NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Rikers Island detainee died after he reportedly jumped from a cellblock area on the upper floor of a unit for mentally ill people, marking the second death in custody this year, the Department of Correction said Wednesday.
Rubu Zhao, 52, was in custody at the George R. Vierno Center and was "severely injured" on Sunday, the DOC said. Officers responded immediately and called for medical help, and Zhao was eventually admitted to NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, where he died Wednesday.
Sources told the Daily News that Zhao suffered a skull fracture in the fall in the PACE mental health unit at the GRVC.
The sources said Zhao, who was not under suicide watch, was allowed to roam the unit and swung his leg over a banister before falling backwards down a set of stairs and landing on his head.
Zhao was charged with murder for allegedly killing his girlfriend in their Sunset Park home in December. The Daily News reported that he was slated to appear in court on May 31.
His cause of death remains under investigation, the DOC said Wednesday.
"The health and safety of everyone in our custody is a top priority and a full investigation is underway to determine how this unfortunate incident occurred," DOC Commissioner Louis A. Molina said in a statement.
The PACE program — which stands for Program to Accelerate Clinical Effectiveness — was established in 2015 with the goal of improving the quality of mental health care for mentally ill people in jails via Correctional Health Services, according to the paper.
The program is supposed to provide increased supervision for people held in those units.
Aside from PACE, DOC and CHS run CAPS — Clinical Alternative to Punitive Segregation — for detainees with mental illnesses who have broken the rules.
Correction officers assigned to those units are supposed to get eight hours of "Mental Health First Aid" training to spot signs of distress in detainees, according to the report.
The latest fatality comes after 19 people died last year on Rikers Island — a historic high.
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