The wheels of justice abruptly ground to a halt around the city Monday — after a surprise work stoppage by Rikers Island transit employees prevented hundreds of prisoners from getting to court.
The city Department of Correction employees — furious over the prosecution of two coworkers in an alleged inmate-beat-down and doctored-records scandal — suddenly declared all 44 buses used to transport suspects off the island “unsafe’’ Monday morning, sources said.
“It was supposed to be a slowdown, but then [the workers] ended up completely stopping,’’ one Brooklyn court source told The Post.
A Queens courthouse snitch added, “No prisoners from [Rikers’ prison] boat, the barge or Rikers Island are coming over’’ — noting that jurors there have already been let go for the day.
“We don’t know if there’s going to be a Day Two tomorrow. We just have to wait and see.’’
In Brooklyn, a measly 19 out of the usual 190 or so suspects hauled to court daily ever made it, a law-enforcement source said.
“We have seen a marked decrease in the number of prisoners produced, a smattering,’’ noted state court spokesman David Bookstaver.
“The DOC has reached to us. [The situation] has created problems. Every case is important, especially if your appearance today might have resulted in your release.’’
One thwarted Manhattan proceeding involved the attempted-murder trial of Latvian lovely Yekatrina Pusepa, who is charged with trying to kill her boyfriend, Alec Katsnelson.
Jury selection also was halted in another stymied case in Queens involving suspect Damel Burton in a 2011 double-slaying, including one person he allegedly killed aboard a city bus.
“I’m wasting my time just sitting here,’’ griped potential juror Sam Vincent, 42, of Woodside before being let go for the day.
“They’re being very selfish,’’ he said of the union workers.
Both Pusepa and Burton were among 800 to 1,000 inmates awaiting criminal- or supreme-court hearings who never made it off Rikers, sources said.
The union — particularly chief Norman Seabrook — is said to be fuming over a Bronx case last year in which several of his officers were charged with offenses related to the alleged beating and document-doctoring.
The two transit workers allegedly involved are Kevin Gilkes and Louis Pinto.
“This is a union tactic against the indictment on those two officers,’’ the Queens court source said.
A union source added, “The Bronx District Attorney’s Office is making all of our jobs very, very difficult because we have several members of service who are currently under indictment or under investigation, some involving use-of-force incidents. The staff are protecting themselves.
“These cases should be handled administratively not criminally. No one who works for the Department of Correction comes to work with bad intentions.’’
Seabrook did not immediately return calls for comment.
Additional reporting by Jamie Schram and Kate Sheehy