NEW YORK — The security-camera images tell a remarkable story: A man being held on Rikers Island collapses and is carried to a medical clinic — not by the correction officer outside his housing unit but by other detainees. The man, Herman Diaz, 52, who had choked on an orange slice, did not survive. This week, Diaz’s family filed a lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan seeking $20 million in damages. The suit relies on reports and court documents created by the city itself over the past two year
A building at the Rikers Island jail complex in New York, Sept. 27, 2021.
The Rikers Island jail complex has been troubled for decades, but the coronavirus heightened the suffering of those there, prolonging the stays of detainees as the court system ground to a halt.The virus hit correction officers hard in 2020, infecting more than 1,000 and killing six. This led to widespread absenteeism, with thousands failing to show up for work each day. The quality of life for detainees dropped steadily, threatening their access to food, water and medical care.
“I just broke down,” she said. “I’m sure it could have been avoided. If they had the right equipment and the right people, they would have saved him. A lot of people choke, and most people get saved.” The Board of Correction report that includes Diaz is among several documents in which the city has documented the way it struggles to care for those in its custody. In a separate court case brought on behalf of a class of detainees, the city acknowledged circumstances when it was unable to ensure access to medical care.
Indeed, lawyers for the family of another detainee who died at Rikers this year, Mary Yehudah, said they planned to include the city’s admissions about the lack of access to medical care. “It very much plays into the claims we’re going to have,” said Ilyssa S. Fuchs, one of the lawyers.
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