A 12-year veteran of the Department of Correction, and she hasn’t gone back to work since Christmas Day.

NY1 is not using her name and is shielding her identity because she was attacked the last time she was at work while conducting a tour of a housing area on Rikers Island.

“You see the person, but you just thinking like, you know, they walk past you all the time,” the officer said, holding back tears.

“He just came out of like nowhere to grab me. He’s pulling me to get me into his cell area,” she said. “He’s telling me, ‘Oh, I need you in my cell. I want a woman like you in my cell.’ He’s grabbing on me like really forcefully, pulling me. He’s so close like his face, my chest, like he’s grabbing me, and I’m trying to pull away, but he’s so strong. He’s a man. I don’t know, male strength. It was so scary.”

She was able to get away. But that moment has since changed her life.

“I treated everyone with respect,” she said. “I did my job. I followed the rules. I don’t have time, no negativity to keep everybody safe and calm. To have a full-blown attack from an individual, it’s scary.”

NY1 is shielding her identity. The officer is trying to recover from what she says was a traumatic experience.

It’s unclear if she’ll return to work. 

There are many more officers, many of them women, who have been sexually assaulted while doing their jobs on Rikers.

Data obtained exclusively by NY1 show since 2021, there have been at least 87 sexual assaults on correction officers or civilians in city jails.

Six of those assaults have occurred so far this year.

One officer, who spoke to NY1, started in January, but was then assaulted this month.

“He went behind me and I was still writing in my logbook,” she said. “He comes from underneath, puts his hand through the bench of the chair and touches my behind from the bottom to the top. I froze. I got up. They took me out of the housing area. I was crying. I couldn’t breathe. I had a lot of anxiety. So the support I got from my coworkers was one thing I loved,” the officer said.

But she said officers need support in other ways.

“They did press charges. But my thing is, why is this a misdemeanor and not a felony when it comes to law enforcement? But for MTA workers, automatically, when you assault them, it’s seven years, and that is automatically a felony. It should be the same for us,” she said.

Benny Boscio, the head of the correction officers’ union, agrees.

“I’ve spoken to the governor,” Boscio said. “I’ve spoken to the Majority Leaders Stewart-Cousins about the issue and we’re trying to get a bill passed to turn the sexual assault of correction officers from a misdemeanor to a felony, cause we need protections as well.”

According to the Department of Correction, the possibility of sexual assault is part of the training of correction officers.

In addition, a department spokesperson says assaults are investigated, and the attacker is arrested the same day if the victim is willing to testify.

The department supports the legislation in Albany.

In a statement, the Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said, “No one deserves to be assaulted at work, especially our correction officers who come to work every day to serve New Yorkers and are an integral part of public safety in our city.”

As of this point, it’s unclear if that proposal is going anywhere. So far, it has not gained traction.

Assemblyman David Weprin is one of the sponsors.

“They’ve been preoccupied with the budget but in general the assembly has looked down upon doing multiple felonies, increasing penalties for felonies,” Weprin said. “But this has become a real problem, and this is a situation that cries out for making it a felony.”

At least these officers say they need it.

“You once [were] at peace and everything now is different, with your family, with friends, with coworkers. Something has to be done,” she said.