Nassau jail violence escalates, five slashings in a week

An outbreak of gang violence has led to as many as five slashings at Nassau’s jail in the past week, according to sources, with the incidents coming weeks after a nurse’s arrest for allegedly smuggling in razors and drugs while working at the facility.

At least some of the gang-related attacks were connected to clashes among warring Bloods gang members, and multiple inmates suffered facial injuries requiring dozens of stitches, sources with knowledge of the situation said.

Brian Sullivan, president of Nassau’s Correction Officers Benevolent Association, confirmed Tuesday that several slashings took place in the past week and said “it’s not the norm” for so much violence to happen in so little time.

A Jan. 6 slashing at the East Meadow facility also left an inmate needing more than 260 stitches to his face after what also was believed to be a gang-related assault, Newsday previously reported.

Sheriff’s department spokesman Capt. Michael Golio said Tuesday that there were three inmate fights this past weekend that involved slashing-type injuries and the incidents remain under investigation.

Golio added that the jail “routinely employs numerous security procedures for the prevention and detection of contraband,” including with “targeted and large-scale searches.”

But Sullivan said while jail areas where the latest attacks happened were searched, the union also wants a facilitywide search performed, “especially on the heels of the arrest of Armor’s nurse Cox.”

“Who knows how many weapons she brought in?” Sullivan said.

Nurse Chantiel Cox, 25, of Amityville, who had worked for embattled jail medical provider Armor Correctional Health Services, is free on $30,000 bail following her Feb. 4 arrest on promoting prison contraband and conspiracy charges.

The Nassau district attorney’s office has alleged Cox smuggled razors and synthetic marijuana to inmates from October through December, when she was fired.

Authorities also charged two other women last month in the alleged contraband conspiracy, which officials said was tied to inmates in the Bloods gang.

Cox’s attorney, John LoTurco, previously said she was innocent and “being used as a scapegoat” for a larger problem at the jail.

“It’s their responsibility to keep contraband out of the jail, especially weapons,” the Huntington lawyer said Tuesday after hearing the union official’s comment about Cox. “They’re taking this arrest and trying to place blame on Ms. Cox, who in the end will be exonerated.”

Sources told Newsday it would be very difficult to track weapons back to their origins without cooperation from insiders, and that authorities are aware of at least some weapons coming in through the jail’s visiting area.

The correction union also wants a full-time emergency response team at the jail so it can handle incidents such as the recent slashings, Sullivan said Tuesday.

Golio said in response that Sheriff Michael Sposato issued a job posting last week to expand the current emergency response team, which the union official said would address the need. The sheriff’s spokesman also called it “a constant challenge to identify and disrupt criminal activities” as he said investigators did in the probe involving the nurse.

District Attorney Madeline Singas, who raised questions about jail security after Cox’s arrest, released a statement Tuesday saying safety still was a concern and officials would “continue to investigate how dangerous weapons are smuggled into the facility.”