Rikers deaths continue to mount
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Dashawn Jenkins, a 27-year-old, on Monday became the fifth person to die in – or shortly after being released from – Department of Correction custody this year. AP file photo by Ted Shaffrey
By Jacob Kaye
The Department of Correction’s death toll continued to climb at a rapid rate this week after a 27-year-old died on Rikers Island on Monday night after allegedly suffering from a medical emergency.
Dashawn Jenkins became the fifth person to die either in DOC custody or having just been released from it this year on Monday.
Three months into the year, the DOC’s 2025 death toll is now as high as it was in all of 2024.
According to the DOC, a Rikers staff member in the George R. Vierno Center on the island noticed that Jenkins was “visibly ill” around 9:15 p.m. on Monday.
The staffer allegedly immediately began to provide aid to Jenkins and activated a medical emergency.
Medical staffers showed up to the cell and began to provide lifesaving efforts until a little before 10 p.m., when Jenkins was pronounced dead.
“The department is mourning the loss of Mr. Jenkins who passed away in our care on the evening of March 31,” DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said in a statement. “We share our condolences with his loved ones and will investigate every aspect of this tragedy.”
Jenkins, who was facing attempted murder and assault charges in Manhattan and burglary charges in Queens, had been on Rikers for nearly nine months before his death on Monday. He was next scheduled to appear in court on April 10 in Manhattan, where a judge was considering whether or not Jenkins was psychologically fit to stand trial.
His death came a day after his birthday, according to his attorneys at the Legal Aid Society and Queens Defenders.
“His untimely death, just one day after his 27th birthday, makes this tragedy all the more devastating and demands an immediate, swift, and independent investigation,” his attorneys said in a statement.
According to both public defense organizations, Jenkins attorneys and his family were given few details about what transpired before his death.
Though the DOC claimed they reported the incident to the Board of Correction, state attorney general’s office, city Department of Investigation, State Commission of Correction, district attorneys and the federal monitor in charge of tracking violence on Rikers, the agency didn’t publicly divulge much information about the circumstances of Jenkins’ death.
“This ongoing lack of transparency is not only callous but also intolerable,” the Legal Aid Society and Queens Defenders said on Tuesday.
Jenkins’ death comes a little over a week after Rikers guards found 55-year-old Sonia Reyes unresponsive inside a call on Thursday, March 20. Reyes was pronounced dead later that day.
Reyes’ death came only a few days after 20-year-old Ariel Quidone died in Elmhurst Hospital after falling ill at Rikers Island, where he had been held for less than a week.
Because Quidone was released from city custody while in the hospital, the DOC does not officially include Quidone in its death toll.
The rash of detainee deaths over the past six weeks was preceded by the quick succession of the deaths of Ramel Powell, a 38-year-old who died on Feb. 19, and 55-year-old Terrance Moore, who died five days after Powell when he experienced a seizure inside Manhattan Criminal Court, where he had been brought from Rikers Island by the DOC for a court appearance.
Over the past decade, over 100 people have died in the DOC’s custody. Jenkins is the 38th detainee to die since Mayor Eric Adams took office.
During an unrelated press conference on Tuesday, Adams blamed the spate of deaths on the nature of Rikers’ population.
“We must be honest with ourselves – by the time many people reach Rikers, they are dealing with real health and substance abuse issues,” Adams said. “People don’t come in with the best care.”
“If you look at the causes of death, they were medical-related deaths,” he added, despite the fact that the causes of the deaths of Powell, Moore, Quidone, Reyes and Jenkins have yet to be determined.
Last year, five detainees died in city custody. Nine people died in 2023 and 19 died in 2022, marking a 10-year high.
As the alarming death toll mounts on Rikers, a federal judge is weighing whether or not to strip the city of its control of Rikers Island and place the troubled jail complex into the hands of a court-appointed receiver.
Federal Judge Laura Swain has for months been deciding whether or not to implement the extreme measure after saying she was “inclined” to appoint a receiver over the jails in November, when she ruled that the city had failed to meaningfully tamp down violent conditions on Rikers over the past decade.
The Legal Aid Society, which represents the plaintiffs in the case Swain is overseeing, said on Tuesday that Jenkins’ death is only further evidence that the city is ill equipped to run its jails.
“This needless loss of a young life underscores the urgent need for the immediate appointment of an independent body, such as a receivership, to take over the city’s jail system,” the public defender group said.
The sentiment was echoed by advocates on Tuesday, who also called on the mayor to follow through on the plan to close Rikers Island by 2027, a deadline that has become seemingly impossible to meet after efforts to shutter the jail came to a near standstill under Adams.
“From day one of his administration, Eric Adams has done everything in his power to fill up Rikers,” said Darren Mack, the co-director of criminal justice advocacy group Freedom Agenda. “It’s sickening and immoral. We know that no one is safe at Rikers – it’s time to stop sending people there.”
