Detainee dies on Rikers, officer fired
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A tenth person has died while in the custody of the Department of Correction. Eagle file photo by Jacob Kaye
By Rachel Vick
A 31-year-old detainee on Rikers Island died Sunday night, marking the tenth death in Department of Correction custody this year.
Elijah Muhammad’s death is still under investigation, but the DOC announced a corrections officer was fired after a preliminary review of the incident. The DOC did not give further information on what led to the officer’s termination.
“It is heartbreaking when someone dies while in custody,” said DOC Commissioner Louis A. Molina. “We treat every death with the utmost seriousness and understand that it is our mandate to keep every person entrusted to our care safe.”
The incident at the George R. Vierno Center will be investigated by the State Attorney General’s Office and the NYC Department of Investigation. DOC counts the death as the ninth in custody, omitting an incarcerated person who died in June shortly after being granted compassionate release while on his deathbed.
Freedom Agenda Co-Director Darren Mack condemned what he described as an ongoing “human rights emergency.”
“The chronic staff absenteeism continues while DA’s and judges are unnecessarily sending people to a potential death sentence,” Mack said. “New York City’s communities need accountability, decarceration, and ultimately closure of the jails.”
The latest death comes amid a court battle against the DOC for an alleged failure to connect those in custody with medical appointments, and to remedy the situation as ordered by the court. The DOC appeared in court on Monday in an attempt to rid itself of the contempt of court charge.
The city is also fighting to retain control of Rikers Island, where nearly 30 people have died in the past year and a half.
In June, federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain ruled that the city would remain in control of the jail complex for the next couple of months as it works to implement its “action plan,” a multi-pronged plan that aims to quell this dysfunction of the jail and the agency that runs it.
At the center of the action plan is a staffing crisis that began in the summer of last year and has largely bled over in 2022.
Earlier this year, the Board of Corrections, the body that oversees the DOC, issued a report that found that the first three deaths to occur on Rikers Island in 2022 where attributable to a lack of staffing.
At the time of all three deaths, there were no correctional officers patrolling the floor of the housing area where the detainees were kept.
Advocates say Muhammad’s death is only the latest indicator that DOC control of the facilities remains tenuous.
“It is evident that the Department of Correction cannot keep people safe in its facilities. It’s time to hand over control to someone who can,” said Campaign Zero Founder DeRay McKesson. “New Yorkers do not have to accept a human rights crisis in our city. We do not have to wonder how many of our neighbors must die before something changes.
“As we all mourn Mr. Muhammad’s passing, we must act,” McKesson added. “A federal receiver should be appointed without delay and begin making the crucial changes the DOC has been unable or unwilling to make.”
