Rikers Island Inmate Relationship with Female Corrections Officer Gets Noticed by Investigators

A Rikers inmate, who had an inappropriate relationship with one of the female Corrections officers, was scrutinized by investigators.

Inmate-Corrections Officers Must Have Boundaries

It becomes serious if prison employees engage in a relationship with prisoners in the system, especially if the officer is a woman. Based on a source that says Christina McIntyre's fling with one of the inmates she was supposed to oversee in a Rikers jail was trouble in the eyes of investigators not approving of the prison romance, reported NY Daily News.

Her case is a prime example of what the city's Correction Department describes as "undue familiarity" at the worksite. It will include inappropriate behavior ranging from trying to aid a jailed friend or relative to forming relationships or sexual liaisons with detainees.

As shown by investigators, undue familiarity is challenging to identify, as are the repercussions of these actions. Authorities from the prison and the union declined to explicitly state the magnitude of the punishments if any were issued in more than a dozen cases examined by the Daily News.

McIntyre and the detainee talked on the mobile 679 times between July 2020 and January 2021, as said by investigatory records obtained by the outlet, noted The Local.

Further probing showed the two engaged in phone sex, and even after the prisoner had been freed, the pair continued relations. She is still working for the department and doing office work, based on a source in the correction. Per the public records, she received $89,948 in 2022.

Investigators Notice Corrections Officer Misconduct

Based on the record of the suspicion of getting too familiar, which was proven to no doubt by the Department of Investigation probers. The information gained does not show what penalty will be given to Christina McIntyre.

Nevertheless, most of those officers entangled in such relationships were on the job for at least a portion of 2022, with some generating well over $100,000, as shown in the good government website See-through. These records indicate that an employee had been on the payroll during at least that part of the calendar year, yet they do not display existing employment.

When notified of comments concerning the officials cited in the article, a spokesperson for the group that represents Correction officers, the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, kept quiet.

An existing Department of Correction policy did not allow inappropriate relationships from 1996 onward when Correction Commissioner Martin Horn released a department-wide bulletin alerting staff that unwarranted closeness would be a firing offense, which might lead to criminal proceedings.

Horn mandated the policy forbids all sexual behavior in all city jails, intending to avoid inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate sexual threats and abuse, citing NYC Gov.

He added that crossing limits would cause the system to be ineffective and compromise safety. Sarena Townsend, a former Correction Department Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence, Investigation, and Trials, says that it allows contraband in prisons.

When prison employees engage in a relationship with prisoners in the system, the jails "become ineffective, and the safety of each of us is threatened."