Another Rikers Island death: Man succumbs after reported seizure; third in-custody death at facility in two weeks

A man died in custody at Rikers Island on Wednesday night after suffering what appeared to be a seizure, the city’s Department of Correction said. He is the 12th person to die in city custody this year and the fifth in the past two weeks, prompting a new round of outrage from advocates who want the correctional facility closed.

Correction Department officers at the George R. Vierno Center responded to a medical emergency at 7:49 p.m. on Sept. 3, according to the DOC. Medical staff and emergency services attempted to revive the man, but he was pronounced dead at 8:35 p.m.

“The department has tragically lost a person in our custody. We share our deepest sympathies with his loved ones. Every aspect of this incident will be investigated,” correction commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said in a statement.

Officials said the agency notified the federal monitor, the Board of Correction, the state attorney general’s office, the city Department of Investigation, the state Commission of Correction, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, and the city’s district attorneys.

The man’s name has not been released.

Rikers IslandFile photo/Dean Moses

The Sept. 3 death follows the case of 44-year-old Jimmy Avila, who died last week after an apparent medical emergency at the West Facility on Rikers Island. Another person incarcerated at Rikers died in custody on Aug. 23.

On Aug. 29, a 46-year-old man being held at Brooklyn Criminal Court was discovered unresponsive and later pronounced dead. A pedicab driver also died that day while in custody at the Midtown South Precinct.

In June, Rikers saw two people die in custody within about an hour of each other.

‘What’s it going to take?’

Tina Luongo, chief attorney of the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society, called the recent deaths in NYPD and DOC custody part of a broader systemic failure, saying City Hall has shown no indication it plans to address the crisis.

“There has been no acknowledgment of its systemic nature, no commitment to reform, and no vision for change,” said Luongo. “Instead, grieving families and defense counsel are met with obfuscation, while the City scrambles to cover its own failures rather than confront them.”

A statement from Freedom Agenda, an organization that supports decarceration, highlighted that 45 people have died in custody since Mayor Eric Adams took office and again called for Rikers’ closure alongside other justice advocates.

“Mayor Adams, how many more New Yorkers have to die at Rikers before you take action?” Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda, said in a statement. “Inaction and silence in the face of this humanitarian crisis is not only unacceptable, it is deadly. New York cannot allow this cycle of suffering to continue — the time for decarceration and the closure of Rikers is now.”

A 2019 city law requires Rikers Island to shut down by 2027, but whether that deadline will be met remains uncertain. The city has not completed construction of the four borough-based jails intended to replace the complex, and those projects have faced strong community opposition. In May, a federal judge ordered the appointment of an independent remediation manager to take over their operations.

Chief U.S. Judge Laura Taylor Swain set Aug. 29 as the deadline for all parties involved in the case to provide her a list of four recommended managers for her consideration to take on the role that is fully independent of the city and federal governments.

Jerome Wright, co-director of the HALT Solitary Campaign and a former Rikers inmate, said in a statement that “the only answer is to free people, close these deathtrap jails, and build a system of equal justice that promotes healing and safety, not torture, despair, and death.”

“What’s it going to take? Five people have died in custody in the last two weeks,” Wright said. “Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul have doubled down on a racist system to lock up more and more people and leave them to die. The jail population has spiked by 33% since Mayor Adams took office. Sadly, they have had willing partners in local prosecutors and judges.”

In response to the criticism of the Adams administration, a spokesperson for the mayor acknowledged that “even one death in custody is one too many” but pointed to the “progress” made by Adams “in addressing the decades of neglect that created the systemic issues we inherited on Rikers Island” — including reducing violence, hiring staff, and expanding mental health services.

“The safety and well-being of every person in our custody is our top priority, and these recent tragedies are being thoroughly investigated,” said Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office. “Mayor Adams remains committed to investing in mental health services, providing humane conditions for those in our care, and pursuing upstream solutions to keep New Yorkers out of the criminal justice system wherever possible.”

Melanie Dominguez, organizing director at the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, called the most recent death at Rikers “horrible” and argued the crisis “is getting worse.”

Dominguez said appointing a remediation manager to take over Rikers is a “necessary step,” but the process is too slow while “people are suffering and dying.”

She urged Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a corrections oversight bill passed in June that would expand the State Commission of Correction’s authority.

“Lives are at stake and the crisis is only getting worse,” Dominguez said. “This is not the time to delay.”