A man being held on Rikers Island died early Saturday, the 10th inmate being housed in city jails to die this year.
City Department of Correction officials confirmed the death, claiming the inmate was found “unresponsive in his cell” at the George R. Vierno Center at 12:25 a.m.
DOC officers conducting a tour of the cells rendered aid as medical support was called, but the man was pronounced dead just before 1 a.m. His name was not immediately disclosed.
Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie promised a “full review of the circumstances surrounding the incident.”
Last month, Edwin Quispe, 33, was found unresponsive in a bathroom at Rikers’ Eric M. Taylor Center and also declared dead, officials said. The cause and circumstances are still under investigation.
Saturday’s death brings the city’s jail-related death tally to 10 this year — double the amount of inmates that died at city jail facilities in 2024.
There were nine jail deaths in 2023; 19 in 2022, Mayor Adams’ first year in office; and 16 in 2021, the final year of Mayor de Blasio’s tenure.
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