A man held in a city jail on Rikers Island died early Tuesday at Mount Sinai Hospital Queens after being rushed there in medical distress, the Correction Department confirmed.
Medics transported the man from North Infirmary Command at 5:22 a.m. to the hospital. He died there at 6:19 a.m.
Officials did not immediately release the man’s name pending family notification. The death is under investigation.
The department notified a series of oversight bodies including the federal monitor, the State Attorney General’s office, the State Commission of Correction, the Department of Investigation, and the Board of Correction.
NEWIt was unclear Tuesday morning why the man was taken to Mount Sinai Queens rather than Elmhurst Hospital or Bellevue Hospital, which have specially equipped jail wards while Mount Sinai does not.
DOC and FDNY officials did not immediately reply to a question about the decision to transport him to Mount Sinai.TOHERE
The death is the fifth in 2024 of a detainee held in the jails. On July 14, 23-year-old Charizma Jones, who had been held in the Rose M. Singer Center, died at New York Presbyterian Burn Center in Manhattan possibly from an illness she first contracted in the jails.
NEWPrior to Jones’ death, Roy Savage, a 51-year-old state prisoner who was on Rikers for a new trial, died of cancer at Bellevue on March 22. Manuel Luna, 30, died Jan. 19 after being found unresponsive in his cell.
Chima Williams, 43, suffered a heart attack and collapsed while playing basketball in a Rikers jail on Jan. 4. He was given the anti-overdose drug Narcan and CPR but he died.TOHERE
There were nine deaths in the jails in 2023, 19 in 2022 and 16 in 2021.
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