Rikers inmates steal riot gear, briefly take control of intake unit

A group of inmates briefly took control of the intake unit on Rikers Island Tuesday after breaking into a captain’s closet and stealing riot gear amid a tumultuous 24 hours at the notorious jail, The Post has learned. 

The detainees, all of whom recently arrived at the jail, had been out of their holding pens for some reason in the morning and were able to bust into a captain’s office and put on the riot gear stashed inside, jailhouse sources said. 

Staffers immediately took cover as the inmates ran around the facility, sources said. The workers called the city Department of Correction’s Emergency Services Unit, which got the gear back from the rogue detainees and got the situation under control soon after, the sources said. 

It’s not clear how many detainees were involved or how long they were running around. The intake unit sees about 45 new admissions a day, and detainees are not supposed to be in the facility longer than 24 hours. 

Rikers main entrance
Staffers immediately took cover as the inmates ran around the facility, sources said
Corbis via Getty Images
Aerial view of Rikers Island
The inmates stole riot gear from a captain’s office, sources said.
AP

It’s also unclear if anyone was injured, sources said. 

“They did go a little crazy. … Why they are out of the pen is a whole different story, a whole new question,” a source said. 

“ESU was called, and [the rioters] gave it up.”

Inmates crammed together in a single cell, sleeping on the floor.
Crowded conditions at the previous intake unit on Rikers Island.

The DOC didn’t immediately return a request for comment. 

The incident comes just hours after a detainee died of a suspected overdose at the Anna M. Kross Center and a correction officer was stabbed around a dozen times by a murder suspect in the same facility. 

The DOC has clocked 18 deaths in custody so far this year, up from 16 recorded in all of 2021. 

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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