Coinciding with the same week that the Nuñez Independent Federal Monitor presented its first report of the year, which highlighted how the humanitarian crisis on Rikers Island continues despite the change of command in the municipal Administration, this Friday it was reported the death of another inmate in that prison, being the second so far in the 2022 and it is a Hispanic.
The authorities of the City Department of Corrections (DOC) identified the deceased inmate as George Pagan, aged 49 years old and who he died Thursday morning. He had been incarcerated at the Eric M. Taylor Center since March 9, which houses adolescent and adult male inmates sentenced to one year or less.
Although the exact causes are not known of Pagan’s death, something that is being analyzed by the Medical Examiner’s Office, it was reported that the inmate had been transferred to Elmhurs Hospital in an emergency, where he died around 8: 30 am
“Any death in custody is a tragedy and we send our deepest condolences and sympathy to the friends and family of this person,” DOC Commissioner Louis Molina said in a statement, adding that they are “working with our associated agencies to carry out a complete investigation of the causes and circumstances”.
Dominican Melania Brown, activist and sister of the also deceased prisoner Layleen Polanco, indicated in a statement that Pagan was detained with a $1 bail,006, and apparently could not pay.
“George Pagan was murdered by a bail and jail regime that tortures low-income black and brown people and grants pretrial release and presumption of innocence to the rich and powerful. I’m not surprised, but I’m very sad. This is a system that has only compounded the damage without addressing its real causes. It is a system that took my little sister away from me,” said Brown.
Layleen Polanco, a transsexual woman of Hispanic origin aged 27 passed away in Rikers in June of 2019, allegedly as a result of an epileptic seizure, after being locked up and held incommunicado despite the objections of a doctor and the seizures she had previously suffered.
From bad to worse
Despite the fact that after Eric Adams took office as the new Mayor in January and made a leadership change in the agency that administers the New York City jails, of which Rikers Island is the largest, in the 78 pages report released on Last Wednesday by the Nuñez Independent Federal Monitor, it was highlighted that the prisons continue “in a violent and disorderly crisis, marked by chronic staff absenteeism, which fuels continuous aggression, leaving many people detainees, who must fend for themselves behind bars”.
The report places special emphasis on the fact that despite the new municipal Administration, the problems have been aggravated “much more due to the lack of resources personnel”, and highlights that the rate of violence in New York City prisons is “seven to eight times higher” than what is observed in other correctional systems in the country.
Pagan’s death is the second reported death of an inmate at Rikers Island this year, after the first was reported on February 27, an individual whose name and age, and that it is only known that he had been detained since September of last year.
In total in 2021 16 prisoners died, more than the previous two years combined and the most since 78, when there was 16 death s in custody, according to DOC records.
Dead on Rikers Island:
- 2 dead so far on 2022.
- 16 There were a total of deaths last year.
- 15 there were deceased in 2016 , the deadliest year before 2021.