Guards: Shut new juvie jail
20 officers injured in gang melee
Jail guards are demanding the city shutter its new Bronx juvenile-detention facility — just a week after it opened — following a massive gangland melee Wednesday that left 20 correction officers injured and landed 11 of them in the hospital.
“We’re saying to the City of New York, shut Horizon down today, immediately, until it can be made safe,” Correction Officers Benevolent Association president Elias Husamudeen fumed during a press conference outside the Horizon Juvenile Center where the brawl broke out.
The rival gangs went at one another Wednesday morning and refused to stand down when ordered by guards.
When the dust settled, 16 correction officers and four captains suffered injuries to their arms, hands and legs consistent with assault — and 11 of them had to be hospitalized, sources said.
“Why are two rival gangs that are battling put together or are commingling?” fumed Queens City Councilman Bob Holden.
The city on Monday finished relocating all 16- and 17year-old defendants off Rikers Island and into local juvenile centers in what Mayor de Blasio called “an historic day for criminal-justice reform.”
Several reports of inmate-on-inmate violence have come out since 16- and 17-year-olds were moved to Horizon in the South Bronx — including the 12-on-1 beating of an inmate at the hands of reputed gang members — and Wednesday’s brawl was the result of tensions boiling over, said a source familiar with the situation.
“Inmates have been fighting with each other since they got there last week,” a source said.
Administration for Children’s Services spokeswoman Chanel Caraway blamed the violence on growing pains and said “none of the injuries were serious, but we take these and all incidents seriously.”
Later, at 4:20 p.m. Wednesday, police had to be called there when an inmate attacked a guard with a radio, according to the union and the NYPD.
We’re all in favor of criminal-justice reform — done right. But that doesn’t seem to be what’s going on now in New York. It certainly looks like Team de Blasio is bungling its execution of the state “Raise the Age” law. Its transfer of 16- and 17-year-olds out of Rikers apparently has led to violence at places like the Horizon Juvenile Center in The Bronx.
On Wednesday, according to the correction officers union, a massive gang-related incident there injured 20 guards. “Inmates have been fighting with each other since they got there last week,” one source told The Post. Reportedly, juvie facilities have seen at least 10 violent incidents through Sunday.
Part of the issue may be the union itself: At least some experienced officers invoked seniority rights to decline postings in juvie. Then again, some sources say the kids believe it’s no longer legal to punish them — that they’re now immune from serious consequences for their actions.
Whatever the cause, it’s hardly the “historic day for criminal-justice reform” that Mayor de Blasio called it Monday.
Meanwhile, the “Mass Bail Out” promised by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights is so far not exactly “mass”: The army of RFK volunteers is finding it hard to navigate the city’s antiquated bail system.
That system plainly needs updating so that, e.g., you don’t have to send key documents by fax machine. But the silver lining is a slowdown of the RFK crowd’s rush to spring 500 women and teens under 18 — an effort that ignores the fact that the only people remanded to jail or given high bail are the hardest of the hard cases.
RFK flack Max Burns’ claim that “95 percent of people bailed out by bail funds return to court” is based on misdemeanor offenders, not violent felons like Ralphie Myree. Yet the charity posted $10,000 to free Myree, a violent repeat offender awaiting trial for a knifepoint robbery, who has skipped at least four previous court appearances.
The foundation can’t bother to address the public-safety concerns raised by de Blasio, four of the five district attorneys and Police Commissioner James O’Neill. Apparently, it’s more important to make sure celebrities get filmed joining in the bail-out effort.
What a way to give “reform” a bad name.