A former New York City correction officer who served prison time for smuggling contraband into the jails and wrote a book about his experiences has been promoted by NYCHA to the role of resident building superintendent in charge of a Bronx housing development, the agency confirmed.
Gary Heyward had been quietly working for about six years as a caretaker for NYCHA before he was promoted March 17 to the new role at Mott Haven’s Patterson Houses, a development of 15 buildings with 1,790 apartments.
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Gary Heyward pleaded guilty in 2006 to attempted drug sales and was sentenced to two years in state prison.
Heyward pleaded guilty in 2006 to attempted drug sales and was sentenced to two years in state prison. He admitted accepting $500 from an inmate for bringing a cell phone into jail and taking $1,000 for smuggling cocaine, tobacco and marijuana into the jails.
When he got out, he eventually published a lurid memoir titled “Corruption Officer: From Jail Guard to Perpetrator Inside Rikers Island,” in 2015. He first self-published the book, and it was later picked up by Simon and Schuster. He also also made media appearances, including in the Daily News, in support of the book.
Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News
Patterson Houses in the Bronx.
Asked about the hiring, NYCHA spokesman Michael Horgan said in a statement that the agency abides by the Fair Chance Act, a city law which bars NYCHA from disqualifying an applicant based solely on their criminal history.
“Mr. Heyward passed the Resident Building Superintendent civil service exam and was selected for promotion based on the needs of the Authority,” Horgan said.
As a caretaker, Heyward earned $59,799 in 2023, city records show. Resident building superintendents have a base salary of roughly $85,000 but can earn much more than that with overtime. A review of city payroll records shows quite a few earned well over $130,000 in 2023.
Heyward declined to comment citing what he said was a NYCHA policy barring him from speaking to the press.
Horgan declined a Daily News request to interview Heyward.
Louis Lanzano / for New York Daily News
Gary Heyward pleaded guilty in 2006 to attempted drug sales and was sentenced to two years in state prison.
News of the hiring made the rounds within correction circles and didn’t sit well with some. Retired officer Robin Miller, who published her own 2016 book, “Inside the Dark Underbelly of Rikers Island,” called it “disgusting.”
She said she was particularly disturbed by an anecdote in the book repeated in the 2015 Daily News story in which Heyward claimed a grandmother wanted Heyward to deliver her jailed grandson a half-pint of liquor and red velvet cake. When she was short on Heyward’s $500 fee, she gave him oral sex, Heyward wrote.
“How is he going to run that development and he sold drugs?” Miller said. “I’m all for redemption and all that, but does Mayor Adams really want the optics of that to come out on top of everything else?”
Retired Officer Celestino Monclova, who penned a 2021 memoir, “Broken: Dedication Will Never Be Enough,” also blasted the hiring.
“What disturbs me about him having such a position is that there are decent correction officers who were fired for trying to do the right thing and here’s an individual who took pride and boasted about being corrupt,” Monclova said. “In spite of that, the city still allows him to soar.”
A press officer for Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a sponsor of the Fair Chance Act back in 2015, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.