By Sarah Calams
NEW YORK — A sergeant with New York City’s Department of Corrections posted a video to Facebook slamming department officials over the lack of masks for officers.
Sgt. Benny Boscio posted the six-minute video after leaving the West Facility – the communicable disease unit – on Rikers Island.
“You would think that this department would give the proper protective equipment to the officers here,” Boscio said. “Hand sanitizers, making sure that everyone has what they need. No. That’s not the case. Why? Can you get the officers that work here, where you’re sending sick inmates, the proper protective equipment? Can we please get that here? Can we get hand sanitizer here? Can we get that stuff? Please.”
Boscio also talks about how an officer was “chastised” and “threatened” after bringing her own mask to work.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “You don’t supply the mask, but we can’t wear our own mask? Do you really care about the safety and well-being of your officers?”
The Correction Officers Benevolent Association (COBA) asked the city to provide face masks for correctional officers and that no new inmates are housed on Rikers Island.
“We’re at the epicenter of the epicenter and the city must do more to keep our officers safe,” COBA president Elias Husamudeen said in a statement.
Last week, an investigator with the NYC’s DOC died from COVID-19. The investigator’s death marked the city’s first municipal-worker fatality from the novel coronavirus.