From Maine to Rikers

Farewell to the land of lobster and moose. And hello, Rikers Island.

New city jail gang guru Matthew Clark crosses a huge cultural divide on his trip from Maine to New York City, where the wife of his old Augusta Police Department boss just hired him as the $175,000-a-year Department of Correction intelligence honcho.

The retired police sergeant cut his law enforcement teeth on the mean streets of Augusta, Maine — home to 469 reported assaults in 2018, a fraction of the 12,047 reported inside city jails during fiscal year 2018, according to the Mayor’s Management Report.

The population of Augusta is 18,500 spread across 58 square miles, compared with roughly 7,000 city inmates housed in cells across the five boroughs.

Clark is also traveling south with some extra baggage: He was hired out of 40 applicants last month by Correction Commissioner Cynthia Brann, whose husband served as the new hire’s boss for years with the Augusta Police Department. Clark left the department after reaching the rank of detective sergeant in 2014 — the same year Detective Lt.Keith Brann retired from the same force.

“[Brann’s] husband had worked with Clark, but she knew him only as an acquaintance,” said a DOC spokesman. “She also knew of Clark outside of her relationship with her husband. As one of a handful of female police officers in the state, who also worked in probation and prisons for many years, the commissioner has a wide circle of acquaintances, which brought her in contact with many fellow law enforcement officers. A fellow academy graduate who the commissioner held in a positive light recommended Clark.”

Keith Brann did not make a “formal” recommendation for Clark, a spokesman said.