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Rikers Inmate Dead After Correction Officers Fail To Put Him On Suicide Watch
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jan 3, 2015
Modified Jan 3, 2015
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Gothamist
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jan 3, 2015
Modified Jan 3, 2015
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A Rikers Island inmate apparently strangled himself about 24 hours after a jail psychiatrist recommended he be placed on suicide watch this week—and correction officers reportedly failed to follow department policy.
Officials say 35-year-old inmate Fabian Cruz was found dead in his cell Thursday evening with a bed sheet wrapped around his neck. Cruz had reportedly been threatening to harm himself, and at around 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday, a mental health clinician ordered that he be transferred to a facility where he could be put on round-the-clock suicide watch.
But Cruz, who pleaded guilty last month to attempted first-degree criminal sexual act after prosecutors accused him of repeatedly sexually abusing an underage girl, asked to remain in his cell and he was not transferred, despite Department of Correction protocol mandating that inmates cannot determine where they are housed. He was dead a mere 24 hours later. "Patient most likely committed suicide,” an internal jail report obtained by the Times read. “He hanged himself." A spokesperson for the DOC tells us, "This matter is currently being investigated as a possible suicide."
Cruz's apparent suicide follows on the heels of a number of high profile inmate deaths at Rikers Island, including the August 2012 death of mentally ill inmate Jason Echevarria, and the death of Jerome Murdough, who died in an overheated cell in February of last year. Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the city alleging that conditions at Rikers Island created a "culture of violence."
In October, the city was allotted $400,000 from the National Institute of Justice to fund an initiative addressing mental health issues and self-harm in city jails. There were eight suicides and 2,514 incidents of self harm at Rikers between 2007 and 2011, according to data provided by the city.
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