Metro

Cell damage: Rikers in ruins after years of neglect

Rikers is rotting!

Two giant jailhouses sit empty and decaying, and the opening of a brand-new building last year was delayed after mechanical locks didn’t work and water leaked into a computer room.

In addition, four of the island’s biggest jails — prefabricated structures from the 1970s — suffer from problems including rotted floors, broken pipes and heating and cooling units that frequently conk out.

“It’s just horrible, deplorable conditions everywhere,” said Norman Seabrook, who heads the correction officers’ union.

“You can fall through the floor in some places,” he said. “At the central control center, when it rains outside, it pours inside. They brought in contractors who’ve done nothing to fix the problems.”

He said that at the island’s youth lockup, the Robert N. Davoren Center, some inmates can pop open their cells because the locks don’t work.

A men’s jail, the James A. Thomas Center, is choked with asbestos contamination and was shut down in 2000. Built in 1933, it needs hundreds of millions in renovations and is unlikely to be used any time soon, Rikers insiders said.

The department has been working to patch up the North Infirmary Command, a lockup for high-profile prisoners who need protective custody and those requiring medical care. It needs $21 million in repairs, including new showers, lighting, alarms and a sprinkler system. Sources said its old, crank-wheel system for opening cell doors is rusty. The department hopes to reopen the unit in July, two years after being shuttered.

The women’s Rose M. Singer Center has for years had overheating problems and roof leaks, so the department built a $146 million, six-story annex in 2011. But it didn’t open until last March after needing fixes to its own roof, which leaked into the computer room, and malfunctions to the system used to lock cell doors, sources said.

“We have issues with the building,” Norman said. “It leaks and the floors were not put down properly. They’re extremely slippery. And officers get stuck in the elevator all the time.”

A Correction spokesman acknowledged the roof leak but said it “in no way has interfered with the occupancy of the annex since it opened in March 2012.” About 500 inmates are housed there in the 800-bed complex.

The George Motchan Detention Center had to close one of its 200-bed modular housing units a year and a half ago after an electrical fire all but destroyed the structure.

It didn’t help that Hurricane Sandy caused its own damage, eroding some of the shore and soaking two of the temporary trailers used for administrative work, including a judicial center where a Supreme Court judge conducts hearings.

The union says the center is waterlogged, bowed and “at risk of structural collapse.”

There are 10 separate jails on the 413-acre island, excluding the new women’s annex, and about 14,000 inmates are imprisoned there.