Council Set to Pass Bill Mandating Disclosure of Rikers Deaths

Council Set to Pass Bill Mandating Disclosure of Rikers Deaths

In May 2023, after a spike in deaths on Rikers Island, city jail officials suddenly stopped notifying the media shortly after an incarcerated person passed away.  Frank Dwyer, a spokesperson for then Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina, told THE CITY at the time that notifying the public after each death was a “practice, not a policy” — which had only started at the end of de Blasio administration amid the pandemic. The reversal o…