Suffolk County Jails Step Up Staffing Amid Surge In Gang Members
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- The Sheriff's Department in Suffolk County has increased staff members to battle the increase in gang members in the jails.
As WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reported, the two jails in Suffolk County in Yaphank and Riverhead now have more investigators, sergeants and correction officers – designed to keep tabs on the 274 gang members and associates housed in the two jails.
Newsday reported the object is to keep peaceful coexistence among the members of dozens of street gangs.
Most gangs broke their own 10-year record for the number of members incarcerated at the jails in 2016, the newspaper reported.
In Brentwood, for example, six people were killed – including two teenage girls who were beaten to death with bats and machetes – and about a dozen gang members are suspects in the killings. Those suspected are especially violent MS-13 gang members from Central America, the newspaper reported.
Newsday reported the Bloods and Crips gangs are jockeying for territory in the Town of Babylon, while the Bloods, the Latin Kings and MS-13 are active in the Town of Islip. A part of the Town of Riverhead has the same three as well as a white supremacist group and a motorcycle gang called the 1 percent, the newspaper reported.
