Correction officers pepper sprayed eight inmates over the weekend when they tried to go to a jail clinic to check their temperatures after a potential coronavirus case surfaced inside their Rikers Island unit, department records show.
A so-called department probe team like a jail SWAT squad was summoned when the inmates refused orders to lock in inside the Anna M. Kross Center on Saturday night, according to an internal Correction Department initial report.
A department spokesperson said on Monday that abuse allegations were being investigated.
The incident began after an inmate in the housing unit who handled food was taken out when he exhibited flu-like symptoms, according to multiple sources. Other detainees then asked to have their temperatures taken by a medical staffer, two inmates told THE CITY.
As they waited to go to the clinic, the probe team arrived, spraying several of them directly in the face multiple times, the inmates said.
The Department of Correction is treating us like animals, said Angel Barbosa, 43, during a phone call from Rikers.
Barbosa said he was doused multiple times in the head with pepper spray as he crouched down on his knees with his hands up in a corner.
There was no riot, he added. It was just a couple of inmates asking to go to the clinic.