A Justice Department investigation that last month uncovered a chamber of horrors at the Rikers Island jail in New York City was bad enough in its depiction of corruption and brutality in the city jail system. Now comes the news that the Department of Correction had sanitized a 2012 report that it later turned over to federal investigators, eliminating passages recommending demotion for two officials who were derelict in their jobs and failed to supervise the jail they oversaw.
The missing information included the fact that hundreds of fights had been omitted from jail statistics. The report said that the warden, William Clemons, and his deputy, Turhan Gumusdere, had “abdicated responsibility” for reporting inmate fights and violence statistics and “turned a blind eye” when the staff submitted false data to make conditions seem better than they were. There is no reason to believe that Mr. Clemons and Mr. Gumusdere, who were recently promoted, can carry out their responsibilities.
[For more of this story go to http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09...andal-continues.html]
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