![]() ![]() The 286-page report doesn't start off with much encouraging news: ![]() In October, the team put out its second report since the court ordered the New York Department of Correction to develop a formal plan to get its act together. The prison complex is already under federal monitoring, and the independent team is regularly putting out reports of conditions there. ![]() Nevertheless, Swain in November turned away the push to give the feds control over Rikers. The complex holds less than half the number of prisoners as it did then, yet it has seen the most deaths in a year since 2013 (when 24 prisoners died). Even though those numbers have improved, the comptroller's office notes that they're still missing about 12 percent of staff on a daily basis.Īlso, keep in mind that Rikers' population has been declining since 2008 even as the number of deaths per year has increased. During the pandemic, the prison saw massive shortages of 15 percent to 20 percent of the staff. District Court of the Southern District of New York let them push for federal receivership of Rikers because of the many, many problems that have been plaguing the prison for years. The Legal Aid Society in New York City had requested that federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the U.S. Just in October, the prison complex (which holds about 5,800 prisoners daily) logged close to 10,000 missed medical appointments for various reasons. Rikers has chronic problems with getting its inmates proper medical treatment and causing them to miss appointments and has been fined $200,000 for it.Īccording to the most recent data from the New York City comptroller's office, Rikers improved its record in getting prisoners treated in early 2022, but it has been getting worse again. Mejias' lawyer, Dean Vigliano, told the New York Daily News that Mejias had been complaining that he hadn't been getting proper treatment for his asthma and had been having trouble breathing. He also had a recent history of shoplifting charges and failing to show up for court dates. The New York Daily News reported that Mejias was arrested (as was his girlfriend) in September for shoplifting perfume. Rikers Island has logged its 19th prisoner death in 2022 as the end of the year approaches, but a judge is still resisting efforts to turn the jail complex over to federal control.Įdgardo Mejias, 39, was found unresponsive in his cell on December 11 and subsequently declared dead of a suspected drug overdose. ![]()
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