Once again, a story of prison guard sex and smuggled drugs has emerged from Rikers Island prison in New York. Investigators have arrested Rikers Island Probationary Officer Nicole Bartley, 30, on multiple charges that include rape and promoting prison contraband. According to sources, Bartley was clocking into work when a prison drug-sniffing dog alerted on her this past week. This prompted an investigation where 70 grams of marijuana was found in her home. She later admitted that she had been having a sexual relationship with a prison inmate and was going to smuggle the drugs into the prison.
According to the criminal complaint against Bartley, she stated, “I, Nicole, being a fool had my guard down to this man I thought (I) was falling in love with.” She is being charged with rape because under New York law an incarcerated inmate cannot legally consent to sex. Bartley confessed that she would have protected sex with the unnamed prisoner after everyone was locked in their cells. She has been released on $1,000 bail and faces up to four years in prison.
The Rikers Island prison complex has 10 separate jails for approximately 10K prisoners. The violence and corruption plagued facility has been under investigation since 2014. During this time period, at least two dozen staff members have been arrested on multiple charges that include assault, official misconduct and smuggling. This is the second arrest of a guard this month at Rikers Island. In the beginning of February, the same drug-sniffing dog pointed out prison guard Mohammed Sufian, who was smuggling 60 grams of K2, a synthetic form of marijuana, in his socks. After the arrest, investigators searched his home and found another 126 grams of K2 and a large amount of tobacco that they suspect was going to be smuggled into the prison. An investigation conducted in 2014 revealed serious gaps in security procedures with guards being waved through after setting off metal detectors and not putting their lunch through the X-ray machine. This contributed to the large amount of contraband that got into the prison system.
