Former NYC Correctional Officer Pleads Guilty to Sexually Abusing Inmates

A former correctional officer at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center pleaded guilty on Wednesday to using his authorities—and access to contraband goods—to sexually abuse at least six female inmates for years. Prosecutors said Colin Akparanta, 43, pleaded guilty to felony counts of abusive sexual contact and deprivation of civil rights for coercing an inmate into sex acts in 2017. He has also admitted to engaging in “abusive sexual contact with six additional victims and... sexual acts with all seven of the victims” who were under his “custodial, supervisory, and disciplinary authority,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a press release. According to the indictment, Akparanta also smuggled contraband, including makeup and food, into the Metropolitan Correctional Center “for some of his victims.” With at least one inmate, Akparanta allegedly “explicitly conditioned his provision of contraband on the inmate’s continued performance of sexual acts with him,” prosecutors said. Akparanta also agreed to pay restitution to the inmates he abused. The jail is currently under fire for security lapses that lead to the death, by suspected suicide, of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein last year.