\u201cTransparency is essential, and the Department of Correction and our oversight partners have begun an investigation into the circumstances surrounding this death,\u201d he added. \u201cOur administration remains steadfast in our commitment to both improving conditions in our city’s jail system and to closing Rikers Island.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two deaths came as DOC Commissioner Stanley Richards and remediation manager Nicholas Deml were in Germany, learning about the country\u2019s jails and prisons, which are known for emphasizing rehabilitation instead of punishment and for their comparatively low recidivism rates. A DOC spokesperson said the trip was similar to one taken by Connecticut correctional leaders around a decade ago, which resulted in the implementation of a German-style therapy program for incarcerated people inside one of Connecticut\u2019s maximum security prisons. <\/p>\n
According to the DOC, Richards traveled to Germany alone, without a security detail, and that the trip came at no cost to taxpayers. <\/p>\n
Deml, who was appointed to the powerful position by U.S. Southern District of New York Chief Judge Laura Swain earlier this year, also did not require taxpayer dollars to fund his trip, according to the DOC. <\/p>\n
Deml is barred by the judge from speaking to the press. <\/p>\n
Like the detainees who died on Monday and Tuesday, the first two detainees who died in the jails earlier this year did so within the same week. <\/p>\n
Barry Cozart, 39, died in the George R. Vierno Center on Wednesday, March 25, after allegedly experiencing an unspecified medical issue. <\/p>\n
Cozart had been held pretrial on $30,000 cash bail or a $90,000 bond after being charged in a Jamaica Estates burglary case. He had been held on Rikers since November and last appeared in Queens Criminal Court a day before his death. <\/p>\n
John Price, a 49-year-old from Queens, died three days later after he \u201crequired medical attention,\u201d the DOC said at the time. <\/p>\n
Price had been accused of running a drug trafficking ring in Jamaica and had been held on Rikers since December 2024 ahead of his trial. <\/p>\n
Ramkellawan was facing a number of misdemeanor theft charges, according to court records. She was arrested and sent to Rikers after missing several court appearances. <\/p>\n
Khan pleaded guilty to a burglary charge in November but didn\u2019t show up to his next court hearing. He was arrested in January and sent to Rikers, according to court records. Khan was scheduled to be sentenced in July. <\/p>\n
The deaths come at a time of major change on Rikers and within the DOC. <\/p>\n
Deml recently began to share authority with the commissioner over the DOC\u2019s finances, facilities, procurement practices, labor relations, legal matters and more. <\/p>\n
The deaths also come as both Mamdani and Richards have recommitted the city to reforming its criminal justice system and to closing Rikers Island, as mandated by city law. The mayor has taken a number of steps in pursuit of that effort in recent months, including opening a new jail ward in Bellevue Hospital to house around 100 severely ill detainees and lessen Rikers\u2019 population. <\/p>\n
But in the wake of this week\u2019s deaths, advocates said the mayor needs to do more to move Rikers\u2019 closure along and correct the dangerous conditions that have defined Rikers for a century. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs the family of Rajpattie Ramkellawan is still processing the news of her death yesterday, another family now will get the horrific news of their loved one\u2019s passing at the hell hole that is Rikers Island,\u201d Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, said in a statement. \u201cWe need every part of city government to be working with urgency toward closing Rikers. That includes passing a budget that makes real and substantial investments in prevention and diversion, including ending the cruel surge of low-level arrests that is funneling more and more vulnerable people through the courts and Rikers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTransparency is essential, and the Department of Correction and our oversight partners have begun an investigation into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-237167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}