A Rikers Island detainee housed in the jail’s medical unit died after he was rushed to a Queens hospital Tuesday morning, the Department of Correction announced.
The 63-year-old man was found inside moved from the North Infirmary Command on Rikers to Mount Sinai Hospital in Astoria at approximately 5:22 a.m., according to jail records.
He was pronounced dead about an hour later, said DOC spokesperson Patrick Rocchio, who noted the incident would be reviewed by multiple oversight bodies.
THE CITY is withholding the man’s name pending his family’s notification.
Rocchio did not detail why the detainee was held in the medical unit or if he was involved in any altercations while incarcerated. A preliminary internal incident report obtained by THE CITY indicated there were two “staff involved injuries.”
It was the fifth death behind city bars this year so far, after nine in 2023, 19 in 2022 and 16 in 2021.
Thr fatality comes as Mayor Eric Adams simultaneously contends that jail reforms are taking hold so there’s no need for a court-appointed takeover — while also signing an emergency executive order to block most of the legislation to strictly limit the use of solitary.
“Rikers has claimed another life, and yet another family is grieving today,” said Darren Mack, the co-director of the Freedom Agenda, a nonprofit pushing to close the troubled jail. “And still, the mayor continues his cruel campaign to arrest and jail more of neighbors, subject them to more abuse and neglect on Rikers, and stall its long-overdue closure.”
The detainee had been held on Rikers since April when he was charged with murder, records show.
He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on April 10, court records show. He has been held without bail since his arrest, according to the court documents.
His death Rikers will be reviewed by Steve Martin, a federal monitor overseeing the department since 2015. It will also be investigated by the state Attorney General’s Office, the state Commission of Correction, the city’s Department of Investigation, the city’s Board of Correction, and Bragg’s office.
The Correction Department announced his death via a press release sent to reporters who asked to be put on an internal roster.
The department has started to once again notify the press after deaths in custody after THE CITY highlighted how former DOC Commissioner Louis Molina suddenly stopped that practice in May 2023.
Preventable Deaths?
Earlier this summer, 23-year-old detainee Charizma Jones died July 14 after she was transported to Presbyterian Burn Center in Manhattan.
Correction Department officers in May blocked medical staff from checking out a rash she had over much of her body inside the Rose M. Singer Center, the Daily News reported citing medical records
Another Rikers detainee, Roy Savage, 51, died of cancer inside the Bellevue Hospital jail ward on March 22, according to city records.
And Chima Williams, 43, died from a heart attack while he was playing basketball in a Rikers jail on Jan. 4, according to the city Medical Examiner’s Office and an initial death review report from the Board of Correction.
The first detainee to die this year was Manuel Luna, a 30-year-old who was found “unresponsive” inside his cell at the George R. Vierno Center on Jan. 19, BOC records show. His cause of death has still not been revealed.
Luna’s time behind bars was marred with fights and mental health breakdowns, according to the initial death review report by the Board of Correction.
During a mental health screening, Luna told medical staff he had having “an extensive mental health history that includes a suicide attempt, current thoughts of wanting to harm or kill himself, and feeling hopeless,” according to the report.
“He also reported a history of post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia, spending time in a psychiatric hospital, and receiving mental health treatment in the community before his arrest,” the BOC review said.
Initially, he was placed in a mental health observation unit where he was checked on every 15 minutes by officers.
Despite having been involved in 10 fights since his incarceration on Oct. 5, on the day of his death Luna was transferred to a general population cell without a mattress, according to the BOC report.
Additionally, medical records show he missed eight visits to a jail clinic for methadone treatment because correction officers failed to escort him, the death review said.
Correction officers also did not bring him to three on-site telehealth cardiology appointments, records show.
Jail officials have long struggled with bringing detainees to medical appointments. Last month, the Legal Aid Society argued in court that the DOC should be held in contempt for failing to fix the problem and blaming detainees for missing scheduled visits.
The public defender groups want the judge overseeing the case to fine the DOC $250 for every missed visit.
