A city correction officer is undergoing emergency surgery Tuesday after being assaulted by an inmate in Manhattan Monday.

Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officer's Benevolent Association (COBA), says the officer suffered five broken bones in his eye socket and a broken nose after the attack.

We're told it was carried out by an inmate at the Manhattan Detention Center with a history of violent arrests.

This comes just one day before thousands of inmates are to be released from city jails under the state's new bail-reform laws.

In a statement, Husamudeen said, "We need to make the jails safer today and we need to ensure that inmates who commit violent assaults like this one, are removed from general population.”