A detainee died at Rikers Island on Sunday, marking the 14th death in New York City jails this year.
The man, whose name was not immediately released, died after a city corrections officer noticed he “seemed fine” in his jail cell. Otis Bantom Correctional Center The facility around 2 a.m., a Department of Corrections official said in a statement.
The officer declared a medical emergency and jail medical staff arrived, followed by EMS doctors, to work on the man. He died at 3:15 a.m. in Mount Sinai Queens, Department of Corrections officials said.
“The Department is mourning the tragic death of an individual in our custody,” Corrections Commissioner Lynelle McGinley Liddy said in a statement. “We extend our deepest condolences to his friends and family. The safety of everyone in our care is always our first concern, and we will fully investigate this tragedy.”
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Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News The main entrance to Otis Bantom Correctional Center on Rikers Island.
Another Otis Bantum detainee, Edwin Ramos, 50, died in custody on November 21. Ramos, who had been held on $80,000 bail since August in a burglary case, was found in medical distress in a bathroom and was taken to the prison medical clinic 20 minutes later, the Department of Corrections said in a statement at the time.
He died at a nearby hospital just hours before his scheduled court appearance where he had intended to accept a plea deal “that would have allowed him to begin rebuilding his life outside of prison,” according to the Legal Aid Society.
this year The deadliest Since 2022, the first year of the Adams administration, the city’s jails have seen 19 detainees die in city custody. Nine died in 2024, five in 2023, and 16 in 2021, the final year of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s term.
The Board of Correction released a scathing report Nov. 5 detailing a series of malfunctions that contributed to the first five deaths of 2025, reporting failures that included not notifying medical staff immediately, unsecured cell doors, officers who inexplicably wandered off-site, did not conduct rounds and made inaccurate log book entries.
The death also comes as the federalists have long been bipartisan Class action lawsuit They are waiting for Manhattan federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain to select an outside director to take over key elements of the prison system from the city.
The 2011 lawsuit alleges the city failed to address violence and employee use of force in the system. Swain ruled the city was in contempt of court orders in the case a year ago and ruled in May in favor of an outside manager.
The city was in the process of raising potential appeal issues in the case, arguing that Swain exceeded her authority and claiming progress had been made in improving safety in the jails.
With Graham Ryman