NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Another man died in custody on Rikers Island Tuesday amid a reported staffing crisisat the notorious complex, the city’s Correction Department announced Tuesday.
Esias Johnson, 24, died at about 9:45 a.m. at Riker’s Anna M. Kross Center, after he was taken into custody on Aug. 7 on a fugitive arrest warrant for a menacing charge.
Johnson is the ninth person to have died while in custody this year at the jail, according to the department. His death comes as the complex has been gripped with violence and poor supervision, according to advocates and a federal monitor of city jails.
“We want to offer our condolences to the families of our 13 staff who died of COVID during the pandemic,” Correction Commissioner Vincent R. Schiraldi said in a statement. “We also want to reiterate our deepest condolences to the families of all the people with loved ones who have passed away in DOC custody in recent months.”
Schiraldi said the agency has been “plagued with several different challenges” in 2021, including staffing shortages stemming from employees not showing up to work.
A majority of people being held at Rikers are awaiting trial and have not yet been convicted of a crime. There are currently 6,000 incarcerated people and 8,400 uniformed staff at the facility, according to Schiraldi, who pointed out that back in 2014, the inmate-to-staff ration was reversed.
“So, while it’s true that we have lost some staff, we’ve had a 46% decline in inmates and only a 7% decline in staff,” he said. “The problem isn’t inadequate staffing, it’s people not coming to work.”
Schiraldi said that, while some staff are truly sick or injured, others are “taking advantage of the generous, unlimited sick leave policy that is granted to uniformed staff members.”
He said that while there is “no way” to prove his accusation he said the department’s 19% sick rate is more than 6 times higher than NYPD’s sick rate of 3% and 3 times higher than FDNY’s rate of 6%.
He also said there were 486 people out sick this July 4th, compared to just 203 sick on June 4.
The department is hiring a total of 600 new officers and soliciting reenlistment among those who left service with in good standing within the last four years, Schiraldi said.