Rikers detainees aren’t getting prompt medical care, watchdog reports

One-third of the requests for medical care for detainees at Rikers Island went unfulfilled last year, and most detainees who were taken to the infirmary were not seen within required legal timelines, according to a new government report .

The analysis from the New York City Board of Correction criticized both the city Department of Correction and NYC Health + Hospitals’ Correctional Health Services for the alleged failures. It recommended that the DOC document requests electronically and better track why detainees are not brought to the medical clinic.

The correction department claims in monthly reports that detainees often don't go to their appointments, or leave before they receive care. In June 2024, the department said incarcerated individuals refused to go to their medical appointments nearly 6,800 times and walked out of appointments another roughly 760 times. But defense attorneys have said some detainees may have not been told about their appointments and officers frequently aren’t available to escort detainees to the clinics.

Although city rules require that someone in custody is seen by a medical practitioner within a day of a request, just 39% made their visits within this timeframe, according to the Board of Correction report. But the board said it could not determine whether the blame for that delay fell on Correctional Health Services’ inability to schedule appointments in a timely manner, or correction officers’ failure to escort detainees to the clinic.

The board’s report comes days after a 63-year-old detainee, Anthony Jordan, died at Mount Sinai Hospital in Queens after being jailed at a Rikers Island facility that holds sick and disabled detainees. The news outlet The City reported that he died after being sent back to his housing unit after a visit with a medical professional. Jordan was the fifth person to die in city custody this year.

In response to the BOC report, Correctional Health Services called the board’s methodology and conclusion “flawed,” saying reviewers inappropriately labeled calls to its health triage phone line as requests for medical appointments. The statement said Correctional Health Services regretted that the oversight board issued the report over its objections.

The Department of Correction also criticized the board’s methodology, saying people in custody sometimes refuse to go to scheduled medical appointments and can also have their issues addressed through other unscheduled meetings with medical personnel.

The issue of missed medical appointments is a long-standing problem at Rikers Island. In 2022, when data showed detainees missed more than 10,000 appointments each month, a state judge ordered the city to pay those deprived of medical care. The year before, a federal judge ordered that correction officials get detainees to clinics within 24 hours after a request.

Medical requests are now surging at Rikers, according to the most recent city data . It shows that the number of health clinic visits reached more than 33,700 in the 2023 fiscal year, more than double in the previous year.