Dead Rikers Island Detainees Had Missed Dozens of Mental Health Appointments
A report released by New York City’s Board of Correction (BOC) on February 9, 2024, chided city jail officials for allowing mentally ill detainees to miss dozens of mental health appointments before they died. Nine deaths were recorded at the city’s Rikers Island jail complex in 2023, a big drop from the previous year’s total of 19. BOC would not blame the deaths on the missed appointments but said the city’s Department of Correction (DOC) should do better, especially since more than 50% of some 6,000 jail detainees suffer from mental illness.
The report covered the last four deaths of 2023; those earlier were the subject of a report released in November of that year. The key takeaway from both reports: DOC continues to put detainees at unnecessary risk, especially those suffering from mental illness, because its guard force is persistently too shortstaffed to escort them to healthcare and mental health appointments. For this reason, the federal court for the Southern District of New York has threatened to hold DOC in contempt of its orders in a long-running class action, as PLN has reported. [See: PLN, Feb. 2023, p.28.]
Before he died on July 15, 2023, detainee William Johnstone, 47, had missed 50 appointments in just four months at the jail. Unable to post $39,998 bail after a Brooklyn robbery arrest, he told jailers at intake that he had been diagnosed with a laundry list of ailments, including congestive heart failure, diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as schizophrenia with hallucinations, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. A pack-a-day cigarette smoker, he also admitted using crack and marijuana and feeling suicidal.
Yet the longer Johnstone stayed on Rikers Island, BOC noted, the less supervision he received, moving from a larger observation cell with other detainees to a single cell and eventually into the jail’s general population. He refused many appointments he missed, but many were rescheduled by DOC. The day he died, Johnstone covered his cell window with papers, which guards let all four detainees do before they died, BOC noted. Guards also performed only half the cellblock tours they were supposed to conduct, allowing detainees to move among one another’s cells, as well—another violation of policy.
A guard made a tour that passed Johnstone’s cell at 12:03 p.m. but didn’t return until he found the detainee unconscious at 1:46 p.m. Yet BOC found that guard logbooks recorded tours at 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m., which apparently never happened. Attempts to revive Johnstone failed, and he was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3:50 p.m. No cause of death has been released.
The word “discipline” does not appear in the BOC report, though a few suspensions are noted related to three of the year’s last four deaths: Five guards and an assistant Deputy Warden, plus two captains, one of whom was demoted. No firings were reported. See: Second Report and Recommendations on 2023 Deaths in New York City Dep’t of Corr. Custody, N.Y.C. Bd. of Corr. (Feb. 2024).
As if to underscore the permissive atmosphere in which guards work, DOC training chief Robert Gonzalez resigned on February 14, 2024, a day after Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie ordered him to reinstate four guards suspended for violating policy against political activity in uniform by posing for selfies with Mayor Eric Adams (D).
Additional sources: New York Daily News, Queens Eagle
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