A Rikers Island correction officer was attacked by an inmate last month — and is now calling for prisoners to face more serious punishments for sexually assaulting guards, The Post has learned.

The guard, a 52-year-old mom from Queens, was among more than a dozen city correction officers who were the victims of sex-attacks by inmates last year, according to data from the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

In her case, a prisoner identified in jail paperwork as Joseph Cochran allegedly slapped her in the rear end so hard it “pulled me off my feet,” said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her privacy.

“I was so stunned and shaken at the same time. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before,” she recently told The Post about the Dec. 18 incident in a housing area at the lockup.

“I was so baffled,” she said. “It took me a minute to wrap my mind around what just happened. I felt very violated. I’ve experienced inmates showing their private parts, yelling obscenities. But no one ever actually touched me.”

Cochran, who stands 6 feet tall and weighs 220 pounds, was busted in July 2021 on burglary charges after allegedly breaking into a woman’s Midtown Manhattan apartment, records show. He barged into her bedroom before her friend came into the unit and pushed him out, police said.

“I was going to rape her,” he allegedly admitted to the police officer who arrested him, according to a criminal complaint against him.

Cochran was charged with forcible touching, a misdemeanor, for the attack on the correction officer. If convicted on the burglary charge, the other rap could affect his possible sentence. 

But the CO likened the charge to a slap on the wrist — and said she wanted to take her story public to try to make sure inmates face more serious punishment.

“I need them to have these guys have some form of punishment,” she said. “It’s not right. We don’t come to work to be assaulted.” 

At least 43 women COs have reported being assaulted by inmates since January 2021, 25 that year and 18 in 2022, COBA spokesman Mike Skelly said.

“The fact that there’s more than a few happening and there’s zero consequences shows that it’s a problem,” Skelly told The Post. “Treating them as misdemeanors rather than felonies means there’s no deterrence and they know they can get away with this.”  

About 48% of COs are women, the union said. 

New York Councilwoman Adrienne Adams, whose mom was a CO, introduced a resolution in 2021 calling on state lawmakers to make sexually assaulting a jail guard a felony. But the resolution was not re-introduced last year when Adams became council speaker.

Former state Sen. Diane Savino, who served from 2005 through last year, introduced legislation in Albany that would have made sex assault on COs a felony, but that bill wasn’t passed.

The union head said he was tired of the inaction.

“More than thirty of our officers have been sexually assaulted since 2021 and yet instead of passing legislation introduced by Senator Diane Savino that would make these crimes a felony, instead of a misdemeanor, Albany lawmakers have voted to make themselves the highest paid legislators in the nation,” Boscio said.

“They should not reward themselves for failing to hold the sexual predators in our jails accountable for their crimes.”

His union also put two female COs who were sexually abused at the jail in a radio ad asking the city council to bring back solitary confinement last year. 

Savino said she didn’t seek re-election to join the Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, but promised the legislation would be reintroduced by her successor, state Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton.

“From the mayor’s side, it’s going to be one of the issues that we’re going to add to our agenda in Albany because we cannot continue to see the women who show up everyday to work in our correctional facilities be sexually assaulted and sexually harassed with impunity,” she said.

The CO who was slapped in the rear said another woman jail guard who previously had her privates groped by an inmate consoled her and helped her file a report.

She said she was in pain but didn’t seek medical care.

“It was hurting,” said the officer, who stands 5-foot-3. “To be honest with you, I think I was in so much shock. It was a harder slap, like how you slap a horse to giddy up. He’s a big guy,”

The CO said she’s fed up by the sexual assault and harassment she and her female colleagues endure.

“We’ve got to make this something serious because this is something we go through every day,” she said.