The New York Post by BRAD HAMILTON - March 20, 2011
It's one way to meet men.
The female guards working at Rikers Island are sex-starved and promiscuous with the prisoners they are there to keep in line, says a former guard. "They would do it on the midnight shift when there were not many people around," according to Yolanda Dickinson, who worked at Rikers from 1997 to 2004 and recently penned a novel called "Taboo," based on the jail's out-of-control sex scene. "They have electronic cell doors, and it's not a problem for someone to crack open the door," she added. With 3,890 female officers guarding some 12,000 men, outlaw love blossoms. "It's a soap opera," Dickinson says. "There are a lot of lonely single women on the job, and you're surrounded by these cute guys. They're working out. They're attractive," she says. "They're criminals, so they have a cunning way of approaching you. They study you all day." Though she claims she never had sex at work, Dickinson, 41, admits that she met a Rikers inmate on her watch, a gang member from her neighborhood who had admitted to killing a rapist. "People looked up to him for that. He said he did the world a favor," she said. She says her soft spot for him developed after he defended her honor behind bars by beating up another inmate who groped her. "It made me look at him differently," she said. Another ex-boyfriend, the father of her 17-year-old son, served 10 years in federal prison on drug charges. She was fired for "undue familiarity" in 2004 after an inmate called her from Rikers and she denied to probers that she had gotten the call. At least six female guards have been fired or forced out for undue familiarity with prisoners since 2007, including Kimberly Hurd, 39, who bore an inmate's love child; Yolanda Turner-Goodwin, 44, who was photographed hugging and kissing a prisoner; and Kadessha Mulgrav, 34, who allegedly sneaked away for a midnight liaison with cop killer Lee Woods in a shower room. "Undue familiarity is illegal, and it compromises safety and security," said Correction spokesman Stephen Morello. But Dickinson said it's so pervasive, it'd be difficult to prevent. She once saw a letter from an inmate that graphically recalled his X-rated romp with an officer: "It was detailed."
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