According to internal documents obtained by the Daily News, over 1,000 — ONE THOUSAND! — corrections officers took a sick day or just didn’t show up to work at Rikers Island during that hyped up snowstorm on January 27th:
The Correction Department force of about 3,000 officers scheduled that day was stretched dangerously thin, department insiders said.
Compared to other municipal workers, the absentee rate for Rikers guards on that day was unusually high:
About 33% of the city’s so-called Boldest who were on the schedule during the Jan. 27 snowstorm called out sick or were otherwise absent — both during and after the transit shutdown — according to internal documents.
Cops, firefighters and sanitation workers averaged about 2% absenteeism the same day, according to a city source.
Hundreds of inmates had to be locked in their cells for longer than usual. The the guards who did show up had to work double shifts. Sources told the paper that COs are rarely punished for being AWOL. And that’s despite the massive amount of scrutiny Rikers is already facing over a host of issues facing the jail facility.
(Photo: Matt Green)
