Man, 28, kills self while in custody on Rikers Island; 17th death at jail this year as advocates push for federal takeover
Another inmate died in a Rikers Island jail on Saturday, adding to the grim toll of detainee deaths amid the looming possibility of a federal takeover of the city’s dysfunctional lockups.
Erick Tavira, 28, became the 17th person to die in 2022 either in city custody or from an illness or injury he suffered while under Department of Correction supervision. Tavira apparently took his own life at Rikers’ George R. Vierno Center about 2:15 a.m., Correction Department officials and his lawyers said.
An autopsy has been slated to determine exactly how Tavira died. The state Attorney General and the city Department of Investigation also plan to probe his death.
The 17 detainees to have died in city custody so far in 2022 surpass the 16 who died in all of 2021.
Tavira arrived at Rikers on June 15, 2021 after his arrest on charges he attacked a 14-year-old boy without provocation near Fort Washington Ave. and W. 175th St. in Washington Heights. At the time, he was living at a homeless shelter on Randall’s Island.
Facing assault and strangulation charges, Tavira was ordered held on $20,000 bail, court records show.
His attorneys at the Legal Aid Society said they were both “heartbroken and outraged” to learn about his death, and said the city needs to provide adequate substance abuse and mental health programs for Rikers detainees.
“Mr. Tavira’s case underscores the inevitable outcome when incarceration is used in lieu of treatment,” the Legal Aid Society said in a statement. “Had Mr. Tavira had access to programming, today’s tragedy could have been completely avoided.”
“Carceral [jail or prison] settings are no place for people struggling with mental or substance abuse issues, and all criminal legal system stakeholders must pursue alternatives that prioritize community-based resources over the confines of a cage,” the statement said.
The last person to die in custody was Gregory Acevedo, 48, who climbed a fence and crawled through razor wire at the barge — formally called the Vernon C. Bain Center — before he jumped roughly 50 feet from the rooftop recreation yard on Sept. 20.
Among the most recent deaths, Kevin Bryan somehow got into a staff bathroom off-limits to detainees and hanged himself Sept. 14.
Michael Nieves, 40, cut his own throat Aug. 30 with a Correction Department-issued shaving razor that staff failed to take back from him.
Ricardo Cruciani, a 67-year-old doctor convicted of sexually abusing multiple patients, hanged himself Aug. 15 in general population — after having repeatedly threatened to take his life. His death deprived his many victims of the opportunity to confront him at sentencing.
Mary Yehudah, 31, died May 18 from complications of diabetes after medical staff failed to do a basic urine test to screen her for the illness, according to a lawsuit filed by her family.
A Board of Correction report issued Sept 12 on six suicides and four overdoses in the jails in 2021 found a range of staffing breakdowns that contributed to those fatalities.
Tavira’s death comes ahead of a federal court hearing in November that may decide whether the jails remain in the city’s control or are turned over to a federal receiver approaches.
Mayor Adams opposes a takeover, and the city is trying to implement its “action plan” to fix the jails.
City comptroller Brad Lander became the first citywide elected official to back a federal receiver for the jails on Oct. 13, saying “a receiver would be empowered to make decisions that the city has failed to adequately contend with for many years, whether by lack of will or through inability due to legal, regulatory or other barriers.”
