It's happening with bus seats and airplanes, and inmate attire is no different: America must adapt to suit its most corpulent citizens. But 55-year-old Elias Diaz tells the Post that Rikers Island lacks uniforms big enough to contain his 400-pound frame and he's suing the Department of Corrections for $1 million for having to wash his same outfit every day in the shower. How much does the DOC regret rejecting that contract with Jnco? more ›

Two Rikers Island corrections officers have been charged with covering up a brutal assault on an inmate in 2009. 49-year-old Victor Rodman, who has been part of New York's Boldest for almost a quarter century, allegedly visited another guard, 43-year-old Michelle Hubert, in July of 2009 when a fight broke out between inmates. Investigators tell Newsday that Rodman broke an inmate's nose and caused permanent vision loss in one eye. "These defendants are charged in a disturbing inmate assault and cover-up, betraying their integrity and the city's trust in them," the city's Department of Investigation's commission Rose Gill Hearn said. more ›

Things just refuse to go well for Lamont Pride, the 27-year-old man accused of killing NYPD Officer Peter Figoski. Even locked up he is getting into trouble. Yesterday, while an estimated 10,000-20,000 people attended Figoski's funeral in Long Island. Pride went and got in a scuffle with a pair of Corrections officers on Rikers Island. And his face got scratched! more ›

According to the NYTimes, there were 393,394 visits to Rikers Island to see inmates last year. It seems that many of those visitors are trying their darndest to pass contraband along—and the NYPD finds a cornucopia of valuable goods as a result: “We find a whole host of stuff,” said the New York City Department of Corrections’ chief deputy, Carmine LaBruzzo. “Live ammunition. Cellphones, beepers, iPads, iPods.” more ›

Two Rikers Island guards have pled guilty to felony assault charges for running a violent "Fight Club" like enforcement system that pitted gang members against inmates and resulted in the death of one 18-year-old prisoner. 33-year-old Michael McKie is expected to receive a two year sentence in January, while 37-year-old Khalid Nelson will receive one year. Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Hearn said in a release that the two guards "fittingly…face prison sentences themselves. As inmates, they will appreciate the importance of Corrections Officers' maintaining integrity and safety in the City jails." more ›

The abused wife who killed her husband but was acquitted of his murder surrendered herself to authorities yesterday. Barbara Sheehan, 50, beat the murder charge but was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon—she used two guns to shoot her husband Raymond, a retired cop, 11 times in their Howard Beach home in 2008—and she went to jail ahead of her lawyers' appeals. According to WPIX 11, "It was an emotional morning as Sheehan's daughter, sister and mother all wept in court while Sheehan resolutely offered her hands to a court officer who cuffed her and took her off to Riker's Island." more ›

Last year police arrested 43-year-old Hugues Akassy after he allegedly raped a date in Riverside Park. Soon after the arrest a number of other woman (including an assistant DA) came forward to say that the native Frenchman had sexually assaulted them or attempted to. Since then, the self-styled TV reporter has been remanded to jail and apparently it has not been treating him well. Akassy is trying to get transfered out of Rikers because he says he's been repeatedly assaulted. more ›

While other states continue a disgraceful race to the bottom when it comes to their immigrants, Mayor Bloomberg has repeatedly supported progressive immigration reform and denounced unnecessary and cruel deportations. In this spirit, the mayor's office recently reversed positions on a law sponsored by councilmember Christine Quinn that will make it harder for federal authorities to deport illegal immigrants in custody at Rikers Island. "Our goal is always to protest public safety and maintain national security, while ensuring New York remains the most immigrant-friendly city in the nation," Bloomberg's chief policy advisor tells the Times. more ›

Daniel Sanchez really doesn't like prison life, apparently. Yesterday the 24-year-old, locked up with no bail before being tried for his involvement in a double homicide last year, made a mad dash for freedom from Rikers Island last night around 6:40 p.m., injuring six guards in the process. Unlike some more inventive inmates, homemade nunchucks were not involved in his escape attempt. more ›

Just because you can't dress up sexy to visit Rikers Island anymore doesn't mean you can't get frisky if you work there instead. A female corrections officer was just busted for having sex with a male inmate...again. more ›

A Columbia University student busted for selling cocaine last year is now going be to spending the next six months at Rikers Island. Harrison David, who was kicked out of the engineering program after his arrest, "pleaded guilty to felony criminal sale of a controlled substance" in exchange for the six month jail stint, which will amount to 3 1/2 months behind bars with good behavior and time served. His defense lawyer said, "It's not too bad. At least not for those of us who don't actually have to serve it." more ›

After Mayor Bloomberg announced that he would not be evacuating the prisoners at Rikers Island under the threat of then-Hurricane Irene, a backlash grew against the administration given the total shutdown of the MTA, mandatory evacuations of thousands of New Yorkers, and the horrific lessons of Katrina. "It is appalling that the City administration is abandoning the men and women at Rikers," Center for Constitutional Rights director Vince Warren said in a statement. CCR urged that the lives of the 12,000 prisoners on Rikers "should not be treated as less valuable than those of other New Yorkers." more ›

While residents living in Zone A areas head to shelters, and the rest of the city hunkers down for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, one group of New Yorkers who live on a tiny island between Queens and the Bronx are staying put: prisoners at Rikers Island. In a press conference yesterday, Mother Jones reports that Mayor Bloomberg said, "We are not evacuating Rikers Island." As the city's Department of Corrections tells the New York Times, "no hypothetical evacuation plan for the roughly 12,000 inmates that the facility may house on a given day exists." more ›

Yelp favorite Rikers Island reportedly had to dump 14,000 rotten, sewage-smelling Jamaican beef patties after cooks got nauseous while preparing them. Which is unfortunate, because a good Jamaican beef patty can really bring people together. more ›

Prisoners do not have a constitutional right to daily matzoh and weekly grape juice, a federal judge has ruled. Even if they ask really nicely! The decision from U.S. Southern District Judge Shira Scheindlin came in response to a suit brought forth by a man named Christopher Henry, who is serving time on Rikers for first-degree sodomy. more ›

Ah, Rikers Island. It was once a true fashionista's paradise, where visitors were free to gallavant about in spandex, miniskirts, and bosom-heaving tops. But not anymore! Now the prison is cracking down on scantily clad lady visitors, denying them their God-given right to bear boobs and forcing them to wear hideous neon green XXXL T-shirts instead. more ›

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the leading French politician accused of sexually assaulting a maid at a Times Square luxury hotel on Saturday, resigned from heading the International Monetary Fund. His statement read, "It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the Executive Board my resignation from my post of managing director of the I.M.F. I think at this time first of my wife — whom I love more than anything — of my children, of my family, of my friends," and pointedly included, "I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me." more ›

While Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French millionaire head of the IMF, has been put on suicide watch in a wing of Rikers Island, the ever classy New York Post took the story in about as ugly a direction as a story about a powerful man allegedly forcing himself on a hotel maid could go. "Dominique Strauss-Kahn may have more to worry about than a possible prison sentence," the tabloid's front page story screamed today. "The IMF chief's alleged sex-assault victim lives in a Bronx apartment rented exclusively for adults with HIV or AIDS." The paper's non-relevant charges were immediately derided as "outrageous" by the 32-year-old maid's lawyer on The Today Show this morning. more ›

Rikers has been developing a reputation for its soap-opera-esque sex scene, which includes lurid tales of trysts between lonely female guards and eligible inmates. But just because consensual inmate/guards hookups happen often doesn't mean it's ok when senior officers wantonly grope female guards, and whisper sweet nothings like, "When you gonna give me some? What breast-size you have? You have small t--s or big ones?" more ›

Have you ever wondered how much it might cost you to pay off a guard to help you escape prison? Well, we can now tell you one going rate: $90,000 worth of cocaine. That's how much one prisoner allegedly paid off a guard to help him escape Rikers Island. more ›

Nicholas Brooks, who is accused of killing his fashion designer girlfriend at the Soho House, had reportedly expressed concerns about going to jail, telling cops, "I'm Jewish and I'm worried about getting beat up by white supremacists. I watch the show 'Oz.' I've seen what happens in jail." Well, now a person who was visiting a relative at Rikers Island tells the Post that Brooks was "cry[ing] like a baby" and saying "how he wants to get out of here." more ›

A good reason to use your phone when you are at a concert? Good alibi. That's the lesson we're taking from the story of Shane Rhooms. It starts like this: On September 6 an assailant got off six shots at cops in Flatbush before running away. Those same officers later picked Rhooms mugshot out of a photo lineup and insisted he was their guy and locked him up in Riker's. Only problem? He kept insisting he was nowhere near Flatbush at the time, in fact he said he was at a reggae concert at Webster Hall. more ›

Between all the riots, the beatings, and the occasional celebrity rabble-rousers, shit seems particularly stirred up at Rikers Island lately. And late Thursday night, ligaments were thrown into that melting pot of correctional rage, when a particularly hungry inmate bit off the tip of a correction officer's thumb in what we can only imagine was a misguided but well-intentioned attempt to give the man a permanent hitchhikers thumb. more ›

There was more pandemonium at Rikers last night when a fight broke out while correction officers tried to lock inmates into their cells for the night. CNN reports that fifteen corrections officers were injured (the Wall Street Journal puts the counts 16) but none of the injuries were life threatening. It's unclear what started the fight, but a spokesman for the Corrections Officers' Benevolent Association says the inmates started it. It's unclear what injuries the inmates sustained, if any. The C.O. union also pins the blame on the budget cuts: "Correction officers are being violently attacked at the hands of inmates because they know that staffing levels are low, and the Department of Correction continues to cut posts, jeopardizing the safety and security of Correction Officers and inmates alike." more ›

On Veterans Day, it was reported that several witnesses, including a Daily News reporter, watched as a Rikers Island Corrections Officer got into a verbal argument with a visitor, then beat and arrested him. Now, that visitor has spoken out about the incident, and he plans to sue the shit out of the institution. "I've never taken a beating like that in my life...I'm angry, very upset. I never did anything to provoke them. They're supposed to be the Boldest. Is that bold? To give you a royal ass whipping?" more ›

Yesterday it was reported that a Daily News reporter witnessed a Rikers guard assaulting and arresting a visitor after a shouting match. Today, the Post reports that another guard was caught trying to smuggle drugs and cigarettes in order to sell to prisoners. Not the most surefire way to go from rags to riches. more ›