More than one-third of jail guards recently hired by the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) had previous gang affiliations, criminal histories or significant psychological problems, the city Department of Investigation (DOI) said on Thursday.
Investigators randomly pulled 153 application files of guards hired last year and found that 54 — or 35 percent — "presented significant red flags that should have either precluded their hiring outright or required further follow-up."
The probe found 79 hired officers admitted having friends or family members who were inmates — including one with nine relatives who had served time in Rikers Island jail complex. Ten new hires had been arrested more than once, and another 12 had been rejected by the significantly higher standards of the New York Police Department, including six for psychological reasons and one who failed a drug test.
To become a correction officer, candidates who take a civil service exam are vetted by jail application investigators, who conduct background checks, psychological screenings and other evaluations. A jail official then recommends an applicant be accepted or rejected, but the deputy commissioner in charge of hiring can override that decision.
Jails Commissioner Joseph Ponte, who has pledged to reform the troubled correction department, said in a statement he was committed to "improving staff recruitment, training and retention" and would implement many of the investigators' recommendations, automatically disqualifying applicants who had been fired from a public agency or had any felony convictions in the past five years.
All of the applicants reviewed in the DOI report were hired before Ponte took office in April 2014.
Among other findings, there was no evidence applicants had been screened for gang affiliation, even though the jails' own intelligence officers rank it as the top threat to safety. It wasn't until after probe began that the jails began taking photos of applicants' tattoos to check for possible gang ties.
Following the investigation, three of the problem hires have already been fired for misconduct, including one who had an "unduly familiar" relationship with an inmate later arrested in a murder-for-hire plot. Two of the hires resigned.