Yet another incarcerated man has died while in custody on Rikers Island.
Gilberto Garcia, 26, died on Oct. 31 while in custody at the Anna M. Kross Center (AMKC), a facility on Rikers Island, according to the Department of Corrections (DOC). Garcia was placed in DOC custody following a first-degree robbery charge on Nov. 2, 2019.
He was pronounced dead at the jail at 12:50 p.m. Monday afternoon, the department reported.
“We send our deepest condolences to Mr. Garcia’s loved ones and family at this difficult time. As with every death that occurs in custody, we will conduct a preliminary investigation into the cause and circumstances,” said DOC Commissioner Louis A. Molina.
Garcia’s death marks the eighteenth death in DOC custody this year. Just last week, Rikers Island inmate Erick Tavira took his own life while in custody in the island’s George R. Vierno Center, and it was reported that two other former Corrections inmates died this year after the DOC granted them compassionate release.
“I don’t know if Mayor Adams realizes that every time this happens, every time I learn that another mother is mourning their child who died on Rikers, it’s like a punch in the gut. How many more families have to suffer this heartbreak before he does something? The mayor said he wants to “close the pipeline that feeds Rikers” but what has he done? The time is now. New York City is sending people struggling with addiction and mental illness to die in jail, and it makes me embarrassed to be a New Yorker,” said Freedom Agenda member Tamara Carter, whose son Brandon Rodriguez died on Rikers Island last year.
All deaths in custody are investigated by the State Attorney General’s Office and the NYC Department of Investigation. The cause of Garcia’s death is under investigation by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
