Advocates blast secret lounge, caches of unused gear hidden in condemned NYC jail on Rikers Island.
The revelation that there was a secret TV lounge and caches of hundreds of thousands of dollars of Correction Department purchases hidden in a condemned Rikers Island jail drew criticism this week from advocates for the jailed population.
The Daily News reported Monday that after the 90-year-old James A. Thomas Center was marked off-limits because of asbestos and lead contamination and fire safety concerns, DOC staff built the secret space and housed massive amounts of equipment there without any oversight.
“While the depth of corruption and lawlessness in the Department of Correction revealed by this report is extreme, even more troubling is that city officials have known about this for years and held nobody accountable,” said Mary Lynne Werlwas, of Legal Aid’s Prisoners’ Rights Project.
“The construction of a rogue bunker from stolen equipment in the heart of Rikers Island is a declaration of war on authority — and the perpetrators got away with it.”
The News learned of the mischief in the Thomas Center after obtaining an internal city Department of Investigation memo on the result of an investigation that spanned 2020 and 2021. “The overall result was enormous waste,” the DOI memo stated.
“There was a complete lack of institutional oversight, and no apparent protocols to account for incoming and outgoing materials, equipment and property,” it added.
The staffers put leather couches in their secret lounge, a 70-inch flat-screen TV, parquet-style carpeting, a fridge and a microwave. They even built a bathroom.
Some of the huge cache of material, which had been sitting there for years, was hidden behind a false wall.
“This story highlights and reinforces the fact that there are no limits to DOCs audacity and propensity to engage in misconduct,” said Tahanee Dunn of the Prisoners’ Rights Project.
“How in good conscience can the Department say they prioritize the health and safety of their officers and staff while simultaneously allowing for lounges to be built and occupied in condemned dilapidated buildings?”
Among the items discovered were 17 snow blowers still with their factory tags, stacks of brand new air conditioners that could have been used in the jails and new mattresses, blankets and toilet paper meant for detainees.
“While incarcerated people suffer in heat emergencies in non-air conditioned cells, facilities are crumbling from lack of repair, and programming is cut for budget reasons, staff were hiding taxpayer funded supplies behind hidden walls,” Werlwas fumed.
“Corruption by law enforcement and civil rights abuses have gone hand in hand forever, but the brazenness of this scheme and its tolerance by authorities is astounding.”
Investigators also found evidence that bathroom and shower fixtures and large amounts of steel piping through the closed jail were being dismantled for purposes unknown, and a large amount of it was missing.
But it was never fully determined whether that material was sold or re-used illicitly off of the island, sources said. DOC officials claimed to DOI it was being “re-purposed” for other jails.
A DOC spokesman said new leadership had been installed in facilities maintenance. The agency did not have further comment on Monday.
