The head of the correction officers union used gruesome imagery Thursday to tee off on Mayor Bill de Blasio and his reform pick for jails commissioner, warning that a kinder, gentler approach would spark violence — and even death.
“A correction officer or an inmate will die at the hands of an inmate in the Department of Corrections really soon,” Norman Seabrook said at the union’s downtown office.
“And it’s going to be on the steps of City Hall that I deliver that body.”
Seabrook said incoming Commissioner Joseph Ponte has no experience with a jail system as large, violent or gang-filled as Rikers Island, which houses 12,000 inmates.
Seabrook bashed Ponte’s signature initiative as the head of the Maine Department of Corrections — where he reduced the use of solitary confinement by two-thirds — as unworkable in New York City.
“We don’t need a reformer — we need law and order,” Seabrook said.
He said in the past two weeks alone, 19 guards and 65 inmates were assaulted.
Seabrook said de Blasio needs to understand he can’t use kid gloves with jails.
“Unfortunately, what the mayor has forgotten is that correction is an animal all by itself. It is a dangerous environment,” he said.
Seabrook even chastised de Blasio for focusing too much on the pre-K initiative and not spending enough time improving the safety of jails.
Ponte — who starts work Monday — said he’s willing to work with Seabrook.
“As a longtime correction official, I value the experience of professionals like Norman Seabrook,” he said.