JAILERS HOLDING THE LINE ON JABS
1,000+ face no-vax ax as deadline arrives
More than 1,000 city correction officers were still unvaccinated Tuesday afternoon, less than two hours before the Big Apple’s immunization-mandate deadline, The Post has learned.
If the unvaccinated officers hadn’t gotten a shot by 5 p.m., they were to be put on unpaid leave — adding to the ongoing staffing crisis at Rikers Island.
Joining the 1,095 correction officers who had yet to receive a COVID-19 shot were 168 unvaccinated captains, according to union officials and the city Department of Correction.
Once the deadline had passed Tuesday evening, the DOC refused to provide updated numbers and said they would be distributed Wednesday. Instead, the agency pointed to numbers from Monday evening when 23 percent of workers across the agency, including the officers and captains, weren’t inoculated.
Twenty-five percent of those not vaccinated were uniformed staffers, about 2,200 workers, who will have to turn in their firearm, vests and shield if they choose to not get the vaccine, the agency said. Uniformed staff includes the officers and captains.
For months, Rikers Island has been engulfed in chaos as the DOC grappled with a ballooning inmate population, surge in staff retirements and widespread worker absenteeism brought on by the jail’s squalid, dangerous conditions and forced triple and quadruple shifts.
When Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi was appointed to helm the department over the summer, he promised to end the grueling work hours for staffers. But on Monday, Mayor de Blasio paved the way for them to continue — signing an executive order allowing 12-hour tours, up from the regular 8-hour shifts, and “any other measures necessary to address the current staffing shortage” in anticipation of the vaccine mandate impacting jail operations.
The DOC has the lowest vaccination rate across the entire city’s workforce at 77 percent. By comparison, the NYPD’s vaccination rate is 87 percent and the FDNY’s is 92 percent, City Hall data shows
Benny Boscio Jr., president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, called the mayor’s executive order “nothing short of torture” and said the union is “preparing vigorous legal action” to fight it.
“The same Mayor who vowed that triple shifts were ending for Correction Officers in October is now guaranteeing every officer work 24 hours plus with this dangerous executive order,” Boscio Jr. said in a statement to The Post.
“To move forward with placing what little staff we do have on leave tomorrow would be like pouring gasoline on a fire, which will have a catastrophic impact on the safety of our officers and the thousands of inmates in our custody.”
Patrick Ferraiuolo, president of the Correction Captains’ Association, said the DOC should have been spared the vaccination mandate, given the current staffing crisis.
“There is no reason we couldn’t have continued with weekly testing for staff that have not been vaccinated,” Ferraiuolo told The Post.
Additional reporting by Nolan Hicks