- Steve Gruber - https://www.stevegruber.com -

Report: Inmates At Rikers Island Being Offered $6/Hr And Masks To Dig Mass Graves For Coronavirus Deaths

Posted By Wayne Dupree On April 1, 2020 @ 9:04 am In Politics | No Comments

Has it come to this?

I’ve been watching and keeping tabs on my state, Maryland, and how Governor Larry Hogan is dealing with the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. I haven’t been watching New York too much except for the quick video hits by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

I learned this morning that Rikers Island inmates had been offered $6 an hour to work on Hart Island, home to a public cemetery owned by New York City. The purpose — dig a mass grave if the coronavirus pandemic hit the city. The makeshift grave would allegedly accommodate 51,000 corpses.

As of Tuesday, the death toll rose to 1,096. The chief physician warned that vulnerable inmates should be released in an attempt not to make the situation worse.

Inmates in New York City’s Rikers Island prison are being offered $6 an hour and personal protective equipment to dig mass graves on Hart Island, a spokesperson for the office of Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed.

Prisoners have been digging graves on the island in the Long Island Sound for years but the offer of $6 an hour is far above the general prison wage.

The mass graves are not COVID-19 specific, spokesperson Avery Cohen told The Intercept ^[2], but morgues and cemeteries have already become overwhelmed as the city’s death toll rose to 1,096 on Tuesday night.

Hart Island had previously been identified as part of a 2008 contingency plan for the city that would see Rikers Island prisoners dig mass graves to bury up to 51,000 bodies in the event of a severe pandemic.

The news comes as Rikers Island’s chief physician issued a grim warning Tuesday about the coronavirus pandemic in the prison. [Daily Mail]

This piece was written by Wayne Dupree on April 1, 2020. It originally appeared in WayneDupree.com ^[3] and is used by permission.