individuals who served our country and deserve a housing area dedicated to their specific needs as they move forward in their lives,” Correction Commissioner Cynthia Brann said in a statement.

The inmates in the unit get daily drug treatment counseling and an array of programs and art activities like acting lessons and a poetry slam.

The unit — which is similar to one already in place in Suffolk County — will be staffed by veterans. One of those staffers is Correction Officer Jeffrey Wright, 32,