according to their accounts , a group of correction officers wheeled mr. barnes wrote .
commissioner joseph ponte said board member dr.
ponte , who had reduced the use of solitary confinement by two thirds in maine 's state prisons , said the june 13 move on rikers island was aimed at volatile inmates who have broken jailhouse rules and owe days in solitary .
” about a half - dozen guards were crowded around the gurney , and one kept punching mr. dixon in the head .
officer lameen barnes prepared the official incident report said , mr. dixon refused to come out , insulted them and would not follow their orders .
but board members rejected the argument , noting the move jeopardized the health of some inmates , particularly those on psychotropic medications who were taken from air - conditioned mental observation units and put into uncooled solitary cells .
two requested anonymity because they said they feared retaliation from officers as well as their employer , corizon , which has a contract with the city to provide health care at the jail .
for the third witness , the times was provided a copy of the clinician ’s email to superiors about the incident , on the condition that the sender ’s name be withheld .
next , the correction officers brought in mr. lane , who had also splashed guards with a liquid .