Hundreds Of NYC Jail Guards Remain Unvaxed After Mandate Deadline

NEW YORK CITY — An extended deadline for Department of Correction staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19 passed with hundreds still resisting getting the shot.

Mayor Bill de Blasio spent Wednesday morning after the mandate took effect accentuating the positive.

He said 77 percent of uniformed officers got at least one dose.

"That’s gone up about 30 percent as a result of the mandate,” he said.

Department of Corrections workers fall under a sweeping vaccine-or-no-pay mandate that de Blasio set for municipal workers, but they got an extra month to get their shots because of an ongoing staffing and humanitarian crisis at Rikers Island, as well as rock-bottom vaccination rates.

The vaccination deadline for jail and correction workers finally passed Tuesday.

But it took repeated questions from reporters for de Blasio and DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi to cough up actual numbers of jail staff who will be out without pay.

Schiraldi said 6,016 uniformed staff are now vaccinated, with another 708 unvaccinated but still working as the city reviews their requests for medical or religious exemptions.

He then said it would cause a "headache" during the briefing to give an exact number of jail workers who are out without pay, given there are also many out on long-term family, medical or military leave.

Regardless, nearly 1,100 of 7,814 uniformed DOC employees are now unable to work, whether because of vaccination status or other types of leave.

Schiraldi said many jail officers will be moved to 12-hour shifts to cover shortfalls, at least on a temporary basis.

He said situations have improved at Rikers thanks to 800 inmates being released from the troubled jail or transferred to other facilities.

He said a more-manageable 5,200 inmates has caused an 82 percent decline in guards calling off and a 78 percent drop in unstaffed posts.

Violence in the jail and use of force by guards are also down, he said.

“The fact is we know that things are working better at Rikers because the population has gone down,” he said.

De Blasio said he expects DOC workers to continue to get vaccinated after the deadline.

FDNY firefighters were 77 percent vaccinated when their own deadline passed, he said. Now, more than 92 percent of firefighters have received at least one dose of vaccine, he said.

"We know that that number is going to go up," he said of DOC's vaccination rate. "We just know it from all this experience."