Pepper Spray Gets Green Light At NYC Juvenile Facility

NEW YORK — New York City jail guards have gotten the go-ahead to temporarily use pepper spray at a detention facility for teens following a recent spate of violence. New York State granted the city a seven-day waiver allowing the use of pepper spray at The Bronx's Horizon Juvenile Detention Center amid the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association's concerns about fights, the union said Wednesday.

Department of Correction Press Secretary Jason Kersten said the state has allowed the "very limited use" of pepper spray at the center, which the city renovated to accommodate more than 90 16- and 17-year-olds recently moved off Rikers Island.

"(W)e are working now to operationalize this tool," Kersten said in a statement Wednesday.

The teens were moved to Horizon from Rikers ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline to implement the state's "Raise the Age" law, which increased the age of juvenile delinquency. The facility is currently staffed by correction officers along with the Administration for Children's Services and the Department of Education.

Violent dustups have injured more than 40 correction officers since the facility opened last week, including one who suffered a broken nose over the weekend, the Correction Officers Benevolent Association said. Not being able to use pepper spray there as they can in other jails has left officers "basically working with their hands tied behind their backs," said union President Elias Husamudeen.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration asked the state to allow the use of pepper spray at Horizon in August even though it would clash with the Raise the Age law's guidelines, Politico New York reported last month.

City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) praised the waiver but called it a "seven-day band-aid that demands further action from the state." Husamudeen said he hopes it will get extended.

"Every day that goes by without the use of this invaluable tool, increases the chances for Correction Officers to be seriously injured, if not killed by assaultive inmates at Horizon," Husamudeen said in a statement.

(Lead image: Cans of pepper spray are seen in Bremen, Germany in February 2016. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)