The Rikers inmate who called Mayor Bill de Blasio during his radio show to gripe about prison conditions told The Post Friday that he’d been trying to reach Hizzoner since a fire left inmates at a federal detention center in Brooklyn without heat during a cold snap.
“I saw the city delivering blankets to MDC — not that those people didn’t deserve them — but I wondered what the city was doing about [Rikers], which actually falls under its jurisdiction. We have a leaky roof, broken windows with garbage bags taped over them and it’s 20 degrees in here,” Winston Nguyen griped during an exclusive jailhouse interview.
Nguyen was a home health aide — and former Jeopardy! contestant — who was behind bars for swiping more than $300,000 from an elderly couple and using the cash to pay for pricey ballet tickets and trips to Florida, authorities said.
Nguyen, who sits on the inmate council at Rikers, has an exhaustive knowledge of prison rules and policies that he uses to resolve administrative disputes among Rikers officials and inmates, ranging from laundry issues and visitation privileges to access to mail and pencils.
He said he wanted to raise his concerns on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show“ because he was a big fan of NPR.
“I know it seems like a very privileged thing to do, to go over the head of the administration and call the mayor,” said Nguyen, who then detailed his complaints about Rikers.
While he said the legislation making phone calls free for inmates is a “good start,” it may not be enough.
“The problem is the number of phones. That’s where most of the tension comes from — four phones for every 56-60 people.
“Title 40 [prison rules] says mail has to be delivered within 48 hours of reaching the facility — the problem comes with how that’s interpreted — it can sit in the trailer for a week. It’s things like this,” he said.
But he had nice things to say about his fellow inmates.
“I know this sounds like a very Ivy League thing to say, but there’s a lot of diversity, community and peacefulness here. There’s a very strict moral code.”
The mayor said Winston’s call was “a good example of why it is a worthy thing because we want to hear what’s going on from folks who need these services.”
Nguyen was hired in 2009 to help a 96-year-old blind man and his 92-year-old wife with day-to-day tasks, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Starting in 2015 until his arrest, Nguyen used the couple’s bank account and credit cards to make $100,000 in purchases and cash withdrawals, prosecutors charged.
He also allegedly wrote himself $200,000 in checks and opened lines of credit with their information totaling $35,000, officials said.
The 2014 game show contestant masked his misdeeds by diverting the couple’s bank statements to his home then doctoring them to remove his purchases, the DA’s office said.
He was busted in 2017 and is awaiting sentencing.