Exclusive | Staff expecting something to ‘pop off’ at hospital for criminally insane

It’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” on Wards Island.

For the past three months, staff at the massive Manhattan Psychiatric Center have been “nonchalantly” trudging dangerous inmates — including the “Butcher of Tompkins Square Park” — through the facility’s non-criminal side to get them some fresh air since a plumbing mishap conked out the facility’s elevators, insiders told The Post.

“The forensic patients love it,” said Dr. Catherine Mortiere, a psychologist who works at the hospital, which houses both criminally insane and private patients. “They get to go through the civil hospital.”

But there is growing concern among staffers that one of the unhinged criminal inmates could harm the others.

Already, two inmates have breached their wards since the elevators flooded — “not making it downstairs but making it to the elevator,” a source who works there said.

“If you sit in the elevator and be quiet you could blend right in,” the source said.

“These are people that have made headlines,” the staffer said. “You wouldn’t know it but you’re in there with a sex offender or a rapist or an arsonist.”

Among them is Daniel Rakowitz, known as the “Butcher of Tompkins Square Park” for dismembering his topless dancer girlfriend and boiling her bones in 1989.  He is believed to have ladled the revolting soup out to the East Village park’s homeless.

The 228 inmates – about 100 of whom were deemed criminally insane in court – were relocated from the fortress-like Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Wards Island to one side of the nearby state-run Manhattan Psychiatric Center in 2020.

September was the second time the pipes burst and flooded out the elevators. The first time was in 2020 soon after the inmates were relocated there.

Video obtained by The Post shows water pouring down from the ceiling in September.

The inmates, who have had limited visits, are permitted to use iPads for online virtual visits with family and are frequently treated to pizzas, sweets and other distractions, like a recent pumpkin decorating contest, to appease them.

“The patients are confined here with no fresh air, no open windows,” Mortiere said. 

“They are going stir crazy and increasingly more agitated,” said Mortiere, who was against the move from the old Kirby building. “We are all expecting something to pop off.”

Another person who works in the facility and spoke to The Post anonymously for fear of retribution said the patients are “angry.”

“It’s a very difficult situation,” the worker said. “They’re frustrated. They always ask, ‘Can my mother visit? Can my brother visit?’”

The building also has no ventilation and the windows can’t be opened because of a lack of bars, the staffers said.

“At Kirby the windows were mini panes with metal around them,” the source said of the old prison-like facility. “But at least they opened.”

The state Office of Mental Health acknowledged the flooding but said it is committed to keeping everyone safe.

“OMH is fully committed to ensuring safety of our patients and the staff entrusted to treat them at our psychiatric centers and while unexpected environmental concerns sometimes arise, we always treat safety and security with utmost importance in responding to these issues,” an agency spokesman said.