A man held in a city jail died under as yet undisclosed circumstances early Friday, the 13th jail-related death in 2025, officials said.
The detainee was found in medical distress in a bathroom at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island at 12:04 a.m. and taken to that jail’s medical clinic 20 minutes later, the Correction Department said in a statement.
Medics then took him to a nearby hospital where he died. DOC had not disclosed further details as of mid Friday morning.
“A man in the Department’s custody tragically passed away after being transported to the hospital,” DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said in a statement. The care of everyone who resides in our facilities is our highest priority, and we mourn his loss.”
The death is the 13th jail-related death in 2025, the most since 2022, the first year of the Adams administration, when there were 19. There were nine deaths in 2024, five in 2023, and 16 in 2021, the final year of Mayor de Blasio’s tenure.
The death comes after the Board of Correction released a scathing report Nov. 5 on the first five deaths of 2025, finding a series of breakdowns contributed to the deaths. The board reported that the failures in the deaths included medical staff not immediately notified, cell doors not secure, officers inexplicably wandered off post or did not conduct rounds and made inaccurate logbook entries.
“As another family mourns the loss of a loved one to Rikers, thousands are continuing to suffer and the crisis has deepened,” said Darren Mack, co-director of the Freedom Agenda, an advocacy group.
“Mayor Adams is exiting office after doing everything in his power to delay the legally mandated closure of Rikers while filling up the jails there. We will need urgent action to stop sending people to these deadly jails, close Rikers, and finally put an end to the cycle of suffering in this hellscape.”
The death also comes as the parties in the Nunez class action lawsuit are awaiting Judge Laura Taylor Swain’s selection of an outside manager to take over management of key elements of the system from the city. Some 30 people applied for the position.
The 2011 federal lawsuit alleged the city had failed to address violence and staff use of force in the system. Swain ruled the city was in contempt of court orders in the case a year ago and ruled in May in favor of the outside manager.
The city has been in the process of raising possible appeal issues in the case, arguing Swain overreached her authority in creating the manager under federal law and also claiming progress has been made in improving safety in the jails.
