The New York City correctional officers union is holding an “Occupy Rikers Island” protest at the entrance to the jail in order to protest Department of Correction Commissioner Dora Schriro’s cuts to security posts.
The cuts, the union says, have led an alarming rise in jail violence and a record high in assaults on correction officers.
The city’s Corrections Department has had to undergo the same rounds of budget cuts that other city agencies have as the Bloomberg administration has struggled to balance budgets in the wake of the recession.
Last year, Rikers officers accused Ms. Schriro of “coddling” inmates as she cut staff positions at the prison.
