Rikers Fight Club

[Joanne98]

After indications for more than a year that guards were using inmates as enforcers, New York's jails are rocked by a pair of indictments

Eighteen months after the Voice first reported cases of jail guards using inmates as enforcers, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson has made a criminal case that slices to the core of the problem.

The indictment, unsealed January 22, alleges that guards Michael McKie and Khalid Nelson handpicked and oversaw a gang of inmates who beat and terrorized other inmates, and extorted money and privileges from them over a four-month period in a teenage unit at the Robert N. Davoren Center (RNDC), culminating in the murder by inmates of 18-year-old Christopher Robinson on October 18. They called their operation "The Program."

The indictment lists at least seven teenage victims, but there were "scores" more who were victimized, Assistant District Attorney James Goward said at the arraignment two weeks ago. Numerous inmates gave information to investigators to help build evidence that showed a troubling pattern of misconduct right under the noses of jail officials.

" was not simply the author of a crime," Goward told a judge. "He was the architect of a criminal enterprise that recruited and trained inmates to inflict violence. They turned jail into almost a nightmare environment."

The blockbuster case forced Correction Commissioner Martin Horn, for the first time, to discuss the issue before the assembled media. But he took a defensive posture, saying that he had no inkling of the problem. "I don't know that any of us believed that anything like this could happen," he told reporters at the Bronx District Attorney's office.

In fact, Horn was well aware of the problem. The Voice had been writing articles on the subject long before Robinson's death. The newspaper first put questions to Horn and his aides about guards deputizing inmates (often members of the Bloods gang) as enforcers in the summer of 2007, and kept writing articles about the problem over the next year and a half—articles that some law enforcement officials credited with placing a public spotlight on the problem.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-02-04/news/rikers-fight-club/

[thunder rising]

1. Organized prison violence and gangs only exist because prison officials allow it (and nurture it)

Let's face it, a prison is a totally contained world. The prison officials have control over every aspect of prison life ... it's like being God. Yet, I doubt there are nearly enough psychological screenings necessary to keep the sadists from taking over the ranks.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Soon to be seen on Law & Order, I bet

as a RFTH episode. When they do, I hope they explore the corruption as far up as it goes, as they appear to be doing in real life.