Man dies on Rikers, first death this year
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A 65-year-old detainee died on Rikers Island on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, marking the first detainee death of the year. Eagle file photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
An elderly man died on Rikers Island over the weekend, marking the first time an incarcerated individual has died in the troubled jail facility this year.
Department of Correction officials announced that Marvin Pines, a 65-year-old man held in the jail facility reserved for ill detainees, died early on Saturday morning.
Pines allegedly suffered a seizure and was found dead inside a shower area in the North Infirmary Command building, multiple outlets reported.
His cause of death has yet to be determined and is currently under investigation by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Pines, who was being held in the jail on $25,000 cash bail, first entered Rikers over the summer. He was arrested and charged for allegedly selling drugs in Manhattan several months prior to his detainment on Rikers.
Pines was due back in court for sentencing later this month after he pleaded guilty to the charges in November. He was expected to be sentenced to a year in prison and an additional year of post-release supervision.
“Any death in custody is a tragedy,” Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina said in a statement. “We sincerely send our deepest condolences and sympathy to Mr. Pines’ family and loved ones.”
“As with all deaths in custody, we are working with our partner agencies to conduct a full investigation,” the commissioner added.
Pines is the first person to die in the jail facility in 2023 and the 20th person to die while in the DOC’s custody – or just after being released from their custody – since Mayor Eric Adams and Molina took office.
The 19 people who died last year were the most to die in the jail complex since 2013.
The spate of deaths last year and the mounting of additional crises on Rikers that came to a head during the pandemic led advocates, attorneys and lawmakers to call on federal judge Laura Swain to strip the city of its control of the jail – in a process known as federal receivership – last year. Though the request was ultimately denied, the motion can again be brought in the spring, Swain ruled.
Advocates and lawmakers have charged that Adams and Molina have not taken the necessary actions to keep Rikers detainees safe. Under the Adams administration, the jail’s population has grown from around 5,100 detainees to 5,800.
The growth in the population is in direct conflict with the city’s plan to close Rikers Island as a jail complex by 2027. Under the plan, which both Molina and Adams have called into question, four borough-based jails would be opened as a replacement for Rikers Island. Together, the jails would be able to hold a little more than 3,000 detainees.
The rising population has also prevented the Department of Correction from transferring over unused facilities or land to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services every six months, as it is mandated to do by the Renewable Rikers Act.
The DOC missed the past two deadlines to transfer facilities or land, including the most recent deadline in December.
Last year, the city also faced several lawsuits over its treatment of detainees, including one that accused the DOC of failing to provide medical care to its incarcerated population.
The city was ordered to pay out approximately $200,000 in fines failing to bring detainees to their medical appointments. In December, a new legal action was brought demanding the city pay up to $3 million in fines to individual detainees after attorneys with the Legal Aid Society said medical care issues persisted.
At the heart of the missed appointments is the DOC’s staffing shortage, officials say.
Around 12 percent of the agency’s officers per day take sick leave, according to recent data from the city’s comptroller’s office. Additionally, the agency has lost around 1 percent of its uniformed staff in the past year, the comptroller’s office says.
It is unclear whether or not staff were present at the time of Pines’ medical emergency.
Advocates condemned city officials this week following Pines’ death.
“Martin Pines was killed by a criminal legal system that has no regard for human life – from police, to courts, to DOC,” said Darren Mack, the co-executive director of Freedom Agenda. “At 65 years old, he was sent to a penal colony that is utterly failing to provide medical care or safety for anyone.”
“Mayor Adams wants New Yorkers to look away from these tragedies by telling us that people held at Rikers are ‘bad people’ but we know Mr. Pines was a human being, he should be alive, and our city failed him,” Mack added. “Dozens of families are grieving the loss of their loved ones in the custody of this city, and the mayor is still encouraging judges and prosecutors to send more people to this death camp, instead of investing in solutions for real community safety.”
