Rikers Island has first death of 2025, detainee had been held 19 months



A 37-year-old man died in a city jail on Rikers Island early Wednesday, the first death in the system in 2025, according to officials and sources.

The man, identified by sources as Ramel Powell, had been held in the Otis Bantum Correctional Center. He was sent to Rikers in July, 2023 – 19 months ago – on a parole violation related to a robbery and an arrest in Manhattan on assault charges, according to city records.

The sources said the death was being investigated as a possible fatal overdose, but that was not confirmed by the Correction Department.

Court records indicate Powell was arrested July 25 for a May 8 assault on the Lower East Side. He was next due in court on March 6.

DOC issued a brief statement early Wednesday confirming the death, but without identifying the detainee’s name, sex, location or time of death – three details that have appeared in such releases in the past.

In 2024, the agency under then Commissioner Louis Molina was criticized for a decision not to release death notifications to the public and the media. The move was rescinded after an outcry.

“I, and the entire NYC Department of Correction, express our deepest sympathy to the loved ones of the deceased. We are conducting a full investigation into this tragic event,” said Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie.

Powell’s death was the first recorded in 2025. There were five deaths in 2024, 9 in 2023, 19 in 2022 and 16 in 2021, The News hs previously reported.



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