EXCLUSIVE: Fewer than 1 in 5 New York City correction officers took a mandated course on preventing suicide in the last year, even as the suicide rate among incarcerated people on Rikers Island and other city jails skyrocketed to historic highs.
Despite the skyrocketing suicide rate, from Sept. 1, 2021, to Sept. 20 this year, 1,241 of the city’s nearly 7,000 uniformed correction staff members completed a required suicide prevention refresher course, according to correction department data.
“Until this problem is addressed, this pattern of neglect and abuse toward inmates with mental health issues will only continue,” he said. “He was inside there, and worrying about his family out here,” Murray said. Murray said he still sleeps with his brother’s blanket. “It’s hard for me to move on.” While the detainee population is still below pre-pandemic levels, the number of monthly admissions is now at the highest since before the pandemic. And with continued court backlogs, detainees are staying at Rikers longer, which experts say leaves them more vulnerable to harm and self-harm.