Woman held on Rikers Island alleges brutal rape amid environment of lawlessness

A woman held on Rikers Island claims in a shocking 33-page handwritten complaint that she was repeatedly raped with sex toys by another female detainee late last month, a copy obtained by the Daily News shows.

The 31-year-old alleged victim, Ana Allen, wrote in graphic detail how she was cornered in a shower stall Dec. 30 in unit 4E at the Rose M. Singer Center by a physically stronger alleged perpetrator and raped.

“She pushed me against the wall and shoved me over the trash can in one motion,” Allen writes. “I felt gross, I felt used, violated, weak … I said ‘No, no, no’ again and again.”

The document, a copy of which was obtained by the News and is now under investigation by the DOC and the Bronx District Attorney’s office, paints a disturbing picture of a lawless environment in the women’s jail with rampant drug use, bullying of weaker detainees by stronger ones and limited staff oversight.

In the aftermath of the attack, Allen claims her requests for a transfer and medical attention were ignored. When she finally was moved to a new unit Jan. 3 and reported the rape, a DOC investigator interviewed her in front of other staff and detainees, she writes.

Allen, who agreed to be named for this story, wrote the complaint Jan. 6 intending to file it in Manhattan federal court, but the suit has yet to be officially filed. She is demanding a criminal investigation and damages for her ordeal.

Helen Skipper, vice chair of the city Board of Correction, called the allegations, “horrific.”

“It raises major concerns pertaining to policy and procedure for DOC, Correctional Health Services and PREA,” she said, referring to the DOC unit responsible for probing sex assault claims.

The Bronx DA’s office told The News its investigations division is conducting a review of the allegations.

On Thursday, at a Board of Correction hearing, DOC First Deputy Commissioner Francis Torres said she had no knowledge of the incident, while DOC general counsel James Conroy confirmed the allegations had been referred to the Bronx DA.

Latima Johnson, a DOC spokeswoman, declined comment citing pending litigation.

“We work to ensure that everyone in our care is safe from violence and any report of sexual assault in investigated thoroughly,” Johnson said in a statement. “We will not tolerate any type of assault or abuse in our facilities. If the accusations are substantiated, we will pursue accountability and consequences.”

Dr. Victoria Phillips of the Jails Action Coalition, noted one in four women in RMSC is a sex assault survivor. “In 2025, why must I highlight a detainee’s assault and demand accountability?” she said.  “This case, like others, was nearly buried.”

“I don’t want this”

Allen was sent to Rikers after an arrest by Port Authority police Dec. 8 near the bus terminal just west of Times Square for allegedly threatening passengers with a loaded gun on a bus from Washington, D.C. to the Big Apple. She was ordered held on Rikers pending a transfer to New Jersey to face the charges.

On Dec. 29, Allen was moved to Unit 4E where within 10 minutes she said she encountered the alleged perpetrator, who she said immediately “claimed” her.

“I’m on you,” the woman told Allen, adding she would “crack” anyone else who approached her.

That night, the woman got high on “pills”, and announced she was going to have sex with Allen.

“I don’t want this,” Allen told her.

Allen writes that the her attacker carried a makeshift blade wrapped in tissue in her waistband and brandished it in front of officers. Allen claims the woman bullied and sometimes hit other detainees. At one point, Allen writes, a correction officer spotted the knife and merely said, “put that thing away.”

“I lived in fear … I would get cut by her,” Allen writes.

On the night of Dec. 30, the attacker cornered Allen on her bed.

“Just leave me alone,” Allen asked.

Allen, in her complaint, graphically outlined a violent and forcible rape, at one point the assailant pulling down Allen’s boxers and trying to force oral sex on her.

“You’re not going anywhere,” the woman allegedly said.

Allen writes correction officers watched them leave a supply closet but did not act. The attack, she wrote, continued in a bathroom shower stall, where she says her attacker used sex toys.

“I couldn’t do anything but accept knowing that no one was coming to help me,” Allen said.

Allen struggled but she could not get away. She banged on the shower stall to get the attention of the officers. An officer entered the bathroom and ordered them to leave.

Finally, the attacker left the bathroom and Allen desperately washed herself.

“I scrubbed my skin so hard as if I could wash it away,” she wrote.

Allen asked to be transferred on Dec. 31, Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, but she was ignored.

On Jan 1, Allen called her boyfriend and told him what happened to her, she writes. “I explained on a recorded line that I have been raped and am seeking real help,” she writes.

“There needs to be a consequence.”

No privacy

During an April 24 council hearing on sex assault in the jails, the DOC official in charge of investigations, Jonathan Levine, said his staff is careful to keep identities of sexual assault victims confidential.

“We do take every one of the complaints seriously and they do get fully investigated,” he said.

DOC Chief of Department Sherrie Rembert underscored the agency’s “zero tolerance policy” for sexual assault.

Victims are “removed immediately from their dormitory or cell and placed in a secure location,” Rembert said.

But Allen said in her writing that was not her experience. On Jan. 3, she was finally able to report the assault and taken to a hospital where a rape kit was performed. She was then escorted to a different unit.

An investigator with the so-called Prison Reform Elimination Act unit was contacted and interviewed her in front of correction staff and other detainees, she writes.

“PREA came to speak to me in the most unprofessional way,” she wrote. “I had no privacy to tell my story.”

She claims potential witnesses were also questioned in the presence of other detainees.

“The witnesses were scared and didn’t want to say anything further,” Allen wrote.