NYC jails no longer announce inmate deaths. Critics warn this could start a 'problematic trend.'

New York City’s Department of Correction, which includes one of the United States’ deadliest jails, will no longer inform the public of inmate fatalities, a move that criminal justice experts say could set a harmful precedent for other jails across the country.

Currently, the Department of Correction website lists the number of inmate deaths for 2023 as unknown, but at least three inmates have died this year, including Rubu Zhao and Joshua Valles, whose deaths were not reported to the public.

“DOC leadership apparently doesn’t care about the humanity of the people in its custody enough to even report honestly when they die,” New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said in a press release in June, adding that “deaths cannot be swept under the rug.”

New York’s notorious jail

Rikers Island, New York City’s largest jail, is a pretrial detention facility that consists of 10 jails, and is “notorious for inhumane conditions and the repeated deaths of people incarcerated there as they await trial,” Olayemi Olurin, public defender at the Legal Aid Society, told Yahoo News.

Last year, the DOC reported 19 deaths in custody, the city's worst toll since 2016.

Previously, the department would send out a press release after anyone died in custody, including their name, time of death, and the facility. This had been standard procedure for approximately two years, but the Department of Correction now describes announcing inmate deaths to the public as “a practice, not a policy.”

The halt of information followed the release of a special report from the federal monitor on May 26 revealing that that the jails have had “serious and disturbing incidents involving harm to incarcerated persons” that have gone unreported.

Rikers has been subject to a federal monitor for the past six years. The report stated that the “The Federal Monitor's latest report detailing the recent incidents of violence and deaths within city jails was jarring and illustrated repeated failure by the Department of Correction (DOC) to notify the Monitor of serious incidents in a timely manner,” according to a June 1 press release.

While the media will no longer be informed of inmate deaths, the department will continue reporting to other agencies. “All appropriate internal investigations and required notifications to oversight and outside agencies always take place immediately,” DOC said in a statement to Yahoo News.

Should public reporting be required?

Under the Death and Custody Act of 2013, law enforcement agencies, like jails, are required to submit deaths to the Department of Justice, but advocates say that’s not enough.

“I think there should be a requirement of public reporting, not just to the Department of Justice, because people who are locked in jails and prisons are invisible to us,” Nicholas Turner, president of the Vera Institute of Justice, told Yahoo News.

Advocates and some city officials are pushing for Rikers to be placed under receivership. “The appointment of a federal receiver to operate Rikers is a moral and operational necessity to confront the jail system’s utter disregard for transparency and accountability,” Lander said in the June release.

Andrea Armstrong, the Dr. Norman C. Francis Distinguished Professor of Law at Loyola University New Orleans, told Yahoo News that transparency has significantly decreased thanks to the DOC officials' decision.

“What we know is that deaths are a critical piece of information for understanding the functioning of facilities,” Armstrong said. “So just imagine, for example, if public schools said that we are no longer going to release information about our graduation rates.”

'Problematic trend'

Experts say this decision could impact jails across the country. “It would be a problematic trend,” Armstrong said.

In 2020, at least 4,998 inmates died in jails nationwide before they were able to get their day in court, according to a nationwide survey from Reuters.

“In this country, we have fought for greater transparency and not less. In a nation that has close to 2 million people incarcerated, and millions of people impacted by the criminal justice system, New York City ought to be a beacon to the world,” Stanley Richards, deputy chief executive officer at the Fortune Society, and former vice chair of the New York City Board of Correction, told Yahoo News.

Richards says he was surprised by DOC’s decision because it “is taking us back to the decades when Rikers was truly out of sight and out of mind.”

“This decision could very well impact the way other jurisdictions manage their jails and prisons; it could shape what happens on a national level. This decision to have less transparency can also serve as a beacon of hopelessness to countless people, including incarcerated individuals, officers and staff who work in our jails,” Richards added.

Turner says the state of fear of families of those incarcerated will only intensify.

“Unfortunately for family members of future decedents, the information that they may receive from Rikers might be less comprehensive than they would have received before when those records were public,” Armstrong said.

According to the DOC, the next of kin of deceased inmates and their legal counsel will be notified. “The Commissioner wants to respect those who have transitioned while also continuing to be as transparent as possible,” DOC said in a statement to Yahoo News, adding that every inquiry about an inmate's death will receive a response.

When New York Mayor Eric Adams was asked about the recent decision, he defended the Department of Correction commissioner, Louis Molina, according to Fox 5 New York.

“I support him to do the job I hired him to do and whatever methods he needs to do it, within the boundaries of not violating any laws or rights of people,” Adams said.