From the NY Times:The Department of Correction said Saturday that inmates at Rikers Island were advised to tell friends and relatives not to visit this weekend after it was disclosed late Friday that a prisoner received a diagnosis of swine flu there earlier in the week.
A prison spokesman said the inmate, who had been sent to Rikers on April 18, was admitted to the Elmhurst Hospital Center on Wednesday after complaining of flulike symptoms.
Corrections officers want the jail closed and sanitized.
20 comments:
Horror of all horrors!
Inmates' families can't visit them this weekend???!!! The HORROR!!!
Quick, call the ACLU!!!
Good thing the NY Times is on the story!!! Let's hope they don't perform any real torture on those inmates like take away their cable TV and weight lifting room! Then we'd really have some TROUBLE!!
Bloomberg dropped the ball on this. Reporters should delve into this more and unearth how behind he has been. He's the real swine here....
I bet they will get better and more immediate treatment than our veterans do.
You think this is funny? This is a facility with tens of thousands of people, all of whom will eventually be released. Corrections officers work there, cooks work there, all kinds of law-abiding people work there, could be contaminated, die, bring this back to the community.
Pray that the prisoners get the best care and the epidemic fizzles out quickly.
What do you care whether they get better care than Veterans. When they give you the disease will you be healthier than if you get it from a veteran. Be thankful you don't have to run this hell-hole.
by the way...some of the inmates/detainees are veterans...they are not mutually exclusive...I have worked there for 8 years so I know....bottom line also, we want all people to get great health care when needed....vets, inmates, others , etc....
One of the consequences of committing a crime is to be stuffed into a cell in a jail stuffed with hundreds - thousands - of other criminals.
Many of those criminals are sick every way possible to be sick. Many are contagious.
This is one important reasons for the criminal to get a job instead of going into mugging, rape (Gallagher?), robbery, etc.
I actually have zero dot zero interest in the health and comfort of any criminal. Zero. Nada. None.
taxpayer i agree with you, who the fuck cares about the lowlifes at rikers. yes i feel sorry for the people that work there. maybe they should STOP VISITING HOURS until this sizzles out.
You should worry because the bars won't keep the bacteria inside. Anything that creates a pesthole, whether it is a jail, a hospital, a school, a crowded ship, train, plane or automobile will bring this right to your door.
Eradicate this virus as quickly as possible for the public's safety.
No I do not think this is funny, but there is a very simple solution to this. Keep all inmates on the Island quarantined until the flu strain dies out.
What do you care whether they get better care than Veterans. When they give you the disease will you be healthier than if you get it from a veteran. Be thankful you don't have to run this hell-hole.
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If you keep them isolated on the island, then I won't get the flu from them. And I think it is the inmates who should be thankful that I don't run that shithole.
No I do not think this is funny, but there is a very simple solution to this. Keep all inmates on the Island quarantined until the flu strain dies out.
And what about the people that work there? I don't like criminals, but most of the people there will either be released shortly or sent upstate. They won't be in there forever.
There is no such thing as locking Rikers down. The Island is a large city. Supplies are constantly being brought onto the Island. Employees clock in and out on their shifts. Prisoners leave for court appearances, are released or transferred.
John Donne said, "No man is an island," and Rikers isn't much of an island either. It is connected to Astoria with a big bridge that buses access a hundred times a day. This is no Devil's Island or Alcatraz.
I feel its terrible to feel as thou inmates shouldnt be treated to the best health care available. we who sit at home waiting for our loved ones to serve there sentence.are appauled at some of the comments made by insensitive people who dont realize our men who are incarcerated are the main reason they have a job for if there is no crime there no jail no jobs for correctional officers yes it would be peaceful but live in reality for good there has to be bad.thats just how it is.I a wife if an inmate at rikers island want to be safe and secure in knowing my husband is well and will recieve the best health care available for he is serving his punishment and that what he did should not be held against his well being.I pray all the inmates at rikers will be treated well if infected.also the staff at rikers should disinfect all the buses and areas that visitors walk thru to be safe it will not spread
I wish you well. Many good people have crazy or violent relatives. God keep your man safe and may he stay out of trouble in the future.
I have a son at rikers island and he is innocent waiting trial and has been there for 8 months and has been visiting there twice week to make sure everything is ok and let me send this message to the all the negative people that don;t give a damn about any of them. their rights should not be violated and they are human beings just like your families and you never know when your family members will be in jail at rikers island. so i pray every day for them even if there is a swine flu or not. they should be treated equally when it comes to their health. also a very important comment remember that the correction officers are at risk even though some of them treat the imates like garbage, but remember they come outside and could spread it to you!!!!!!!!
To the "wife if an inmate" who is "appauled" by our comments. Perhaps you can pass the time by taking a few spelling and grammar classes.
Please, no inmate at Rikers is innocent. They may be innocent until proven guilty in a court law, but in the court of public opinion, there is no such presumption. Somewhere out there is a victim that knows all to well the extent of their attacker's guilt. And somewhere inside the cobweb-littered mind of the inmate, behind all the ACLU and NYC liberal mumbo jumbo that has been crammed inside their pea-sized cranium, lies the knowledge of his/her own guilt.
The inmates at Rikers are there for their own misdeeds. They went against the norms of society, therefore in the eyes of that very society, they have attained a place at the lowest status possible. They are not equal to law-abiding citizens, and only their actions in the future will ever determine if they will ever be able to rise up to a higher status. Those of you who want to coddle the criminals of our society, and tell them they are special and nothing is their fault, this is something for you to think about.
To all those with Negative Comments: YOU ARE ALL MORONIC IDIOTS!! Why are you judging people or making fun of those that make grammatical errors? That has nothing to do with the issue at hand. Congratulations to you since from your posting, it appears that neither you, your family nor anyone close to you has even had any legal problems. We should give your whole clan Citizens of the Century Award. For someone who could care less about inmates, you have A LOT to say. Don't be so stupid and look at the bigger picture. An inmates’ guilt is not the issue here, it’s the containment of the virus. As an earlier post stated, there is 24 hour movement off and on the island. Unless you live in a bubble (besides the one in your head), you are not 100% safe. Just because they are inmates does not mean that they don’t have the right to proper medical care. Not all Rikers’ inmates are violent criminals. Some are in fact innocent, cannot post bail, etc. Regardless, everyone on the island including inmates, innocent or not, should receive proper medical attention so that they don’t infect the rest of us.
Excuse me, but inmates' guilt/innocence BECAME an issue when those posters offended by the comments of other posters brought the issue into the topic at hand.
And you are right, neither me nor anyone in my LAW-ABIDING family have any legal issues to speak of. I have no sympathy for anyone in jail. If you do the crime, do the time. The burden is then on you to prove yourself a productive member of society.
these money pits that we call prisons are a waste of tax dollars. time to get back to desert islands and such. leave them there to live or die. stop wasting tax dollars on inhuman animals.
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