A Rikers Island inmate died Sunday — marking the 11th fatality at the problem-plagued Big Apple lockup this year, according to officials.
Isaabdul Karim, 42, died about 7:25 p.m. of “natural” causes at the island’s North Infirmary Command, which houses inmates that are receiving medical treatment, Department of Correction Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said in a statement.
“Providing for the safety of incarcerated people is our core mission, and I am heartbroken that we have seen yet another death of a human being entrusted to our care,” said Schiraldi.
“The cause of this death so far appears to be natural, but there is nothing natural about what is happening in our jail system right now.”
The cause of death is being investigated by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, he said.
Karim was pronounced dead after he told an officer he was not feeling well and was transported to a different dorm at 6:46 p.m., according to a Rikers Island source. Three minutes later, he became unresponsive, the source told The Post.
In a statement, Tina Luongo, the attorney-in-charge of the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society, said Karim died of COVID-19 and claimed the father of two was denied proper medical care.
“Mr. Karim suffered from a host of medical issues for which he required a wheelchair,” said Luongo.
“Adding to this, Mr. Karim contracted COVID-19 while mired in intake for ten days, and he was denied access to his medications and critical medical care. He should have been in the community with his family, friends and network, not in a jail plagued by an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
The man was being held on a felony warrant, according to a source and DOC records.
A Rikers Island source told The Post inmates are being “kept in deplorable conditions.”
“They are packed in each cell” with at least 30 people crammed in a cell designed for 10 people, according to a jail source.
“Some can’t lay down, because [there is] no space,” the Rikers source explained. “They are in the intake longer than they should [be], up to a week or more.”
During a recent tour of the beleaguered city jail, which is slated to close by 2027, local lawmakers witnessed an inmate attempting to hang himself amid “hellish” conditions.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a series of reforms aimed at getting the lockup under control — including punishing absentee and AWOL correction officers and deploying NYPD officers to courts to allow more DOC workers to staff the city jails on the island.
On Tuesday, about one in five Rikers Island employees didn’t show up for work, a top DOC staffer revealed Wednesday at a City Council hearing.
For her part, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday announced she was ordering the release of 191 Rikers Island inmates being held for “technical” violations of their parole.
Last week, Hochul signed into law the “Less Is More Act” that will stop the state from locking up formerly incarcerated people for not attending appointments with their parole officers, violating curfew or testing positive for drugs or alcohol.
