‘Like,’ cut it out!
Inmate Instagram vid a no-no: Correx Dept.
These inmates are Insta-famous.
The city Correction Department is investigating a video recently posted to Instagram showing nine inmates rapping and dancing in a cell in the Manhattan Detention Complex in lower Manhattan.
Phones are strictly prohibited inside city jails because they can be used to intimidate witnesses and facilitate delivery of contraband, among other security risks.
“Any apparent introduction of contraband into our facilities is extremely serious and we are thoroughly investigating this incident,” Correction Department spokesman Jason Kersten said.
The video from the jail known as the Tombs was posted last week to Instagram, a Correction Department insider said. Kersten said that investigators are trying to confirm when the video first appeared online. The 23-second clip shows the inmates, several of whom have their shirts off, dancing as one of them raps. Two of the men are smoking.
Efforts to reach the Instagram user who posted it were unsuccessful. The user also shared a photo of two inmates inside a cell at the same jail.
Correction Commissioner Cynthia Brann has made combating contraband a priority. Searches of inmates increased from 308,060 in fiscal year 2018 to 328,750 this year — a spike of 6.7%.
The Tombs, which is next to Manhattan Criminal Court, has had a fair share of bad publicity this year.
This month, an exterminator working for the Correction Department was accused of smuggling a pound of marijuana, the synthetic drug K2, tobacco and scalpel blades into the jail. Also, in December, a correction officer was hospitalized after an inmate pushed him down the stairs, officials said.
A correction captain nicknamed “the Terror of the Tombs” was sued in October for allegedly harassing correction officers.