Rikers detainee dies: William Johnstone becomes sixth person in DOC custody to die this year
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William Johnstone, a 47-year-old who was detained at Rikers Island, died in Department of Correction custody on Saturday, July 15, 2023. AP file photo by Seth Wenig
By Jacob Kaye
For the sixth time this year and the third time in as many weeks, a person in the Department of Correction’s custody has died.
William Johnstone, 47, was found unresponsive in the cell he was being held in on Rikers Island around 1:50 p.m. on Saturday, according to the Department of Correction.
Johnstone, who had been in DOC custody for nearly four months, was taken to Mount Sinai Queens, where he was pronounced dead around two hours after originally being found.
The detainee’s cause of death has yet to be determined.
According to reporting by the Daily News, Johnstone was given three doses of the overdose-prevention drug Narcan after being found. He also was given two EpiPen doses and CPR, according to the Daily News.
The medical examiner is currently investigating Johnstone’s cause of death.
Johnstone is the fifth Rikers detainee and the sixth person in the correction department’s custody to die this year. He is also the 25th person to die in DOC custody since the start of 2022, the year Mayor Eric Adams and DOC Commissioner Louis Molina took control of the troubled agency. Last year, 19 people died in the city’s jail, a 10-year high.
New York County Defender Services and Brooklyn Defender Services, who represented Johnstone, said in a statement that they were “angered and saddened that the Department of Correction’s failure to protect the health and safety of people in its custody has resulted in the death of yet another New Yorker.”
“We are devastated by the death of William Johnstone, who died on Saturday after being incarcerated at Rikers Island on unaffordable bail since late March,” the public defense firms said. “We mourn his passing alongside his loved ones and all who are affected by his death.”
“It is abhorrent that twenty-five New Yorkers have lost their lives in DOC custody since the beginning of 2022,” they added. “We cannot allow the suffering and death to continue, and we demand DOC be held accountable.”
The public defender firms pointed to the recent spate of deaths in DOC custody as well as a string of reports from several court-appointed monitors that detail poor conditions inside the city’s notorious jail complex.
In light of the reports, New York County Defender Services and Brooklyn Defender Services blasted the city’s prosecutors and judges for continuing to send New Yorkers to Rikers Island despite the deaths and dangerous conditions. They also called on the city’s officials to work to lower the jail’s population, which currently has a little over 6,000 people.
“Despite the widely-known dangerous and deadly conditions, prosecutors and judges continue to condemn people to Rikers Island pre-trial on unaffordable bail, and NYC continues to criminalize poverty and mental illness,” the public defense firms said. “Before another life is lost, every judge, every prosecutor, every elected official must take decisive action to reduce the jail population on Rikers Island.”
Johnstone’s death is only the latest tragedy in what has become an acute moment for the DOC and the city.
Last week, Steve J. Martin, the court-appointed federal monitor in the civil rights case Nunez v. the City of New York, told a federal judge that he believed the city should be held in contempt of court for failing to make conditions safer on Rikers Island.
Martin’s report outlined a general distrust of the Department of Correction and it’s ability and willingness to improve conditions in the jail where over three dozen people have died in the past three years.
“The ongoing harm and lack of safety in the facilities cannot continue unabated,” the report reads. “The city’s and department’s on-going failure to implement initiatives to improve the underlying security deficiencies and failed operational practices, coupled with the city and department’s unwillingness and inability to acknowledge the myriad of issues, disturbing regression to address core issues of the Nunez Court Orders, and the lack of urgency to address these matters has become normalized.”
Six people have died in Department of Correction custody this year. Last year, 19 people died, more than any single year in the past decade. Eagle file photo by Jacob Kaye
“Real people are experiencing real trauma and pain and, in some cases, are suffering irreparable injuries and death,” the monitor added.
Despite having previously accused Molina of making the DOC less transparent, Martin’s report issued last week amounted to the strongest condemnation the monitor has made against the Adams administration in the past year and a half.
In addition to urging federal Judge Laura Swain to initiate contempt proceedings, Martin makes reference to “additional remedial relief,” which he said are “necessary in order to implement the requirements of the Nunez Court Orders and catalyze the substantive changes required to protect the safety and welfare of the many people held in custody and who work in the jails.”
Such additional relief could include the installation of a federal receivership – a court order that could result in the management of Rikers Island being stripped from the city and be handed over to a court-appointed authority.
Less than a month ago, Swain said that she would allow for steps to be taken toward receivership beginning in August, the next scheduled conference in the Nunez case.
It is not the first time federal receivership has made its way into the case – but it has yet to be as seriously considered as it appears to be being considered currently. Last year, attorneys with the Legal Aid Society, who represent the plaintiff class in the case, attempted to begin receivership proceedings, only to be rejected by Swain, who instead ordered the DOC and monitor to craft and implement an “action plan” to improve conditions on Rikers Island.
Though Martin was supportive of the plan after it was crafted and at several points last year during its implementation, the monitor said in his recent report that the plan hasn’t been nearly as effective as anticipated.
“The monitor’s assessment is that there has not been a substantial reduction in the risk of harm currently facing incarcerated individuals and department staff,” the monitor said in the report, issued around a year after the action plan’s implementation.
“An assessment of the totality of the circumstances after eight years of monitoring and after one year of the action plan’s implementation is such that the cautious optimism that characterized prior reports and testimony can no longer be maintained,” the monitor added.
Both Molina and the mayor are staunchly opposed to the implementation of a receiver.
During an unrelated press conference on Monday, the mayor defended Molina’s leadership over the agency and the jails.
“In spite of what people are attempting to say, he’s doing a goddamn good job,” Adams said.
