Between April of 2020 and May of 2021, correction department authorities seized banned drugs inside city jails more than 2,600 times, according to data obtained by THE CITY.
That’s more than double the number of such seizures made during the same time period from 2018 to 2019 when the jail population was larger and there were more people coming and going, Correction department records show.
[A former guard], smuggled K-2, cigarettes and a cellphone into the George R. Vierno lockup on the island in an effort to keep “peace” among gang members housed in his unit, his lawyer said in a sentencing memo in his Manhattan federal court case.
In the court filing, [the ex-guard claimed he] smuggled the contraband in 2020 because he desperately wanted to gain full-time employment at the jail – and needed inmates in his unit to behave for a shot at the promotion.
[A citizen] filed a 311 complaint to the NYPD earlier that day about the illegally parked truck and included his own name and number on the report. The city says it keeps that information confidential. Somehow it made its way to [a man who repeatedly called and threatened to harm him and his family].
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Spokespeople for the NYPD and 311 did not answer questions about whether any city officials shared [the citizen]’s contact information with anyone after he filed his 311 report.
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The truck seemed retrofitted to skirt accountability. Photos...show a New York State Police Investigators Association sticker on the windshield, a sign reading FUNERAL on the dashboard, and four different temporary paper license plates — three from New Jersey and one from Minneapolis — borne by the truck over the course of a year.
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[The citizen] called the police after the second call, and two other officers arrived at his apartment. But they said there was little they could do about the threats, according to [the citizen], and recommended that he file another 311 complaint