A pair of jail oversight agencies—the New York State Commission of Correction (SCOC) and the New York City Board of Corrections (BOC)—recently launched investigations into the New York City Department of Corrections (DOC) handling of Charizma Jones, a 23-year-old who died July 14 in a hospital after sustaining a medical emergency while held on Rikers Island earlier this summer.
The Legal Aid Society, which represented Jones, called for a probe—with the permission of her family—in a letter to the BOC on July 22, pointing to corrections officers allegedly denying the Bronx woman access to medical care based on Correctional Health Services (CHS) records.
According to the letter, the DOC placed Jones under restrictive “Red ID” status for allegedly assaulting a staff member in April. Weeks later, she was admitted twice to the infirmary for rashes and fever, but the letter states that corrections officers allegedly blocked medical staff from taking her vital signs for “safety reasons,” including allegedly denying five attempts on May 5. Such diagnostics would help identify why Jones was seriously ill, which remains unknown to her lawyers and family today.
A day later, on May 6, Jones was brought to the hospital, but was only officially released from DOC custody on July 10, four days before her death.
“We have serious concerns that DOC’s actions denying Ms. Jones access to medical care contributed to her tragic death,” wrote supervising attorney Veronica Vela. “DOC’s use of a security status to deny urgent, or indeed any needed medical attention, is unacceptable. The BOC must conduct a swift investigation into the circumstances surrounding Ms. Jones’ death to ensure transparency and accountability for DOC’s actions.”
A DOC spokesperson told the AmNews that the matter is under investigation.
Civil rights lawyer MK Kaishian, who represents Jones’s family, said much remains unknown, but is concerned by what CHS records do reveal.
“We don’t know for sure whether or not the Department of Correction refusing medical staff access to Charizma’s cell was the only cause of her death, or was a significant cause of her death,” Kaishian said over the phone. “Certainly, we are investigating, and we’ll get to the bottom of what exactly happened, but regardless of what the outcome of that investigation is, that’s a horrific human rights abuse.”
Kaishian also pointed to recent comments made by Mayor Eric Adams, denying that solitary confinement is being used in city jails after his emergency executive order suspended a local law designed to stop solitary confinement in city jails that was enacted this year.
“When Ms. Jones was placed in what’s called ‘Red ID’ status, that becomes a justification for removing certain privileges because of infractions or other issues that she’s had inside of the jail [that are] based only on the allegations of DOC staff,” Kaishian said. “What they also use Red ID [for] is to place people in isolation.”
Both the SCOC and BOC confirmed the investigations to the AmNews. The BOC did not provide a direct quote.
“SCOC does not comment on cases that are under investigation,” a SCOC spokesperson said by email. “However, New York State requires that county jails and local lockups provide detained individuals with adequate medical care.”
While every custody medical death in state jails is reviewed by the SCOC, Medical Review Board investigations like the one launched for Jones’s case are reserved for cases involving tangible questions about a correctional facility’s compliance with minimum safety and health standards. HIPAA regulations extend after death, so Jones’s exact conditions are likely to be redacted (edited) when the report gets published.
However, SCOC investigations require longer turnaround time. Investigations of custody deaths on Rikers Island include five under the Adams administration as of press time: Tarz Youngblood, Herman Diaz, Albert Drye, Kevin Bryan, and DeShaun Carter.
BOC investigations focus on the scope of city jails and usually look at the circumstances of what led to deaths, rather than individual staff failures or criminality. However, Kaishian believes systemic change is needed.
“Even if this is a situation where criminal charges are brought or where an individual is determined to have acted in a manner that was particularly egregious, this is still a systemic issue,” Kaishian said. “Our firm represents many families of people who have been killed at Rikers Island; some of those cases have resulted in temporary suspension, or even individuals leaving the Department of Correction, and yet we still have families coming to us with the tragic deaths of their loved ones and asking for accountability.
“At a certain point, we have to really ask whether or not the city is willing to implement any changes that would actually even closely resemble accountability. So far, the answer has been no. And accountability looks like closing Rikers.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.