And he thought Cowboys fans were nasty.
Plaxico Burress got a zero’s welcome behind bars at Rikers Island, including taunts of “a – – hole!” and “The Giants suck!” according to jail guards.
“He was depressed,” said one guard from Rikers, where the former Giants superstar spent his first-ever night behind bars. “He was trying to keep to himself, but everyone was yelling at him.”
“These people got nothing,” a second guard explained of the taunts. “What else are they gonna do?”
Burress began serving a two-year sentence yesterday for accidentally shooting himself in the thigh with his own Glock while drinking in the crowded VIP vestibule of the Latin Quarter nightclub in Midtown last November.
His stay at his first stop, Rikers, was brief. By 11 a.m. yesterday, he’d been driven upstate to the medium-security, 586-inmate Ulster Correctional Facility in Napanoch, an intake center where he’ll be evaluated for more permanent placement elsewhere in the state prison system, said Correction Department spokeswoman Linda Foglia.
At Ulster, Burress was strip-searched. He was also shorn of his trademark goatee.
He got a shower, an ID card, an orientation session and his new wardrobe. That includes his hunter-green uniform tops and bottoms, a pair of black work boots, and a pair of white, low-top canvas sneakers.
His inmate number was also assigned: 09-R-3260.
Burress, 32, is in voluntary protective custody.
“He will be separated from the inmate population at all times and confined to a single cell,” Foglia said. He’ll only get out for three hours of recreation per day, plus his required meetings with counselors and medical and mental health staffers. He’s allowed three showers a week and one visit per weekend, Foglia said. At 11 p.m., it’s lights out.
With good behavior, the earliest Burress can be released is June 6, 2011, she said, after which he’ll get another two years of postrelease supervision.
Defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman has told The Post that Burress and his family have employed a prison consultant to coach them on what to expect during his incarceration.