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Rikers Island: Female Corrections Officer Nicole Bartley Charged With Raping Male Inmate

By Jennifer Deutschmann
Published on: 04:58 PST, Feb 8, 2016

A Rikers Island corrections officer was arrested and charged with promoting prison contraband and raping an inmate. Nicole Bartley, 30, is accused of having a romantic relationship with a male inmate and agreeing to provide him with marijuana. Although she confessed to “falling in love” with the unnamed man, Bartley claims he “played [her] for a fool.”

In an official statement, New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters explained inmates “cannot consent to sexual relationships” while incarcerated. Therefore, any sexual contact between a corrections officer and an inmate is automatically defined as rape by New York State law.

Although they do not believe she brought any contraband into the facility, officials found “approximately 70 grams of marijuana” in the Rikers Island corrections officer’s home. Nicole reportedly admitted the contraband was intended for the unnamed inmate.

Commissioner Mark Peters said Nicole Bartley and the inmate essentially agreed to exchange “sex for drugs.” In his opinion, the case underlines a much larger problem pervading the city’s correctional facilities.

“This case… puts on full display the dangers of corruption in our city’s jails and the connection between the drugs, inappropriate relationships, and violence that pervade the system.”

Bartley is the twenty-sixth member of the Rikers Island corrections officers and other staff arrested amid the DOI’s ongoing corruption investigation.

In their 2014/2015 Year-in-Review Report, the City of New York Department of Investigation announced the arrests “of nearly a dozen correction officers, supervisors… other staff and nearly three dozen inmates,” who were linked to “civil disorder and criminal activity” within Rikers Island facilities.

The DOI also “exposed lax screening procedures of correctional staff.”

According to the report, the DOI identified numerous corrections officers who were hired, despite prior arrests and criminal convictions. The department also discovered a disturbing number of corrections officers were hired despite having known associations with criminal gangs and current inmates.

As discussed in the official statement, Nicole Bartley was hired in May, 2014, with an annual salary of $39,755. She was still classified as a probationary corrections officer at the time of her arrest.

Daily News reports Nicole admitted having sexual relations with the inmate “in the jail” during the last week of January. Her confession was included in the criminal complaint.

“I was in love with him… I had sex with him on one occasion… It was in the closet in the morning when everyone else was locked in. It only lasted five minutes.”

Commissioner Peters confirmed Bartley was arrested on Saturday and charged with conspiracy, official misconduct, possession of marijuana, promoting prison contraband, rape, and sexual misconduct. If convicted, she is facing a minimum of four years in prison on the rape charge alone.

Although she posted $1,000 bond and was released pending trial, the Rikers Island corrections officer was suspended from her job.

Rikers Island was purchased by the City of New York in 1884 for $180,000. Although it was originally fewer than 88 square acres, the island was later expanded to 415 acres using landfill material. The first jail opened on the island in 1932.

NYC.gov reports Rikers Island currently has 10 separate correctional facilities, which have the capacity to house nearly 20,000 inmates. Although an estimated 100,000 inmates are booked into those facilities each year, they are defined as jails as opposed to prisons because the inmates are only short-term.

A series of scandals, including an unusually high number of abuse and neglect claims, have given Rikers Island a reputation as one of the most violent correctional facilities in the United States. However, the DOI has launched a series of investigations aimed at reducing corruption.

Nicole Bartley was the twenty-sixth Rikers Island corrections officer or staff member arrested and charged amid the DOI investigations.

[Image via Brian A. Jackson/Shutterstock]

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