Violence at Rikers Island is Out of Control, Inside Sources Call it ‘House of Horror’

May 10, 2012

[The Village Voice](http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-05-09/news/rikers-violence-out-of-control/) has obtained disturbing images from inside sources in New York City’s jail system that show inmates with knife wounds and beating injuries to the face, neck and arms. Documents obtained show Correction Department employees may be pitting inmates against each other to "keep order." The Correction Department launched a major investigation in 2008 after teen inmates beat 18-year-old Christopher Robinson to death as guards looked the other way. Documents obtained include inmate interview transcripts that show guards were deputizing inmates, often in the teen jail, and pitting them against one another in fights as a way to keep order and extort them for phone, food, and television privileges. Several sources, told the Village Voice, that the practice is very much still in place, which is backed up by hundreds of internal Correction Department documents obtained by the Voice. (Just a warning, link below includes graphic images.)