By Bill Parry
The Correction Officer Benevolent Association sued Mayor Bill de Blasio, the City Council and the city Board of Correction because the group contends its complaints are not being heard while the city caters to inmates’ wishes. COBA President Elias Husamudeen charges that violence against officers has surged since the de Blasio administration ended the use of solitary confinement for prisoners 21years old and under.
“The problem is these are the most violent individuals we have in custody. I’ve got 620 correction officers who have been assaulted already this year,” Husamudeen said. “If 620 schoolteachers, police officers or bus drivers were assaulted in less than a year, it would be a national outrage. We can’t wait until a correction officer is murdered on Rikers Island to get the mayor to reverse his policy on eliminating punitive segregation and come up with other ways to reduce violence.”
On Tuesday, as COBA was filing its lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court, the mayor was signing seven pieces of legislation he said would “ensure that the jails in this city treat those who have been placed in them as fairly as possible.” In court papers, Husamudeen said the board is ignoring the City Charter, which requires to investigate both inmate and guard complaints.
“The Board has become just another inmate advocacy group that doesn’t even focus on what’s happening to their own employees,” he said. “Our people have broken eye sockets, broken jaws, broken wrists and nobody’s really listening.”
The administration is aware of the complaint and is reviewing it. Meanwhile a Board of Correction representative said, “The Board values the voices of correction officers, representatives of COBA and other unions, and all staff working in the city’s jails. We look forward to continued productive dialogue.”
But COBA’s leader said the board, which is made up mayoral, City Council and judicial appointees, has no experience in law enforcement.
“They take away our best tool: punitive segregation,” Husamudeen said. “It makes no sense. That’s like taking away a police officer’s gun and telling him to go fight crime.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
