A detainee died on Rikers Island Sunday, marking the 14th demise in New York Metropolis jails this yr.
The person, whose identify was not instantly launched, died after a metropolis correction officer observed he “appeared unwell” in his cell within the jail’s Otis Bantum Correctional Heart facility about 2 a.m., a Correction Division official stated in an announcement.
The officer declared a medical emergency and the jail’s medical workers, adopted by EMS medics, arrived to work on the person. He died at 3:15 a.m. at Mount Sinai Queens, Correction Division officers stated.
“The Division is mourning the tragic demise of a person in our custody,” Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie stated in an announcement. “We prolong our deepest condolences to his family and friends. The security of everybody in our care is at all times our foremost concern, and we’ll absolutely examine this tragedy.”
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Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Every day Information
The primary entrance of the Otis Bantum Correctional Heart on Rikers Island.
One other Otis Bantum detainee, 50-year-old Edwin Ramos, died in custody on Nov. 21. Ramos, who was being held on $80,000 bond since August in a housebreaking case, was discovered was in medical misery in a rest room and brought to the jail’s medical clinic 20 minutes later, the Division of Correction stated in an announcement on the time.
He died in a close-by hospital simply hours earlier than a scheduled courtroom look the place he deliberate to take a plea deal “that might have allowed him to start rebuilding his life exterior of jail,” in line with the Authorized Help Society.
This yr is the deadliest the town jails have seen since 2022, the primary yr of the Adams administration, when 19 detainees died in metropolis custody. 9 died in 2024, 5 in 2023, and 16 in 2021, the ultimate yr of Mayor Invoice de Blasio’s tenure.
The Board of Correction launched a scathing report Nov. 5 detailing a collection of breakdowns that contributed to the primary 5 deaths of 2025, reporting failures that included medical workers not being instantly notified, cell doorways not safe, and officers who inexplicably wandered off publish, didn’t conduct rounds and made inaccurate logbook entries.
The demise additionally comes because the events in a long-running federal class motion lawsuit are awaiting Manhattan Federal Choose Laura Taylor Swain’s number of an out of doors supervisor to take over administration of key components of the jail system from the town.
The 2011 lawsuit alleges the town failed to handle violence and workers use of power within the system. Swain dominated the town was in contempt of courtroom orders within the case a yr in the past and dominated in Could in favor of an out of doors supervisor.
The town has been within the strategy of elevating potential attraction points within the case, arguing Swain overreached her authority and claiming progress has been made in enhancing security within the jails.
With Graham Rayman
