GIVE PIZZA CHANCE
Inmates get slice to play nice
The city’s new correction commissioner is treating Rikers inmates to pizza parties for good behavior. A union chief fumed, “I’m not a fan of rewarding inmates when they don’t beat the crap out of one another.”
The city’s newly appointed correction commissioner is following in the footsteps of her disgraced predecessor — treating Rikers Island inmates to pizza parties in a bid to reduce violence one slice a time.
A photo snapped last week and provided to The Post shows more than two dozen pizzas being wheeled into the Otis Bantum Correctional Center, which houses the city’s 400 worst prisoners in its Central Punitive Segregation Unit.
The pizza came from a nearby Domino’s in Queens. Taxpayers regularly cover the cost of serving pizza to prisoners in other facilities at the violence-plagued jail complex, sources said.
A Rikers union leader blasted the move, saying, “I’m not a fan of rewarding inmates when they don’t beat the crap out of one another.”
Patrick Ferraiuolo, president of the Correction Captains’ Association, also said the doorto-door delivery violated the rules at the infamous lockup.
“Since when is bringing food in from the outside not considered contraband?” Ferraiuolo fumed. “It’s not jail food that’s part of the everyday menu.”
Retired city correction officer and union delegate David Fitzgerald said Rikers jailbirds should have to wait until they’re sprung to enjoy pizza, which a 2016 Harris poll rated America’s “ultimate comfort food.”
“It’s deplorable and disgusting because you have officers that aren’t even afforded a meal leave, and you’re rewarding these inmates with pizza and sodas for good behavior,” Fitzgerald said.
The purchase from the Domino’s chain also ran counter to comments made last week by Mayor de Blasio, who urged New Yorkers to patronize “your local neighborhood stores.”
Ex-Commissioner Joseph Ponte began treating jailbirds to slices in 2014 in a counseling program that guards dubbed “Hug-a-Thug.” In 2015, he also began rewarding teenage inmates with pizza and $25 a week in exchange for not fighting and following orders.
Ponte, appointed by de Blasio, quit in May amid outrage over his use of a city-owned SUV and gas card to travel to Maine.
He was replaced this month by Cynthia Brann, a deputy who was also caught misusing her official vehicle and repaid the city for nearly 20 shopping trips to places like the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets and Roosevelt Field mall.
The Correction Department said the pizzas cost about $400 and provided two slices each to 75 inmates who “reached a key milestone” in a “work skills program.”
It also said a contractor called Fedcap would be asked “to work out a deal with a local pizzeria.”
“This was not ‘pizza-gate,’ ” spokesman Peter Thorne said.
“We gave a couple of slices each to inmates participating in a program that helps reduce violence. And we’d do it again, because these programs are working.”
Official figures show serious attacks on Rikers correction officers are down 65 percent — from 92 to 32 annually — since fiscal 2014.