The private company that delivers health care to inmates on Rikers Island failed to appropriately screen its own employees, hiring doctors and health care workers with disciplinary problems and criminal histories. 

That's according to a new city report, which also faulted city agencies for failing to run basic checks or adequately supervise employees of Corizon Health Inc.

Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters said only about half of Corizon’s staff were properly vetted.

“We determined that Corizon failed to adequately background employees, resulting in 8 mental health staff with prior criminal records including 2nd degree murder and drug possession, to say nothing of the kidnapper who had spent 13 years in jail for kidnapping,” he said.

The DOI’s investigation discovered the former kidnapping felon’s record after he tried to sneak a straight razor into Rikers.

The report found that Corizon improperly removed inmates from suicide watch. Two of those inmates later killed themselves, including a 17-year-old boy, according to the report.

Peters said not only Corizon staff but also city clerks and even leadership within the Department of Correction were part of the “total breakdown” on running background checks for Rikers health care staff.

“It turns out that a DOC deputy commissioner allowed 658 fingerprint cards to pile up in envelopes on a desk outside his office without ever sending them to be fingerprinted,” he said.

Corizon released a statement disputing the city’s claims. “We remain extremely proud of our employees on Rikers Island and throughout the criminal justice system, and we are committed to cooperating with the city to ensure a seamless transition that puts our patients first,” the response stated.

The city is dropping Corizon after a year of scrutiny over the high-profile deaths of mentally ill inmates. The city's public hospital system will start providing health care at Rikers when Corizon’s contract concludes at the end of the year.