Rikers Island inmate’s 2023 suicide death set for new review

The death of Curtis Davis by suicide in a Rikers Island jail cell in July 2023 prompted a rapid wave of investigations and recommendations, including calls for increased suicide prevention training for corrections department staff and more accurate record keeping.

But it won’t be the last word.

Attorneys for Alvina Davis, the daughter of the late Rikers inmate, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city, the Corrections Department and the unidentified guards, alleging they were negligent in Davis’ death. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled that Davis, 44, committed suicide, hanging himself in his cell with bed linens.

The suit, filed last week in state Supreme Court, is based in part on the findings of a corrections board review, which concluded that guards failed to conduct required checks in the unit of Davis, had allowed his cell window to be completely covered and, earlier. , failed to bring Davis to psychiatric and illness appointments, despite being warned that he had a history of mental health problems. Three guards were subsequently punished.

The Department of Correction “failed to provide even a basic level of care to Mr. Davis,” attorney Adam Konta, representing Davis’ family, said in announcing the complaint.

Konta added: The department “clearly allowed a deadly event to occur because officers and guards failed to do their jobs and there was what can only be described as a total system breakdown.” .

A Corrections Department spokesperson said the office could not comment on pending litigation and referred questions to the city’s Law Department, where a spokesperson also declined comment Friday.

Davis’ death was one of nine at Rikers in 2023. Those deaths followed 19 inmate deaths in 2022 — either at the prison complex or, in one case, shortly after an inmate was released. In 2022, the inmate death rate at Rikers was the highest in a quarter century.

Together, these deaths raise unresolved questions about Rikers management, staff training and the provision of routine and emergency medical care to inmates.

“Prisons remain unsafe and unsafe, characterized by a pervasive and imminent risk of harm to both inmates and staff,” an independent federal monitor’s situation report on Rikers concluded in April.

U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain in September ordered the city to develop a plan for a possible federal takeover of Rikers, expressing concern about the slow pace of improvements.

“There were a lot of good intentions,” Swain said in calling for the proposed buyout, which is the subject of ongoing litigation. “But how long do I have to wait?”

Davis, charged with alleged assault, entered Rikers on June 2, 2023, and was being held for lack of $30,000 bail.

During an initial mental health exam, he revealed a previous suicide attempt and said he was “currently having thoughts of harming or killing himself,” according to the Correctional Board’s investigation.

In the weeks that followed, guards failed to report him for numerous psychiatric visits and “sick calls,” according to the investigation report – following an oft-cited complaint that detainees were not taken to medical appointments.

The Board of Corrections said in its recommendations that the Department of Corrections must improve its “medical escort practices” and ensure accurate documentation of guard “tours” or rounds; The complaint alleges that personnel records indicated that guards carried out required inspections even when video surveillance footage showed otherwise.

The report also calls on correctional health services to improve suicide prevention practices for patients “who may express repeated but inconsistent suicidal ideation.”

Correctional Health Services and the Department of Corrections, the report said, had agreed to conduct joint reviews of each in-custody death.