Inmates set electronics, mattresses ablaze
Teen detainees at Rikers Island set a mattress, electronic tablets and other items on fire over the weekend and barricaded their unit in an apparent protest against the jail’s conditions, Correction Department sources said Wednesday.
Pictures obtained by the Daily News show the mattress on fire and detainees with their faces covered with sections of sheets as if preparing for battle.
The unrest broke out just after 7 a.m. on Sunday in Unit 3 Lower North in the Robert N. Davoren Center, a nearly 50-year-old jail that opened in 1972.
Correction sources said a search of the unit by correction staff triggered an already simmering situation.
Roughly 10 inmates put sheets on a door, blocking the view from the officer desk and a gate, the sources said. They piled the tablets, the mattress, garbage and books and started the fire using a regular AA battery.
The fire filled the area with a hazy layer of smoke.
A correction captain and an officer used a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze. Officers used pepper spray to subdue the detainees. No one was injured.
“We take arson very seriously, and will pursue re-arrest of the individuals involved pending the outcome of the investigation,” a Correction Department spokesman said Wednesday.
The tablets have been a signature piece of Correction Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi’s plan to improve conditions in the jails, particularly the Davoren Center, which has a notorious history of violence.
“The tablets have definitely been good for the system,” a correction official said. “They bring in a lot of programming from the outside.”