WATCH: Instagram Video Posted By Prisoner Jailed In Manhattan 'Tombs'

CHINATOWN, NY — A video posted from an inmate's Instagram page was taken while he and the other men in the video were locked up at the Manhattan Detention Complex known as the Tombs, located on White Street between Baxton and Centre streets, sources told PIX11 News.

The clip (below), which features four men, was posted on Normin McKenny's Instagram on Dec. 19 and has since gotten more than 17,000 views.

In the clip, the men, wearing beige jail uniforms, laugh about how they're filming from inside jail. One of the men can be heard saying "Tomb Life."

Warning: Harsh language throughout the video.

DOC records show that McKenny was arrested on Oct. 14, 2016, and charged with robbery, assault and possession of a weapon. He was taken to Rikers Island, the NYC jail site notorious for corruption and violence. At some point, though, he seems to have been moved to the Tombs, the Manhattan jail complex at 125 White St. that generally houses low-security inmates awaiting trial.

According to PIX11, a correction officer found the video on Instagram and notified a supervisor. After searching the cell, officers reportedly found two cell phones, a charger, four SIM cards, a blade and a homemade shank.

After that discovery, the four men were transferred to Rikers Island.

According to PIX11, the correction officers' union and DOC are calling for body scanners like the ones at airports in order to fight the influx of contraband.

Neither the Correction Officer Benevolent Association nor DOC immediately responded to a request for comment.

Yet Glenn E. Martin, the president and founder of JustLeadershipUSA, who served time in Rikers and the Tombs in the 1990s, has a different take.

"I think it's ironic that the most likely suspect for bringing the contraband into the facility is asking for more surveillance," he tells Patch.

"Corrections officers have brought in more contraband than inmates have. That irony doesn't get lost. As someone who has served time in the Tombs and Rikers [in the early 1990s], a cellphone is not the easiest thing to smuggle in during a visit. I'm not suggesting that things don't get smuggled in, but smuggling in drugs is a lot easier than smuggling in an iPhone. I'm supportive of the correction officer's union caring about the safety of guards and the safety of detainees, but I think they have to hold their members equally accountable for contraband as they do the people serving time. The data tells us they're equally responsible."

Mark Peters, the commissioner for the NYC Department of Investigation, told the New York Times in 2014, “Given the extent of smuggling that we know goes on [in Rikers] and given what we know about what’s coming in from visitors, a lot of stuff has to be coming in from guards and employees because this stuff doesn’t magically appear.”

According to the New York Times, investigators said that "a large proportion" of the illegal trafficking in NYC jails is carried out by uniformed guards and civilian employees.

Regardless of who brought in the phone used to take the Instagram video, Martin says that the incident speaks to the culture at a jail "that is sorely lacking in programming or opportunities, including introducing people to technology."

"I think what's happening here is a clear indication that as much as we're going to try to keep technology out of jails, it's ubiquitous out here, so what's going to make people think they're not going to try to have it in there?"

Rather than spend more money on surveillance (in 2012 and 2013 the DOC spent $1.2 million on new X-ray machines on Rikers that they cannot use due to NY State law), "DOC should try to incorporate technology into giving [incarcerated] people skills while they're in jail."

As to the decision to send the four men in the video back to Rikers, Martin says that "as horrible as the conditions are at the detention facility — it's such an old building — it is much safer than Rikers Island. The idea that they sent the guys to Rikers as a response...They sent them there to be punished...All these stories that are coming out of Rikers — it's really life-threatening there. I'm not sure that putting someone in a life-threatening situation is the best way to deal with this."

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Image via Creative Commons