Yet another inmate died on Rikers Island early Monday morning, June 20, according to city corrections officials — the seventh fatality at the facility in 2022.
The incarcerated man died at the George R. Vierno Center, which houses detained and sentenced men, just after 1:30 a.m., and his passing marks the seventh death in Department of Correction custody this year.
The agency did not release more information about the deceased until officials can notify his designated contact.
The cause of death is also still under investigation until it can be confirmed by the city’s Chief Medical Examiner.
“We are saddened to hear of the passing of this individual. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones,” said DOC Commissioner Louis Molina in a statement Monday. “Every person in our custody is someone’s son, daughter, brother or sister, and it is an especially heartbreaking tragedy to learn that a loved one has passed away while incarcerated.”
A federal judge last week rejected federal takeover of Rikers Island and approved of Mayor Eric Adams’s “action plan” to improve conditions at the beleaguered jail complex.
The city closed down one of the facilities on the island known as the Otis Bantum Correctional Facility amid staffing issues last week, the New York Post reported.
One formerly incarcerated activist slammed the city, saying officials should have closed down Rikers Island long ago and must work to get people out of the jails.
“As the Department of Correction generates plans to create plans, New Yorkers continue to suffer and die in their custody. Rikers should have closed long ago, and by now, judges, prosecutors, and all elected officials know that no one is safe there,” said Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, a project against mass incarceration by the Urban Justice Center.
“We need immediate decarceration, like the effort we saw at the beginning of COVID-19, with action from judges, prosecutors, and the DOC Commissioner with the support of the mayor. Without that, they are choosing to let people die,” Mack added.
A spokesperson for the mayor referred a request for comment back to Commissioner Molina.
