Investigation Shows NYC Jails Hired Guards Despite Criminal Records

MOSCOW, January 15 (Sputnik) – About one-third of correction officers in New York City jails have flawed backgrounds, including prior convictions, criminal gang ties and psychological problems, a report by the city's Department of Investigation released Thursday said.

In the report, the department scrutinized records of 153 employees of New York City's Rikers Island jail complex who passed screening procedures and were subsequently hired by the facility.

This is perhaps the most serious challenge facing the Department of Correction, both because we’ve got hard numbers demonstrating a lot of correction officers being hired despite obvious disqualifiers such as gang affiliation, prior arrest, relatives who are incarcerated and failing psychological exams,” Department of Investigation commissioner Mark Peters said about the report, The New York Times reported.

The flawed hiring process is the result of several factors, including poor recruitment efforts, inadequate training for investigators and a bad applicant evaluation procedure, according to the report.

The report stated that the Department of Correction's Applicant Investigation Unit should improve the vetting process to "screen for corruption vulnerabilities,” as well as monitor already hired officers who show signs of corruption.

Over the past year, the Department of Investigation arrested or referred to disciplinary boards 23 correction officers at Rikers Island, who were accused of rampant use of excessive force, drug trafficking and document forgery.