In the week since a federal judge granted New York City at least six more months to reform its struggling prison system, three people were recently incarcerated at the Rikers prison complex. Island full of trouble is dead.
Anibal Carrasquillo, 39, died Monday, the city’s Department of Corrections said. According to two people with knowledge of the matter, the cause is suspected to be a drug overdose. Albert Drye, 52, died Tuesday at Bellevue Prison Hospital, according to the Legal Aid Association, which represents him. The cause of death is unknown.
The third detainee, 28-year-old Antonio Bradley, died on June 18, three days after being compassionately taken to Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, according to the Bureau of Corrections.
The death toll brings the death toll after being hosted by the city this year to nine, more than three people who died this time last year. The deaths all come the week after the judge, Laura T. Swain, scheduled a status conference on the Rikers Island prison complex for November, potentially preventing any takeovers. federal government for a troubled facility through winter or later.
After touring two prisons in Rikers on Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams held a challenging press conference in which he defended the officers’ work, saying the problems they faced were compelling. started “many generations ago” and was the result of past government neglect.
His outspoken defense of the correctional officers came before he acknowledged any of the three deaths. Then, in response to a question, he called the deaths “unacceptable.” However, he said: “I’m really pleased with what I’m seeing and what I’m seeing today.”
The mayor cited the judge’s order, saying it was tantamount to endorsing the city’s plan for its prisons. But members of a watchdog, the Corrections Committee, said the growing death toll for Rikers should force the judge to reconsider and appoint an independent leader to run the corrections system. wrong. Last year, 16 people died after being held in a New York City prison, the highest number since 2013.
Dr Robert Cohen, a member of the panel, said: “The tragedies of the past few days on Rikers Island should be of concern to all New Yorkers. “Thoughts and prayers are important but they are not enough. New York City, despite their best efforts, is unable to maintain a minimally safe environment for detainees.”
The Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to requests for comment on staff shortages or actions that led to the deaths.
Rikers Island Crisis
Amid the pandemic and staffing emergency, New York City’s main prison complex has been caught up in a continuing crisis.
Mr. Drye, who has been in custody since May 17 on charges of assault, harassment and firearms in Manhattan and the Bronx, became seriously ill and was hospitalized for several weeks. Prior to his hospitalization, he was detained at the Eric M. Taylor Center, a facility on Rikers Island, where new detainees are held and assessed before being placed in permanent housing.
City was disregarded by a state judge last month because it does not administer appropriate medical care to detainees. In April, a month before Mr. Drye’s arrest, 11,789 medical appointments were missed at city prisons, according to city data, thousands of them because corrections officers failed present to escort detainees to the clinic.
On Sunday night, just two days before Mr. Drye’s death, Mr. Carrasquillo, who was being held at another Rikers facility on $50,000 bail on charges including robbery, drug possession and assault, was last seen alive shortly after 10 p.m., said a person with knowledge of the incident. Shortly before 1 a.m. on Monday, a prison warden found Mr. Carrasquillo unresponsive in his cell, the person said.
A second official with knowledge of the matter said prison staff did not fully tour the housing area between the time Mr. Carrasquillo was last seen alive and when he was discovered. Mr. Carrasquillo was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m.
Mr. Carrasquillo’s wife, Sheniqua Bryant Carrasquillo, 31, in an interview on Wednesday said she was heartbroken.
Bryant Carrasquillo said: “He is in your custody. “He should have been protected but he wasn’t.”
Earlier this month, on June 10, before Mr. Carrasquillo died, Mr. Bradley was in a Bronx courthouse eight miles away. His attorney, Bruce Klein, has just informed him that the judge on his gun case is ill and his next court date will be in two weeks. During that conversation, Mr. Klein said his client did not give any indication that he was committing suicide.
Soon after, Mr. Bradley, who had been detained at Rikers since October, was taken back to the penitentiary, administered by correctional officers, where he hanged himself.
Video evidence shows Mr. Bradley was left unattended in his cell for six to nine minutes before staff found him hanged, according to a person familiar with the inquest into his death.
Mr. Bradley was cut off by correctional staff, who performed CPR, and taken to hospital, where he was given life support, according to the Regulatory Department. The ministry did not respond to questions about the circumstances of his death.
Mr. Klein said: “He was a kind person. “It was a tragedy.”
Mr. Bradley was released on June 15 to the hospital where he died. His death was first reported by New York Daily News.
Louis A. Molina, commissioner of the Department of Corrections, said in a statement: “It is with great sadness that we learn of Mr. Bradley’s passing.
After months of similar incidents, the United States Attorney in Manhattan in April raised the possibility a federal court takeover. Judge Swain asked the city to submit a plan last month outlining how it would turn the tide in Rikers. That plan was met with disappointment from Legal Aid attorney Mary Lynne Werlwas, who told the court she would seek a contempt order and appoint an outside official to take over the prison or some other appropriate remedial action.
Judge Swain denied her request to set a timetable for those actions at least until November 17, when there will be a status meeting on whether the city’s plan is in place. successful implementation or not. The judge wrote that it was only at that point that she considered whether such scheduling was warranted.
Federal court admissions of prisons and prisons is unusual, and judges are obligated to demonstrate that a number of factors make such remedies necessary. Of those tests, there are no less alternatives to the so-called right to receive, and that the government is acting in bad faith and will not obey a court order.
“It was important for the judge to show that she tried everything and everything she tried,” said Hernandez D. Stroud, a counselor for the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. tried all failed. “It is intended for when the court reaches the end of the road with nowhere to turn.”
