A Rikers Island detainee suffering from clear signs of medical distress waited for roughly 3 ½ hours in a clinic holding pen without being seen because jail officers didn’t tell medical staff he was having a medical emergency, a scathing new report released Friday shows.
John Price, 49, died from pneumonia with a MRSA infection, as he waited for care inside the Eric M. Taylor Center on March 28, the Board of Correction review revealed.
The board’s 31-page report also detailed multiple familiar breakdowns tied to three other recent deaths in custody. They included: correction officers failing to conduct meaningful tours of housing areas, inaccurate handwritten logbook entries, officers leaving their posts, and detainees gathering in unassigned areas because of broken cell doors.
“In each of the four deaths, correctional staff failed to conduct supervisory tours and welfare checks,” the report said.
The report comes as a court-appointed remediation manager has ordered jail leaders to come up with a series of reform plans.
No One Disciplined
Price was arrested in December 2024 on drug charges, and told a clinician that he had an extensive medical history that included hypertension, congestive heart failure, and coronary artery disease, the board report said.
The day before he died, two other detainees in his housing unit got into a fight in the dayroom “which led DOC staff to deploy chemical agents,” according to the board report.
Later that evening, Price complained that he was suffering from nasal congestion and shortness of breath. He was given some medicine and sent back to his housing unit.
But his medical distress escalated as he struggled to keep balance, the board report said. He was sent back to the medical clinic at 12:59 p.m. just as the medical team there was leaving to respond to another emergency in another nearby housing unit.
MORE: Top Rikers Official Suspended as Department Seeks His Firing
So they moved him into a holding pen.
Price appeared weak during trips to the bathroom, at one point leaning on a trash can to avoid falling.
Nurses from the Correctional Health Services, which oversees medical care on Rikers, were actually available in an adjacent clinic, the service told investigators, but officers never alerted them that Price needed care.
He was seen by a medical provider at 4:33 pm, three hours and 34 minutes after he was produced at the clinic.
It was too late.
Price, experiencing shortness of breath and chest pain, was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital where he suffered a heart attack a few hours later and was pronounced dead at 5:37 a.m.
Despite the series of failures, the board report notes no correction officers, supervisors, or medical staff have been disciplined.
In a joint response to the board’s report, DOC and Correctional Health Services said they would establish a protocol requiring correction officers to promptly and clearly relay calls for medical assistance to clinical staff.
Lapses in Other Deaths
The report also detailed the overdose death of Barry Cozart, 39, inside the George R. Vierno Center on March 25. Cozart had a history of substance abuse and was seen on surveillance looking intoxicated the night before his death.
Staff repeatedly failed to conduct proper tours, left their posts unsupervised for extended periods, and a logbook entry falsely recorded that a tour-tracking device was working, according to the board’s review. Cozart’s body wasn’t found until roughly 14 hours after he was last seen moving, the report said.
The area captain and floor officer were recommended for one-month unpaid suspensions, according to the board review.
In a similar fatality, Rajpattie Ramkellawan, 41, was seen crushing and snorting medication the night before her death inside the Rose M. Singer Center on May 18. A disciplinary review in that case is ongoing.
Umais Khan, 40, went unnoticed in his bed for hours before his death inside the Eric M. Taylor Center on May 19, according to the report. He had epilepsy, asthma, and a substance use history, and had missed multiple scheduled clinic appointments because DOC staff didn’t bring him. The floor officer in his case received a 10-day unpaid suspension.
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