By Reuven Blau
New York Daily News
RIKERS ISLAND, N.Y. — Not even inmates in protective custody are safe.
Two city inmates isolated from the general population for their protection were slashed in the face Sunday night in a Rikers Island shower at 9:30 p.m., records show.
Inmate Kaymel Taylor, 20, “made a swiping motion to the facial area” of Joseph Troiano, 28, as they left a shower located in the Robert N. Davoren Center, according to Correction Department records.
Taylor, in jail facing murder charges, then slashed Kevin Moise, 31, in the face, according to a department report. A correction officer used pepper spray to break up the fight.
Moise and Troiano were each cut on the right side of their faces. No weapon was found.
The attack occurred inside 6 Central South, an area designated for adults in protective custody, records show. The record does not indicate why the inmates were placed in the special unit.
Inmates are moved to protective custody for different reasons.
Detainees facing sexual assault charges are often isolated because they tend to be targets for other inmates. Gang members who denounce their affiliation and inmates who have been stabbed in jail are also typically placed in protective custody.
Correction brass said the stabbing further highlights the need for state permission to use ionizing body scanners to detect small weapons.
State lawmakers have blocked the city from using those high-tech detection devices, citing possible health concerns from overuse.
Jail insiders have cautioned the scanners are not a panacea. They note that jail officials were able to keep the violence down before that technology existed.
Still, many believe the scanners would vastly help reduce violence behind bars.
“Incidents like these further strengthen the argument to use body scanners,” said Mark Cranston, a former acting commissioner of the Correction Department. “And the State Legislature and the Board of Correction need to advocate as strongly for that as they do for criminal justice reform.
“The safety of those they want to protect is at stake,” he added.
Jail officers also say they need to be given more power to put inmates who act out in solitary or to yank other privileges like phone access or visitor rights.
Inmate activists contend some of the violence in city jails is provoked by correction officers. A recent court-ordered monitoring report found some officers “relish confrontation.”
They also point out that research has shown that 23-hour-a-day solitary causes serious emotional and physical harm.
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