Rikers tour from hell
Inmate attempts suicide in front of pols
A Rikers Island inmate attempted to hang himself in front of two state lawmakers on Monday during a chaotic tour of the jail, as a Queens councilman called on Gov. Hochul to deploy the National Guard to alleviate a staffing crunch plaguing the lockup.
Assemblywoman Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas and state Sen. Jessica Ramos, both Queens Democrats, were visiting Rikers on Monday morning with 13 state and elected officials when a man attempted to hang himself.
“We were in the intake area, which is completely overrun and completely crowded, stepping over pools of piss,” Gonzalez-Rojas recalled. “A man called me over and pointed to someone who jumped up on the bars and tried to use a bedsheet to kill themselves . . . I called a guard over. I think [the inmate] was OK.”
The inmate’s identity and severity of any injury were not immediately known.
Later Monday, Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), who was not on the tour, doubled down on a request he made Friday to Hochul about sending in National Guard members to help out correction officers.
“A lack of leadership and poor policies have made the Rikers Island facility dangerous, not the location . . . Inmates and officers alike are in danger of being hurt or killed,” Holden said.
A spokesperson for Hochul said the governor is “deeply concerned” about the situation and is “exploring options.”
Following the tour, the legislators described putrid conditions where feces and rotting food carpet the floors, a dozen men are packed into a single cell and inmates with chronic health conditions are not seen by doctors.
The politicians went to Rikers to demand Hochul sign the “Less Is More Act” to free inmates behind bars for technical parole violations.
In a statement, Correction Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi later said, “We have been very clear about the many challenges we have been facing for months, as well as everything we are doing to address the underlying conditions, and it is a good thing that the elected officials who visited today now have a firsthand picture.”