Federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced on Wednesday that one current and two former correction officers at Rikers Island have been charged in connection with the 2012 beating death of a 52-year-old inmate and a conspiracy to make it appear that the use of force was warranted.

The government charged that while the inmate, Ronald Spear, who had kidney problems and walked with a cane, was being held face down by guards on the floor of a unit for prisoners with serious medical needs, one officer, Brian Coll, repeatedly kicked him in the head and then knelt down, saying, “Remember that I’m the one who did this to you.”

Mr. Coll and other officers then proffered a false story that Mr. Spear had first attacked Mr. Coll with a cane, the government said. Officers lied in official reports about the assault; there was no mention of Mr. Coll’s brutal assault of the inmate; and evidence was planted to bolster their account, the authorities added.

Mr. Coll, 45, of Smithtown, N.Y., who the Correction Department said left its employ last year, was charged with deprivation of rights under color of law, obstruction of justice and other counts. A second officer, Byron Taylor, 31, of Brentwood, N.Y., who prosecutors said had helped restrain Mr. Spear during the beating, was charged with conspiring to obstruct justice and obstructing justice by lying in a federal grand jury. Mr. Taylor has been suspended indefinitely, the Correction Department said.