32-year-old Rikers Island detainee dies, 14th death in NYC jails this year

A 32-year-old inmate died Sunday at Rikers Island, marking the 14th death in New York prisons this year.

Aramis Furse died after a city correctional officer noticed he “appeared ill” in his cell at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center around 2 a.m., a corrections department official said in a statement.

The officer declared a medical emergency and jail medical personnel, followed by emergency medical services doctors, arrived to work on Furse. He died at 3:15 a.m. at Mount Sinai Queens, Corrections Department officials said.

“The department mourns the tragic death of an individual in our custody,” Corrections Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said in a statement. “We extend our deepest condolences to his friends and family. The safety of everyone in our care is always our primary concern and we will fully investigate this tragedy.”

Furse had pending criminal cases in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens for armed robbery and burglary charges. He was being held on $150,000 bail and was scheduled to appear in Queens Criminal Court on Wednesday in the burglary case.

Another Otis Bantum inmate, Edwin Ramos, 50, died in custody on November 21. Ramos, who had been held on $80,000 bail since August in a burglary case, was found in medical distress in a bathroom and taken to the prison medical clinic 20 minutes later, the Department of Corrections said in a statement at the time.

He died at a nearby hospital just hours before his court appearance, where he planned to take a plea deal “that would have allowed him to begin rebuilding his life outside of prison,” according to the Legal Aid Society.

This year is the deadliest city jails have seen since 2022, the first year of the Adams administration, when 19 inmates died in city custody. Nine died in 2024, five in 2023 and 16 in 2021, the final year of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s term.

The Board of Corrections released a scathing report Nov. 5 detailing a series of failures that contributed to the first five deaths of 2025, citing failures such as medical staff not being immediately notified, cell doors unsecured and officers inexplicably leaving their posts, failing to conduct rounds and making inaccurate log entries.

The death also comes as parties to a long-running federal class-action lawsuit wait for Manhattan federal judge Laura Taylor Swain to select an outside manager to take over running key parts of the city’s prison system.

The 2011 lawsuit alleges the city failed to address violence and use of force by staff in the system. Swain ruled the city was in contempt of court orders in that case a year ago and ruled in May in favor of an outside manager.

The city is raising possible appeal issues in the case, arguing that Swain overstepped his authority and saying progress has been made in improving security at the jails.

With Graham Rayman