Juvie jailers’ temp OK for pepper spray

City correction officers got temporary permission to use pepper spray to break up fights inside a new Bronx facility for juvenile offenders.

The waiver — approved by the Cuomo administration just for a week — was hailed by the unions representing correction officers at the Horizon Juvenile Center in the Bronx.

“Correction officers at Horizon have been basically working with their hands tied behind their backs by not being able to use pepper spray to terminate inmate fights,” said Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

But inmate advocates say the approval will only lead to further violence.

“The answer isn’t seven days of gassing them,” said JoAnne Page, president of the Fortune Society, a group that aids former prisoners.

“The answer is hiring people who can work with these young people,” she added.

Page and other inmate supporters opposed placing some 300 correction officers alongside 200 Administration for Children’s Services staffers.

They were worried the officers would create a “mini Rikers” at the facility.

Many correction officers also opposed working at the facility, despite getting a 6% pay boost.

The provisional waiver was granted three days after a correction officer’s nose was cut and broken when a teen slammed him in the face with a department walkie-talkie.

More than 10 fights have occurred at Horizon since it opened Oct. 1.

Officers assigned to city jails are able to use pepper spray, batons and other measures to restrain inmates.

Robert Holden, who who sits on the Council Committees on Juvenile Justice and Criminal Justice, called the move “a step in the right direction,” but said: “Until gang members are separated and the corrections officers are allowed full use of their tools, violent incidents will continue.”

There are close to 100 teens facing a range of serious criminal charges at the facility.