Name Jails for Fallen
To the Editor:

Concerning Wallace B. Cheatham's call (Sept. 26 issue) for naming The Tombs in memory of Ben Ward, it's my feeling that any Correction Department facility renaming should be done in the honor of members of the Correction Department who made the supreme sacrifice.

The following members of the New York City Correction Department were killed in the line of duty: 1900: Keeper Hugh McGovern, 7th District prison; 1926: Warden Peter Mallon, City Prison Manhattan (Tombs) and Keeper Jeremiah Murphy, City Prison Manhattan (Tombs); 1928: Keeper Morris Broderson, (Bronx County Sheriff) and Bronx County Jail Keeper Daniel Horgan, (Bronx County Sheriff), Bronx County Jail; 1932: Deputy Warden William J. McConnell, City Prison Kings, Raymond St Jail; 1973: Correction Officer George Motchan, KCH Prison Ward; 1980: Deputy Chief Carl Ceo, Operations; 1991: Captain Stanley Rhem, Manhattan House of Detention for Men; 1993: Correction Officer Arturo M. Meyers, Brooklyn Court Division; 1993: Correction Officer Bruce Mayo, Anna M. Kross Center; 2008: Correction Officer Kenneth Duncan, Manhattan Court Division.

Only one Department facility (George Motchan Detention Facility), which is located on Rikers Island, is named after a Correction Officer who died in the line of duty. After the death of Deputy Chief Ceo in 1980, a street was named in his honor, but with new jail construction, several years later the street disappeared.

The (Rikers Island) bridge, the prison barge in Hunts Point and most of the Rikers facilities or streets are named after deceased Commissioners, Chiefs, Wardens, union leaders and a long-time Board of Correction Member. Two Rikers facilities are named after two living former Chiefs of Department. Presently the street that divides the north and south towers of MDC is the "CO John J. Clavin Way" and it is named after a deceased veteran Correction Officer from the Manhattan Court Division who died shortly after he retired. The Rikers Island Control Building is name after retired 40-year-plus department veteran Correction Officer Sam Perry. Though I do recognize the contributions that late Commissioner Benjamin Ward made to the City of New York and its criminal justice system, "we should honor our fallen first." BRIAN J. SHARKEY, Retired Captain, Correction Department