RUDY'S CORRECTION CORRUPTION

Rudy's Correction Corruption

A recent Federal court decision in which a Deputy Warden was awarded nearly $800,000 because of harassment by his superiors casts a further shadow on Rudy Giuliani's record as a manager.

The case is yet another one that cost the city a six-figure payout because of improper behavior by Correction Department officials during Mr. Giuliani's tenure. Like the others, including one case of wrongful disciplinary action based on trumped-up sexual harassment charges and another instance of political retaliation, they are emblematic of an agency that became a street gang.

The department became so corrupted by this culture that the harassment continued even after Bernie Kerik - the biggest refutation to Mr. Giuliani's claims to being a good manager - had left Correction in mid-2000 to become Police Commissioner. For that matter, the improprieties that infected the upper levels of the agency began before Mr. Kerik became Correction Commissioner.

Start with Anthony Serra, who rose to the third-highest uniformed position in the department before being bounced and then jailed for using agency personnel on city time to spruce up his home and coordinate a re-election effort on behalf of Governor Pataki five years ago.

Mr. Serra escaped serious punishment for earlier political efforts of the same nature during Mr. Pataki's first election run in 1994 because Mr. Giuliani was trying to mend fences with the new Governor. He later got off with a slap on the wrist for lying about a use-of-force incident under his command and got a promotion in late 1997 after he helped get out the vote in Mr. Giuliani's re-election run that year.

According to Mr. Skinner, his decision to back Mark Green for Mayor in 2001 prompted Mr. Serra to divert him from his duties heading Correction's command center at the Medical Examiner's Office after 9/11 to conduct daily examinations of each toilet and shower at the Brooklyn House of Detention. Other ranking officials, including then-Commissioner William Fraser, made clear to Mr. Skinner that they disapproved of his legal political activity.

This conduct did not happen in a vacuum, and was not the product of some runaway agency commanders with their own agenda. The tone for this behavior was established when Mr. Serra was promoted - while facing departmental charges, something several senior agency officials later said was unprecedented.

A mentality was perpetuated, first by Mr. Kerik and later by Mr. Fraser, that there were two types of officers - those who were part of the "team" and therefore worthy of protection, and those who were not and therefore were fair game.

Anyone with concerns about how the Justice Department was politically corrupted during the Bush Administration should take a wary look at Mr. Giuliani's own, smaller version at Correction.