Settlement reached on behalf of mentally ill prisoner who died at Rikers

The Department of Corrections is paying $5.75 million to the family of Bradley Ballard, who was killed by corrections staff at Rikers Island in 2013.

Ballard, 39, was a schizophrenic and diabetic man who died because of the abuse of Department of Correction staff and medical providers on Rikers Island. Ballard was sent to Rikers on a parole violation for failing to change a report of address.

While in jail his medical and mental health needs were mishandled by the city’s health care contractor at the time, Corizon Health, Inc. Department of Correction staff illegally shut him in his cell as punishment for perceived rudeness, leaving him without medication or treatment for his schizophrenia and diabetes for a week. Correction and medical staff walked by his locked cell without offering assistance and turned off the water to his cell. As a result, Ballard died Sept. 11, 2013.

The Legal Aid Society Prisoners’ Rights Project and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady reached a settlement in the case. It is the largest ever entered into by New York City for a death in custody.