Inmates aren’t the only ones in city jails with arrest records: A new report found that 28 percent of the corrections officers hired in 2016 who were later reviewed by investigators had rap sheets as well.
The Department of Investigation randomly sampled 291 applicants the Department of Correction hired in 2016 and found that 83 — or 28 percent — had arrest records, including 19 busted multiple times.
Dozens of recruits were also hired despite having incarcerated relatives, a history of being fired from other jobs or other issues that should have eliminated them from consideration, the report said.
DOI called the findings “especially troublesome” considering it found the same problems in a report released in 2015.
“[DOC’s] applicant hiring process remains flawed despite DOC’s statements that it would reform its hiring practices,” the report said. “While DOC accepted DOI’s recommendations in 2015, DOC’s implementation has fallen short of what is necessary to adequately reform the hiring process.”
In one case cited in the new report, Torray Riles of the Bronx was hired in December 2016 despite being arrested eight months earlier for assault, menacing and harassment. In January, he was arrested on the job at Rikers Island after being busted by DOI’s K-9 unit trying to smuggle 26 grams of pot concealed in his underwear into the jail facility.
In another case, DOC hired an officer who lost his job in the state correction system for having an “inappropriate relationship” with an inmate.
DOI said another officer was hired who had visited multiple inmates in the city prison system with gang ties — yet failed to list these visits in his job application.
The DOI report said at least 10 of the applicants it scrutinized should not have been hired.
DOC spokesman Peter Thorne issued a statement saying the 10 got jobs before the agency “revamped its hiring practices and strengthened its investigative procedures to better identify unqualified applicants in 2016 as a result of DOI’s prior recommendations.”
He said five are no longer employed and “with the cooperation of DOI, we are investigating the circumstances surrounding the remaining five individuals.”
