A Rikers jail inmate repeatedly bashed a corrections officer in the face and head on Thursday amid the fiery debate between the mayor and City Council over legislation to ban solitary confinement.
Suspected gang member Richard Faulk was being transported back to his housing unit in the Otis Bantum facility on Rikers at around 11:30 a.m. when he suddenly attacked the officer from behind.
“My head is lopsided right now,” the officer told The Post during a phone interview from the hospital. “He attacked me from behind. He took the opportunity to assault me.”
The officer, who requested anonymity for security reasons, received stitches for cuts to his scalp and has a swollen face. He appealed to the City Council to preserve the option of solitary confinement to help curb the rampant violence at the facility.
“The violence is out of control. We need to keep punitive segregation,” the officer said. “We have to get between the violent inmates and the peaceful ones. If we don’t have accountability for violent inmates, they’ll keep doing it. There are no consequences for the violent ones.”