Former graffiti vandal to head Rikers Island jail

Spray it ain't so!

A notorious graffiti vandal from the 1970s who blighted the city by tagging buildings and subways is now a Department of Correction warden overseeing the largest jail on Rikers Island, sources told The Post.

In May, Turhan Gumusdere, 53, was promoted by DOC Commissioner Joseph Ponte to the top spot at the Anna M. Kross Center — even though Ponte knew about his past, sources said.

The DOC even wrote a post on its official Web site, boasting that Gumusdere was a "street artist" known as "Trike1," who recently donated one of his works to the Horticulture Society of New York's silent auction.

"He has graffitied the city since the 1970s causing lots of damage," said one correction source. "He is infamous in the urban art scene and even the DOC is aware that he is a graffiti vandal, and yet they promoted him."

Gumusdere, who makes $170,000 a year, told The Post almost every "young kid" in the '70s was tagging the city's subways and walls.

"As a teenager, there was a huge wave of kids writing on the walls. I did write my name here and there, but now I am an established artist," Gumusdere said.

The warden said his artwork is displayed in museums and galleries in New York, LA and Paris.

"I have also donated my work to Rikers Island for the benefit of the inmates," Gumusdere noted, adding, "The '70's was 40 years ago. I don't do anything illegal now."

But the correction source said Ponte shouldn't let Gumusdere off so easily.

"It makes Ponte look like a joke and the DOC look like they hire perps," the source said.

The New York Times reported last month that Gumusdere fudged the department's crime statistics by omitting hundreds of fights among inmates while he was a deputy warden in 2011.

City investigators determined that Gumusdere and Warden William Clemons should have been demoted by then-Commissioner Dora Schiro, but they weren't, the paper said.

Ponte took over this year and elevated Clemons to chief of the department while also promoting Gumusdere. Clemons recently retired.

The DOC did not immediately return a call for comment.

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