New court filings reveal that more than 100 allegations of sexual abuse at Rikers in 2014 went unreported to police.



According to court documents filed by Public Advocate Letitia James, there were a total of 116 inmate sexual abuse allegations. Sixty-one were allegedly abuse by jail staffers.

There were also 28 separate incidents of rape reported at the jail last year.

The Department of Health alerted the Department of Correction of the allegations, but the DOC allegedly only reported two sex assaults to police.

James issued a statement on the documents, saying, "I have petitioned the Board of Correction to begin formal rule-making to better protect inmates from sexual violence, and they must start tackling this problem with the urgency it deserves."

The DOC responded, saying, "Commissioner Ponte has zero tolerance for any sexual harassment or violence against staff or inmates. As part of our top-to-bottom reforms on Rikers, we are working to bring DOC into compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act."

