5 individuals who labored on the Rikers Island jail advanced in New York Metropolis, in addition to a detainee there, have been charged with corruption, together with smuggling contraband into the jail, in line with three complaints unsealed in Manhattan federal court docket on Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors stated that in 2021 and 2022, a number of former metropolis correction officers, a Division of Correction worker and an worker of a division contractor accepted bribes to smuggle in cellphones, oxycodone, marijuana, fentanyl and an artificial drug often called K2.
Their actions made Rikers Island “much less protected, for inmates and officers alike,” Damian Williams, the U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of New York, stated in an announcement, including that the defendants “engaged in corruption for their very own enrichment.”
“There may be zero tolerance for anybody — employees or guests — who makes an attempt to carry contraband and narcotics into our jails,” Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, the commissioner for the Correction Division, stated in an announcement.
5 of the defendants had been arrested on Tuesday; the sixth was already in state custody. Attorneys for the defendants couldn’t instantly be recognized.
In the course of the interval during which the officers and different staff are accused of smuggling medicine into the jail, visitation had stopped due to the coronavirus pandemic, however the variety of overdoses within the metropolis’s jail system had spiked.
In 2021, had been 113 overdoses in metropolis jails that required a 911 name — a 55 p.c improve from the earlier yr, in line with information from Correctional Well being Providers, the company that gives well being care to detainees. In 2022, 5 of the 19 individuals who died within the jails or quickly after launch had overdosed on medicine.
In one of many unsealed complaints, investigators stated that from December 2021 via February 2022, Carlos Rivera, 27, of Yonkers, N.Y., a correction officer on the North Infirmary Command on the time, met within the Bronx with associates of an detainee to choose up contraband, together with cellphones and medicines, to carry into the jail for that inmate.
Throughout an interview with officers in June 2022, Mr. Rivera estimated that he had acquired round $500 in bribes by way of Money App, a cell fee service, in line with the grievance.
Mr. Rivera was charged with conspiracy to commit trustworthy providers wire fraud and conspiracy to distribute narcotics and managed substances. Every cost carries a most penalty of 20 years in jail.
In one other grievance, investigators stated that from March via not less than April 2022, Chantal de los Santos, 30, a former correction officer, labored with two inmates to bribe Shanequa Washington, 39, a correction program counselor, to smuggle contraband into the jail.
Ms. de los Santos gave Ms. Washington paper sheets that federal authorities consider had been soaked in managed substances. Ms. Washington introduced the sheets into the jail and gave them to an inmate with whom she was in a romantic relationship, investigators stated. That inmate and one other detainee then bought a few of the sheets to different inmates.
Ms. Washington acquired not less than $4,000 in funds from the sale of the sheets, the grievance stated. After smuggling in sheets on one other event, she acquired greater than $6,500 on Money App.
Ms. de los Santos additionally labored with inmates to bribe Kenneth Webster, 42, who labored for a contractor that offered providers at Rikers Island, to smuggle in contraband, the grievance stated. Ms. de los Santos gave Mr. Webster cigarettes, alcohol, cellphones, digital tablets and paper sheets that gave the impression to be soaked in managed substances. Mr. Webster introduced the contraband to 2 inmates, who later bought it to others; in return, Ms. de los Santos paid him in money, investigators stated.
Ms. de los Santos was charged with one depend of conspiracy to commit bribery, which carries a most penalty of 5 years in jail. She was additionally charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit trustworthy providers wire fraud.
Ms. Washington and Mr. Webster had been charged with conspiracy to commit trustworthy providers wire fraud; Ms. Washington was additionally charged with conspiracy to commit bribery.
Within the third grievance, investigators stated that roughly between July and August 2021, Stephanie Davila, 30, a former correction officer, conspired with Kristopher Francisco, 29, an inmate, to bribe one other correction officer to smuggle in contraband. Ms. Davila and Mr. Francisco had been in a romantic relationship and paid the opposite officer money to smuggle in fentanyl, marijuana, K2, cigarettes and cellphones, the grievance stated.
Ms. Davila and Mr. Francisco had been each charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit trustworthy providers wire fraud and conspiracy to distribute narcotics and managed substances. The opposite correction officer is a cooperating witness.
After the complaints had been unsealed, the New York Metropolis Division of Investigation issued eight suggestions, together with that the Correction Division place canine models on the employees entrance at Rikers to display screen correction officers for medicine and that it rent contractors or exterior regulation enforcement to function entrance gate employees.
The Correction Division will evaluate the suggestions, in line with a spokeswoman. She added that physique scanners for employees and guests had been in place at three jails on Rikers and that extra ones can be added within the coming months.
The unsealing of the complaints comes amid efforts to shut the troubled jail advanced, which has been beneath scrutiny over excessive charges of violence and stories of unsafe circumstances for detainees. New York Metropolis this week agreed to pay greater than $28 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the household of a person who suffered extreme mind harm after he tried to hold himself in a Rikers Island jail cell as a number of correction officers stood by.
Jan Ransom contributed reporting.
