The Rikers Island slasher may have struck again.
Deandre Morrison, 23, accused of six different slashings and several other attacks over the past three years, sliced fellow inmate Amadou Camara inside a mental observation unit Oct. 21, city records show.
The attack left Camara, 20, who is awaiting trial on an armed robbery bust, with a nasty wound that stretched from just above his right eyebrow to his jaw. Morrison hasn’t been charged in the slashing at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center. Jail officials are looking into it.
“We are investigating this matter and are prepared to modify our protocols as appropriate to ensure the safe and judicious housing of all inmates,” said Peter Thorne, a city Correction Department spokesman.
Morrison was jailed after he was charged with the murder of rival gang member Daniel Delgado in front of a Bronx apartment building in August 2011. Since then — he’s still awaiting trial — the reputed Bloods member has been a terror behind bars.
Bronx prosecutors slapped him with six additional criminal charges for multiple infractions, including the slashing of another inmate with a makeshift shiv in May 2013 and tossing an unknown liquid substance at officers during two separate scuffles this past January, court documents show.
As a result, jail bosses shipped him off to solitary for a cumulative 525 days, records show.
But earlier this month a bumbling jail doctor ignored his violent past and let him roam free in a mental health unit after he threatened to hurt himself.
“He’s not suicidal,” said Sidney Schwartzbaum, the union president who represents top jail bosses. “He’s homicidal.”
Sources say Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte was also livid over the Morrison slashing that left Camara with the 10-inch gash. Last week, Ponte berated the warden in charge of the facility during his monthly meeting with jail honchos and then stormed out, according to a source.
The new jail boss has struggled to tamp down a major spike in violence.
There have been 78 inmate stabbings and slashings this year, up from the 77 all of last year, according to sources.
Jail supervisors and inmate advocates say the spike is due in part to clueless medical workers hired by Corizon, the private company that provides health care to inmates.
The firm has come under fire for its poor handling of several mentally ill inmates who died in jail over the past several years. Investigators repeatedly found they were not given proper care.
City officials say about 40% of the nearly 12,000 inmates have been diagnosed with a mental illness.
