Death of Rikers Island detainee raises more concerns with Department of Correction
By Lisa Rozner
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NEW YORK, New York (KDKA) — New questions are being raised with the New York City Department of Correction after Joshua Valles, who was jailed at Rikers Island in April, died over the weekend.
A group rallying for change outside City Hall on Thursday said 22 inmates have died since Mayor Eric Adams took office.
Valles, 31, died Saturday at Elmhurst Hospital after being released from Rikers. The cause of his death was not immediately clear.
In a letter sent Wednesday, the court-appointed monitor for Rikers told a judge the general counsel for the Department of Correction said an autopsy revealed Valles had a fractured skull. But, days earlier, the monitor claimed DOC counsel told him Valles went to the hospital after a headache and medical condition.
Valles’s sudden hospitalization was highlighted in a recent report by the monitor that raised concerns about safety and transparency at Rikers.
Valles’s attorney said he was battling a drug addiction when he was arrested on April 7 for allegedly breaking into a Harlem pizza shop and stealing four tablets. Valles was declared brain dead the week after he went to the hospital, according to his attorney.
“What we’ve seen is a lack of transparency and we’ve seen a Commissioner Molina and a Department of Corrections whose story simply evolves to meet the moment, like a chameleon. So at first he didn’t report that this death had occurred and they took the position that they didn’t really have to report the death,” said Stan German, executive director of New York County Defender Services.
DOC Commissioner Louis Molina previously told the monitor “there was no official wrongdoing.”
Valles was released and no long in custody at the time of his death, DOC told CBS2. The medical examiner said the cause and manner of death were pending further study.
A judge ordered DOC to provide more information by June 8. A hearing between DOC and representatives for the inmates is scheduled for June 13.
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