It\u2019s \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d on Wards Island.<\/p>\n
For the past three months, staff at the massive Manhattan Psychiatric Center have been \u201cnonchalantly\u201d trudging dangerous inmates \u2014 including the \u201cButcher of Tompkins Square Park\u201d \u2014 through the facility\u2019s non-criminal side to get them\u00a0some fresh air since a plumbing mishap conked out the facility\u2019s elevators, insiders told The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe forensic patients love it,\u201d said Dr. Catherine Mortiere, a psychologist who works at the hospital, which houses both criminally insane and private patients. \u201cThey get to go through the civil hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there is growing concern among staffers that one of the unhinged criminal inmates could harm the others.<\/p>\n
At the Manhattan Psychiatric Center\u00a0\u2014 which houses both criminally insane and civilian patients \u2014 staffers have to trudge inmates down the elevator on the civilian side to get them around since their side\u2019s three elevators malfunctioned because of flooding. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n
Already, two inmates have breached\u00a0their wards since the elevators flooded \u2014 \u201cnot making it downstairs but making it to the elevator,\u201d a source who works there said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you sit in the elevator and be quiet you could blend right in,\u201d the source said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are people that have made headlines,\u201d the staffer said. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t know it but you\u2019re in there with a sex offender or a rapist or an arsonist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notorious \u201cTompkin Square Park Butcher\u201d Daniel Rakowitz has been confined at the hospital for killing 26-year-old dancer Monica Beerle, cooking her bones and feeding the disgusting soup to the park\u2019s homeless in 1989. Freelance<\/p>\n
Among them is Daniel Rakowitz, known as the \u201cButcher of Tompkins Square Park\u201d for dismembering his topless dancer girlfriend and boiling her bones in 1989.\u00a0 He is believed to have ladled the revolting soup out to the\u00a0East Village\u00a0park\u2019s homeless.<\/p>\n
The 228 inmates \u2013 about 100 of whom were deemed criminally insane in court \u2013 were relocated from the fortress-like Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on\u00a0Wards\u00a0Island to one side of the\u00a0nearby\u00a0state-run Manhattan Psychiatric Center\u00a0in 2020.<\/p>\n
Workers at the state hospital clean up flooding after a pipe burst and burnt out the elevators used by the hospital\u2019s criminal patients in September. Obtained by the NY Post<\/p>\n
The elevators were also knocked out by flooding back in 2020 soon after the inmates were moved there. Obtained by the NY Post<\/p>\n
September was the second time the pipes burst and flooded out the elevators. The first time was in 2020 soon after the inmates were relocated there.<\/p>\n
Video obtained by The Post shows water pouring down from the ceiling in September.<\/p>\n
The inmates, who have had limited visits, are permitted to use iPads for online\u00a0virtual\u00a0visits with family and are frequently treated to pizzas, sweets and other distractions, like a recent pumpkin decorating contest, to appease them.<\/p>\n
The criminal patients were moved from the old Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Wards Island in 2020. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n
The Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center had bars on the windows, which could be opened providing fresh air to staff and inmates, workers told The Post. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n
\u201cThe patients are confined here with no fresh air, no open windows,\u201d Mortiere said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are going stir crazy and increasingly more agitated,\u201d said Mortiere, who was against the move from the old Kirby building. \u201cWe are all expecting something to pop off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another\u00a0person who works in the facility and spoke to The Post anonymously for fear of retribution said the patients are \u201cangry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult situation,\u201d the worker said. \u201cThey\u2019re frustrated. They always ask, \u2018Can my mother visit? Can my brother visit?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The building also has no ventilation and the windows can\u2019t be opened because of a lack of bars, the staffers said.<\/p>\n
The names of the inmates at the hospital aren\u2019t publicly available but Danield Rakowitz is among them. freelance<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Kirby the windows were mini panes with metal around them,\u201d the source said of the old prison-like facility. \u201cBut at least they opened.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state Office of Mental Health acknowledged the flooding but said it is committed to keeping everyone safe. <\/p>\n
\u201cOMH is fully committed to ensuring safety of our patients and the staff entrusted to treat them at our psychiatric centers and while unexpected environmental concerns sometimes arise, we always treat safety and security with utmost importance in responding to these issues,\u201d an agency spokesman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d on Wards Island. For the past three months, staff at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,1493,259,260,5871,38137,2825,194,168737],"class_list":{"0":"post-333813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-hospital","10":"tag-mental-health","11":"tag-mentalhealth","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-murders","14":"tag-prisons","15":"tag-us-news","16":"tag-wards-island"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}