Correction officers at Rikers Island call the 3-to-11 shift at the nation's most populous jail "the war tour." And they say the prisoners hold every advantage: in numbers, weapons and rules.
Two weeks ago, about 600 guards tried to change the rules. For two days they blockaded the lone bridge to the island, turning back food, medical supplies and even the corrections commissioner. They relented only after city officials agreed to ease restrictions on use of force against inmates."Every day, Rikers is a slowly brewing riot," said Robert Gangi, director of the Correctional Association, a private research group that studies the jail. "Usually it's the inmates who blow up, but here it was the COs who blew (by erecting the blockade). I've never heard of anything like it."
The night the blockade ended, inmates in one unit rioted, and guards who quelled the rebellion allegedly lined up prisoners and systematically beat them with nightsticks.
"We control the jails, not you!" guards were said to have shouted.
When it was over, the injured included 142 inmates and 20 guards.
Also hurt during that tense two days were eight emergency medical technicians - the victims of attacks by guards at the blockade.
A second major incident occurred this past week, after an inmate was stabbed by an unknown assailant Tuesday night. A group of inmates refused to return to their cells and began setting fires. By the time order was restored, 25 guards and four inmates had suffered minor injuries, mostly smoke inhalation.
Although the blockade seemed to bring the jail to the edge of chaos, a union spokesman said it was a symptom, not a cause, of Rikers' malaise.
"The officers had come to the conclusion they were in danger," said Jim Grossman. "They simply didn't feel safe anymore."
Many never felt safe at a jail where the population doubled to 14,000 in 10 years, where prisoners routinely carry knives and homemade weapons, where there's an average of a stabbing a day.
Each month for the past year and a half, the city's jail system has set a new record for violent incidents.
Officers who directly supervise prisoners, meanwhile, carry no weapons.
"We don't scare anyone anymore," says Phil Seelig, president of the officers' union.