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A Rikers Island detainee’s 2023 death by suicide set to get new scrutiny
By
Herb Pinder
Published Oct 14, 2024
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José A. Alvarado Jr. for Gothamist
By
Herb Pinder
Published Oct 14, 2024
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The death of Curtis Davis by suicide in a Rikers Island jail cell in July 2023 prompted a quick flurry of inquiries and recommendations, including calls for bolstered suicide prevention training for Department of Correction staff and more accurate record-keeping.
But that won’t be the final word.
Lawyers for Alvina Davis, the daughter of the late Rikers detainee, have filed a wrongful death claim against the city, the Department of Correction and unidentified guards, alleging they were negligent in Davis’ death. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Davis, who was 44, died by suicide, hanging in his cell with bed linen.
The complaint, filed last week in State Supreme Court, relies in part on findings of a Board of Correction review, which found guards failed to conduct required checks on Davis’ unit, allowed the window to his cell to be completely covered, and, earlier, repeatedly failed to deliver Davis to psychiatric and “sick call” appointments despite being on notice he had a history of mental health problems. Three guards were later disciplined.
The Department of Correction "failed to provide even a basic level of care for Mr. Davis,” attorney Adam Konta, representing Davis’ family, said in announcing the claim.
Konta added: The department “clearly allowed a deadly event to occur because officers and wardens did not do their job and there was what can only be described as a total breakdown of the system.”
A Department of Correction spokesperson said the office could not comment on pending litigation and referred questions to the city Law Department, where a spokesperson on Friday declined comment as well.
Davis’ death was one of nine at Rikers in 2023. Those fatalities followed 19 detainee deaths in 2022 — either at the jail complex or, in one case, shortly after a detainee’s release. In 2022, the detainee death rate on Rikers was the highest in a quarter-century.
Together, the fatalities raise unresolved questions about Rikers’ management, staff training and the delivery of routine medical and emergency care to detainees.
“The jails remain dangerous and unsafe, characterized by a pervasive, imminent risk of harm to both people in custody and staff,” an independent federal monitor’s status 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, voicing concern over the slow pace of improvement.
“There have been lots of good intentions,” Swain said in calling for the takeover plan, the subject of continuing litigation. “But how long do I wait?”
Davis, facing charges in an alleged assault, entered Rikers on June 2, 2023, and was being held for lack of $30,000 bond.
In an initial mental health screening, he disclosed a prior suicide attempt and said that he “was currently having thoughts of hurting or killing himself,” according to the Board of Correction inquiry.
In the ensuing weeks, guards failed to produce him for numerous psychiatric and “sick call” visits, according to the inquiry report — in line with an oft-cited complaint about detainees not being delivered for medical appointments.
The Board of Correction said in its recommendations the Department of Correction must improve its “medical escort practices” and ensure accurate documentation of guards’ “tours” or rounds; the complaint alleges staff logbooks indicated guards made required inspections even when video surveillance footage showed otherwise.
The report also called for Correctional Health Services to improve suicide prevention practices for patients “who may express repeated but inconsistent suicidal ideation.”
Both Correctional Health Services and the Department of Correction, according to the report, had agreed to conduct joint reviews of each death in custody.
Tagged
new york city
Rikers Island
public safety
Race And Justice Unit
Herb Pinder
Herb is the editor of the Race & Justice unit. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-922-2497.
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