Jails Boss Racked Up 18,500 Miles On Personal Trips In City-Owned Car, Investigation Finds

NEW YORK CITY, NY — Department of Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte racked up 18,500 miles on personal trips using his official, taxpayer-funded department vehicle, according to a report from the city Department of Investigation.

Despite city rules for "take home vehicles" prohibiting out-of-state travel and any use of official vehicles for personal business, Ponte spent 90 days outside New York State in 2016 — often on trips to Coastal Maine — leaving a deputy in charge of the city's complex jail system for nearly a quarter of the year, the city's corruption watchdog alleged Friday.

The Department of Investigation report claimed that misuse of city vehicles was rampant at the Department of Correction and that several high-level officials also used department vehicles for weekend shopping trips, getting to airports and getaways to the Hamptons, Poconos and Cape Cod.

"This widespread disregard of policy undercuts DOC’s ability to ensure order and discipline at an agency already struggling to control violence and crime in its jails, issues that DOI has been investigating for the past three years.

"Most disturbing in this report is the conduct of senior officials who must be accountable for their actions," Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters said in a statement. (For more New York City news delivered straight to your inbox sign up for Patch's free newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Mayor Bill de Blasio publicly defended Commissioner Ponte on the Brian Lehrer show Friday, despite the allegations of misuse of department resources as violence in city jails rose in 2016. Instead of shunning Ponte for misusing taxpayer money, de Blasio said New Yorkers should give Ponte credit for his good work running the city's jail system.

"This is a guy who’s been a major reformer nationally and achieved a lot for us, and we owe him a debt of gratitude. On this particular issue I think bluntly our system needs to be fixed, and I think [Department of Investigation] did us a service by pointing out there’s something wrong in the way our commissioners are being instructed on the use of their vehicles," de Blasio said Friday.

Peters said Friday that "City Hall is misinformed" and that Ponte and other Department of Correction officials were not told they could use department vehicles for out-of-state travel.

Ponte may have the mayor's support, but is facing major backlash from the Department of Correction' rank-and-file. The Correction Officers Benevolent Association — a union representing corrections officers — issued a statement calling for Ponte's firing in light of the Department of Investigation report.

The union blasted Ponte for being "awol" while "violence has skyrocketed," "corrections officers have been used as target practice" and "slashings and stabbings increased by 18 percent."

Main Photo of Dept of Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte by Cindy Ord/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images