Kerik, union boss slam ‘insane’ slammer plan

The head of the correction-officers union and a former NYPD commissioner criticized the closing of Rikers Island on Sunday, calling the plan to build jails throughout the boroughs “insane.”

“When you’re not listening to your police chief who said, ‘Listen, you might be having a problem here, because you’re building jails that only hold 3,300 [people]. What are you going to do if we have more than 3,300 inmates?’ ” Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association President Elias Husamudeen told host John Catsimatidis on AM 970’s “The Cats Roundtable.”

“I think the City Council speaker really needs a reality check,” he said of Corey Johnson.

The City Council approved the mayor’s controversial $8.7 million plan to close the Rikers Island complex by 2026 and replace it with smaller jails in Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.

Former NYPD Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik also weighed in on the show and slammed the plan as “a big waste of money.”

“He has a hard time getting all the [homeless] shelters approved . . . He wants to put 1,500 to 2,000 prisoners in downtown Manhattan. Really?” said Kerik, who served as the police commissioner in the early 2000s after a stint as the city’s correction commissioner.

Husamudeen believes the plan has nothing to do with the jail — but rather the land Rikers is on.

“It’s a land grab. They want [Rikers] for La Guardia,” he said.

“If they’re doing it for the reason that they say — because they want to bring the families closer to each other — then don’t you think Staten Island should have a jail since 13 percent of our inmate population lives in Staten Island?” Husamudeen asked.

“The location of a jail doesn’t determine whether it’s going to be safe or not,” he said. “Because the jail is located in a borough doesn’t make it safe.”