An officer at Rikers Island was suspended after the most recent death of a person in custody — part of a rising death toll that has prompted New York Attorney General Letitia James to join calls for a takeover of the city’s troubled jails complex.
Manish Kunwar – a 27-year-old who suffered mental health issues – died in a mental observation unit on Rikers Island on Oct. 5. He was the ninth person to die in Department of Correction custody this year.
In a report on Kunwar’s death sent on Oct. 13 to the NYC Board of Correction – the city jails oversight agency – investigators for the board said there was no suicide prevention expert working the night Kunwar died, and the officer on duty failed to check for signs of life every 15 minutes, as required.
The AG’s call — detailed in a letter Friday — and the recent death report are part of a steadily growing call from multiple layers of government to wrest control of Rikers Island from the city and hand it over to an independent third-party. In total, 28 DOC detainees have died since Mayor Eric Adams was inaugurated in January 2022, and the city’s jail system had its highest detainee death rate in a quarter-century last year. That’s in addition to numerous reports of violence, drug smuggling and shoddy supervision of people detained at the complex.
When correction officers went to deliver breakfast to Kunwar just after 5:30 a.m., they realized he’d covered his cell window with a piece of fabric, and entered his cell to find him unresponsive, face-down on the bed, the report says. Staff did CPR and administered Narcan before pronouncing Kunwar dead. His cause of death had not been determined at the time.
An officer was suspended and a captain put on modified duty due to an internal investigation into the death, according to the report, issued five days after Kunwar’s death, which was provided to Gothamist through a Freedom of Information Law request.
Meanwhile, James’ office wrote a letter to Manhattan Federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain Friday throwing its support behind a recent motion to put Rikers Island into federal receivership, and specifically calling out the city’s failure to safely supervise detainees.
“The [Office of the Attorney General] supports receivership as the way forward for the good of all the people who live and work in the NYC jails,” the letter states.
James has raised concerns about conditions for years at Rikers — predating Adams’ mayoralty — but this is the first time her office has publicly called for federal receivership.
The Legal Aid Society formally kicked off legal arguments for receivership on Nov. 17 with a motion asking for control of Rikers Island to be yanked from the city and given to an independent third-party.
James’ office backs the motion, according to its Friday letter. A federal receiver is now “needed” because the Department of Correction is “unable to maintain a safe and secure environment for people in its custody,” said the letter signed by assistant attorneys general Louisa Irving and Lois Saldana.
“Unstaffed posts, failure to conduct rounds, and failure to render prompt first aid were persistent problems identified in our investigations,” the letter states. “These failures are unacceptable and are a result of the DOC’s inability to provide the most basic requirement for running a jail — direct supervision.”
The office pointed to its own investigations into deaths on Rikers Island, which echo the findings of the report into Kunwar’s death.
Investigators at the attorney general’s office found that Esias Johnson, 24, died on Rikers Island on Sep. 7, 2021 of a methadone overdose after correction officers failed to check on him every 30 minutes as required.
Mary Yehudah died on May 18, 2022 of severe diabetic ketoacidosis after officers failed to conduct their rounds as required the night before her death, James’ investigators found, adding that people housed near her said she was moaning loudly that night.
Dashawn Carter died by suicide on Rikers on May 7, 2022. Carter had also covered the window of his cell, and correction officers failed to conduct “many of their tours,” the letter states.
The federal government is also pushing for a takeover of New York City jails. If appointed by the court, a receiver would have far-reaching powers to improve safety conditions for detainees and staff.
The Adams administration will fight receivership, NYC Law Department spokesperson Nick Paolucci said Saturday in a statement.
“This administration has made progress in many areas to address the deeply rooted problems at Rikers that have existed for generations,” he said. “We are committed to building upon that work and we do not believe a receivership is the solution to fixing the city’s jail system and we are prepared to fight this in court.”
#Rikers #officer #suspended #detainee #death #joins #calls #federal #takeover
