A member of the New York City Council called the raids by Rikers Island employees “significant” drug and contraband activities in the city’s prisons.

A city council member said she was pleased the Department of Corrections took “significant” action to search Rikers Island workers for contraband – an effort that has resulted in at least one arrest.

Police, city sheriff’s officers and Department of Correction officials searched the officers and their vehicles when they arrived in Rikers early Wednesday morning.

The searches, which began at 4:45 a.m., led to the arrest of 47-year-old corrections officer Darrell Wallace, who police said was in possession of liquid cocaine.

Carlina Rivera Council Member

Wallace was charged with criminal possession of drugs and facilitating prison smuggling. He made $101,189 in 2022, according to the website SeeThroughNY, which tracks government salaries.

The joint search operation – an unprecedented move in the prison complex – was hailed by council member Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan), who criticized Corrections Commissioner Louis Molina for not doing enough to stop the growing flow of drugs and other smuggling into the city’s jails. .

“I am encouraged that Commissioner Molina has responded to the City Council hearings I presided over on drugs entering the prison system by taking action on general safety and staff involvement in this crisis on Rikers Island,” Rivera said in a statement.

“Multiple investigations have shown staff and guards at Rikers to be the source of contraband and drugs entering the compound, and the coordinated night checkpoint is an example of a meaningful intervention to protect the health and safety of detainees and staff,” Rivera said.

Shanks and drugs are among the contraband found on Rikers Island.

Last week, Rivera said the Department of Corrections was useless in providing information about how drugs get into city jails, telling Daily News the department was “incredibly difficult to work with.”

Molina focused on mail as a source of smuggling at Rikers and proposed that detainees be banned from receiving packages from all companies other than mail order companies and that their letters be digitized so that they can be read on tablet computers to prevent drug-soaked paper from entering . prisons.

But officials from the city’s Department of Investigation said prison staff are the main source of contraband in prisons. And at a trial in federal court in Brooklyn in November, a Department of Corrections investigator working with the Department of Investigations said corrupt Rikers officers and employees are “usually” a source of smuggling.

Including ongoing searches of employees and their personal vehicles at East River Prison, the department will also scan illegal mail, restricting inmates from receiving packages and expanding the use of body scanning technology.

In a video memo given to correctional officers on Wednesday, Molina told officers the checks are being “not to invade your privacy or out of lack of trust,” but to keep drugs out of the prison.

The Department of Corrections did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“Commissioner Molina and I agree that drugs have no place in prisons because they fuel violence and put people at risk for instability, addiction, overdose and more,” Rivera said.

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