City Hired Sketchy Jail Guards Despite 'Red Flags,' Report Finds

NEW YORK, NY — The Department of Investigation criticized the Department of Correction on Thursday for hiring jail guards despite "red flags" that should have kept them off the force — even after past warnings from investigators. About 30 percent of the correction officer recruits from three of the DOC's 2016 classes had sketchy backgrounds that should have prevented their hiring or subjected them to monitoring after getting their jobs, the DOI said in a new report.

The DOI identified holes in the Department of Correction's hiring practices in 2015, but problems continued after correction officials only halfheartedly adopted that report's recommendations, the new report says.

Until the DOC "implements a proper screening system, we will not solve the problems that plague Rikers (Island) and DOI arrests of DOC staff will likely only increase," Investigations Commissioner Mark Peters said in a statement.

But the DOC says it's done more than investigators let on. The department recently revamped its hiring procedures as a result of the DOI's first probe and has taken steps toward implementing all of its recommendations, officials said.

The DOI reviewed files for 291 candidates in the DOC's January, June and December 2016 recruit classes and found 88 were hired despite "red flags," such as past arrests or ties to inmates. Some 30 percent of the files from the December class alone showed at least one prior arrest.

Among the problematic hires were a correction officer who didn't disclose past visits to gang-affiliated inmates; another who left his job with the state correction agency after having an inappropriate relationship with an inmate; and a third who had been arrested for weapons possession and harassing a co-worker at a past job.

A 2015 DOI probe found several issues with the DOC's hiring practices, but the new report says corrections officials have lagged at implementing many of the recommendations issued three years ago.

Investigators blamed the problems on the DOC's Applicant Investigation Unit, which is supposed to screen potential hires. The report said the unit relies on recruits to report information about their own backgrounds and doesn't cross-check it with public records, though the DOC says it now uses several public records databases.

The lax practices have led to an increase in arrests of correction officers since the end of last year, the report argues. The DOI pointed to 10 examples of bad behavior in which some officers were fired or arrested but others kept their jobs.

The DOC still needs to standardize its review process, boost the the Applicant Investigation Unit's staff to ensure every background check is thorough, and proactively monitor recruits who are hired despite red flags, the report says.

The DOC, though, argued the DOI's review didn't account for the reforms correction officials have implemented since 2016. An independent federal monitor praised the DOC's background investigations as thorough and extensive last year, the department said.

Five of the 10 sketchy officers the DOI identified no longer have their jobs and the other five are being investigated, DOC spokesman Peter Thorne said.

"The 10 individuals mentioned in the report were hired before DOC revamped its hiring practices and strengthened its investigative procedures to better identify unqualified applicants in 2016 as a result of DOI’s prior recommendations," Thorne said in a statement.

(Lead image: The Rikers Island jail complex is seen in January 2018. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)