NEW YORK — Another Rikers Island detainee died Wednesday morning, marking the 12th person to lose their life at the facility this year as outrage over the jail's conditions grows.
The detainee, Stephen Khadu, 34, was transported from Rikers' floating jail barge to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at around 10:50 a.m., the city’s Department of Corrections confirmed.
Khadu was discovered in the jail suffering from apparent “medical distress” before he was taken to the hospital, according to the agency. His death is under investigation.
Khadu entered DOC custody on December 19, 2019, and was being held on a 2nd-degree murder charge, according to the department.
“I am devastated to see that we have yet another death in custody, and determined to stop this heartbreaking trend,” DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said in a statement. “We are doing all we can to remedy the unprecedented crisis we are experiencing in our jails. My thoughts and prayers are with the individual’s loved ones.”
The floating jail, known as the Vernon C. Bain Center, is part of the Rikers Island complex and was initially intended to be a temporary, emergency facility to accommodate a surging jail population when it opened in 1992, the New York Times reported.
Rikers has for months in the grips of a safety crisis spurred by poor management and understaffing as the DOC struggles to get officers with unlimited sick time to report to work.
Local officials have visited the facility recently and described what they called horrific and appalling conditions inside.
Inmate advocates rallied outside City Hall on Thursday, demanding immediate action to address the "humanitarian crisis" at the troubled jail complex, which demonstrators described as an "island of death and decay."
"You have blood on your hands, you are responsible," said Stan German, the executive director of New York County Defender Services said that instead of trying to reduce the population of Rikers prosecutors are asking for high bails. "You know the conditions and you continue to send people to the abyss. This has got to stop."
Mayor de Blasio's short-term solution to the crisis has been to reduce intake times to under 24 hours, but he continues to place the blame on the correction officers union and officers who have sicked out in record numbers.
"To the officers who didn't show up and left everyone else in the lurch and endangered their fellow officers, you should be ashamed of yourself. To the union that aided and abetted mass absenteeism, you should be ashamed yourself which is why we are bringing a legal action against you," de Blasio said.
The mayor said there will be no more triple shifts in October, but those who worked them will be rewarded.
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