A Rikers Island corrections officer is recovering after being stabbed several times in the head Monday afternoon, casting yet another cloud of violence over the penal island.
According to ABC News, the officer was stabbed at around 4:45 p.m. on Oct. 31. He was reportedly stabbed in the back of the head 15 times during the attack at Anna M. Kross Center. The stabbing occurred just hours after yet another inmate on Rikers Island was found dead — the 18th individual to die in custody this year.
The stabbed officer is reportedly listed in stable condition at Elmhurst Hospital. The incident is under investigation, according to the Corrections Department.
“This was an unprovoked heinous and callous attack on one of our dedicated officers, who was simply doing their job. We will not tolerate any assaults on our Members of Service who show up to work each day to keep our jails safe. We are rearresting the individual who committed this deplorable attack. We are praying for this officer to make a speedy recovery,” said DOC Commissioner Louis A. Molina.
“Earlier today, while working in the protective custody unit at the Anna M.Kross Center, one of our Correction Officers was brutally stabbed in the back of his head approximately 15 times by an inmate,” said Benny Boscio, president of the Corrections Officers Benevolent Association (COBA), in an Oct. 31 statement on Twitter. “The Executive Board and I are with the officer at the hospital, who is conscious and undergoing tests. I want to thank Mayor Adams and Commissioner Molina for also visiting the officer tonight.”
The New York Daily News reported that the victim was stabbed by Daniel Applewhite, who is incarcerated for fatally shooting his girlfriend last year. He was reportedly re-arrested for this attack.
“The heinous attack demonstrates why exactly why the Public Advocate and City Council must immediately pull the Bill to end punitive segregation before one of us gets hurt,” the statement from Boscio continued.
Boscio referred to city legislation passed in September 2022 with a veto-proof supermajority to end all solitary confinement at Rikers Island. The bill would end solitary confinement in all forms and utilize other methods of separation. COBA believes the requirement would only put its members at further risk of harm.
Politicians made a surprise visit to Rikers Island in August to find seven detainees in solitary-like conditions.
“A horrfic [sic] attack on a @CorrectionNYC officer whose family expected a return home how they left for work,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams in a statement on Twitter. “We must continue to remember the primarily Blk/Bwn NYers on both sides of those bars in a place that breeds an unacceptable amount of violence & death.”
Though Corrections Department Commissioner Louis Molina agreed with the council that solitary was “inhumane,” he opposed the passage of this law.
“Enough. Last month, Campaign Zero called on Judge Swain to move up the hearing date and appoint a federal receiver immediately. Since then, five more New Yorkers have died at Rikers Island,” said Campaign Zero Executive Director DeRay McKesson. “By allowing the department to continue to run Rikers, the court is complicit in these deaths. As we mourn Gilberto Garcia, we demand real action from those with the power to save lives. As it continues to prove every day, this department cannot fix itself.”
