Cuts to the prison system have correction officers concerned, especially in the wake of Saturday night's melee that left four guards injured. To deal with a 5 percent budget reduction in the department, the city correction commissioner wants to slash 477 posts and reassign others. But today on the bridge leading to Rikers Island, representatives for the guards stood in protest next to a coffin, symbolizing the potentially fatal consequences of staff reductions. “Officers are already outnumbered 1 to 50," Patrick Ferraiuolo, president of the Correction Captains’ Association told the Times. "What do they want to make it, 1 to 100?”
This weekend a group of inmates, riled up over cell searches earlier in the day, refused to be locked into their cells at night. A fight broke out, in which a number of officers were disarmed and beaten with their own batons, reports the Village Voice. One required many stitches to his head. “The incident that occurred on Saturday evening at 11 o’clock could have been avoided had we had the proper staff to combat the situation at hand,” said Norman Seabrook, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association. “This uniformed person could have been killed.”
One incident of violence may not be enough to prove the cuts are a bad idea, since inmate fights were down 8.5 percent in 2009, and serious injuries to inmates dropped down more than 9 percent, according to an official. Still, Ferraiuolo stressed the importance of being prepared. “We could go six months without an incident, but that doesn’t mean we can go without staff,” he said.
