SICK TIME AT RIKERS

Inmate health complaints

WHEN DAYVON Dixon complained to Rikers Island medical staff that a surgical wound near his recently broken ankle smelled bad, they ignored him for nearly a week.

Dixon, 24, ended up at Bellevue Hospital, where doctors found the wound was badly infected. He’s been at Bellevue for more than a month, receiving antibiotics through an IV tube.

“Rikers is unsanitary. It (the wound) was fine before I came there,” said Dixon, who broke his ankle on steps near his mother’s apartment, and was later locked up at Rikers for violating parole on a gun charge.

The city Correction Department says it takes Dixon’s claim “seriously” and is investigating.

“The department’s No. 1 priority is the safety and well-being of people in our custody,” said spokesman Jason Kersten.

Yet the department has long struggled with caring for inmates suffering with medical issues when they’re jailed, inmate advocates contend.

Dixon (photo inset) is among about 20 city jail inmates currently being treated in an open Bellevue ward with bars on its windows.

Some are suffering from infections and a host of other ailments allegedly exacerbated by filthy jail conditions or jail staff’s inability to deliver proper care.

Allen Turner says jail officials took away his insulin pump when he was incarcerated March 16. Hours later, his sugar level spiked and he was rushed to Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. It took several days to stabilize his condition.

But he says jail officials were unable to return him to the general population after his health was restored because it didn’t have medical staff who could care for him.

“They are saying the nurses are not trained to handle an insulin pump,” he said from Bellevue late last month. The 38-year-old Turner, in jail facing burglary charges, has since been moved to the Rikers Island medical housing area known as the North Infirmary Command, records show. A spokeswoman for city Correctional Health Services — which oversees medical care for city detainees — declined to discuss specific cases, citing federal privacy laws. But patients with diabetes get appropriate medication, including insulin pump management, spokeswoman Veronica Lewin said. The Correction Department said it is also probing the Turner case.