Rikers’ hugs & drugs rules
Now this is tough love! A twohug limit will be imposed on visitors and inmates at Rikers Island under a plan rolled out Thursday to stanch the flow of drugs and weapons into the sprawling jail complex.
Inmates will be allowed a single embrace on the way in and another on the way out — and will sit at tables with newly added glass partitions, correction officials said.
“It would be a brief embrace when they come in,” Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte explained at a press conference announcing new measures to curtail violence.
“Once you sit at the table, there’ll be a fairly low glass partition, so if you’re going to pass something, it’ll be very obvious.”
The second hug would be permitted before leaving, he added.
“If we can reduce the flow of weapons and contraband and drugs, we will undercut violence,” Mayor de Blasio said.
“No one should be passed a weapon, period. No one should be passed drugs, period.”
The most violent inmates would still be forbidden from having any contact with visitors.
US Attorney Preet Bharara sued the city late last year, alleging it wasn’t moving quickly enough to stop violence against young offenders.
The hug restriction was one of 14 steps aimed at bringing violence under control. Other changes would bar known gang members from visiting their gang pals; assign drugsniffing dogs that now check visitors for contraband to also screen guards and civilian employees at entrances, and triple the number of security cameras.
Officials said they were acting because Rikers has been operating with unacceptable levels of violence. Last week, a female correction officer was sexually assaulted by an inmate.
There were 189 assaults against officers between Jan. 1 and March 10, compared with 168 in the same period last year. Much of the violence is gangrelated, officials said.
The overhauls must still be approved by the Board of Correction.