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Jails Boss Pushed for Dying Man's Release to Limit Rikers Death Count
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/27/nyregion/riker-death-count.htmlFree link: https://archive.ph/IQqjm
After learning that a man held at the Rikers Island jail complex had suffered cardiac arrest and was on the brink of death, Louis A. Molina, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction, issued a directive to his subordinates.
“Make sure we do what we can,” Mr. Molina wrote on Thursday in an email obtained by The New York Times, to ensure the man was “off the Department’s count.”
Hours later, after the man, Elmore Robert Pondexter, was granted a so-called “compassionate release” from detention, he was taken off life support and died at Bellevue Hospital. Because he had been freed, the Correction Department did not count his death as having occurred in its custody, issuing no news release and providing no notice to the city Board of Correction, a jails oversight panel.
Mr. Molina does not have the authority to free people from custody on his own, and how much weight his directive carried in the ultimate decision to release Mr. Pondexter was not clear. But the direct involvement of the city’s top jail official appeared to show the lengths to which Mr. Molina was willing to go to keep the death figures down.
“Make sure we do what we can,” Mr. Molina wrote on Thursday in an email obtained by The New York Times, to ensure the man was “off the Department’s count.”
Hours later, after the man, Elmore Robert Pondexter, was granted a so-called “compassionate release” from detention, he was taken off life support and died at Bellevue Hospital. Because he had been freed, the Correction Department did not count his death as having occurred in its custody, issuing no news release and providing no notice to the city Board of Correction, a jails oversight panel.
Mr. Molina does not have the authority to free people from custody on his own, and how much weight his directive carried in the ultimate decision to release Mr. Pondexter was not clear. But the direct involvement of the city’s top jail official appeared to show the lengths to which Mr. Molina was willing to go to keep the death figures down.