Michael Nieves sliced his throat with a razor around 11:40 a.m. on Aug. 25, 2022. For the next 10 minutes, correction workers at the Rikers Island jail complex stood by his cell and watched him bleed without providing medical care.
Mr. Nieves later died.
The failure by three correction workers to offer aid was “an omission” that contributed to Mr. Nieves’s death, the office of the New York attorney general, Letitia James, found in a report published on Tuesday. But because Mr. Nieves might have died even had he received immediate medical help, Ms. James said she would not charge the workers criminally.
In a surprising finding, the report also said that the workers had followed correction department rules by deciding not to render help.
“The D.O.C.’s rules and regulations do not clearly require officers to provide immediate care to people with severely bleeding wounds,” the attorney general’s office said in a news release.
The decision not to charge the corrections workers “is incredibly disappointing,” said Samuel Shapiro, a lawyer hired by members of Mr. Nieves’s family, who have filed a lawsuit against the city in federal court. Describing surveillance footage that captures Mr. Nieves’s suicide attempt and the workers’ response, Mr. Shapiro said, “It is incredibly disturbing to watch city employees stand there as Mr. Nieves is slowly bleeding to death from his neck and do nothing to help him.”
The Department of Correction suspended all three workers for 30 days. When they returned to work, they were prohibited from having contact with detainees. In May 2023, two officers, Beethoven Joseph and Jeron Smith, were accused by the department of violating rules and a directive on suicide prevention and intervention. The disciplinary proceedings are still pending, the attorney general’s office said.
“We are reviewing the attorney general’s report and recommendations,” said Latima Johnson, a spokeswoman for the correction department.
Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, the union that represents the officers, praised Ms. James’s decision.
“From day one, COBA maintained that our correction officers involved in this incident followed DOC rules and regulations and did nothing wrong,” Mr. Boscio said in an email. “They have been vindicated.”
Mr. Nieves had a history of mental health crises. He was diagnosed with bipolar and schizophrenia disorders, and he spent 12 days at Bellevue Hospital in February 2019 after burning himself in a suicide attempt, according to a lawsuit he filed in 2019. Mr. Nieves was taken into custody in April 2019 and faced charges of burglary and arson, records show.
Officials described him as severely mentally ill, and he was twice found unfit for trial. Both times he was sent to a state psychiatric facility, where he spent a total of 10 months.
At the time of his suicide, Mr. Nieves was awaiting another exam to determine his fitness to stand trial. He was due back in court in September 2022. He was held in the Program to Accelerate Clinical Effectiveness, also called the PACE units, which are heavily staffed and offer intensive psychiatric care.
The suicide attempt began at 10 a.m., when a razor delivered to Mr. Nieves went missing. Jail workers placed Mr. Nieves in his cell, then they left him alone as they searched the cell of another inmate for the razor.
At 11:41 a.m., Officer Joseph returned to find Mr. Nieves leaning against the wall of his cell, bleeding profusely. Officer Joseph was joined by Officer Smith and Captain Mary Tinsley, who used her radio to report a medical emergency. The workers offered Mr. Nieves a blanket and a shirt, which he refused, then waited 10 minutes for medical help to arrive.
“The officers’ failure to put pressure on Mr. Nieves’s wound contributed to his death,” Ms. James found.
In addition to the failure to provide immediate medical care, the attorney general’s investigation found systemic issues at Rikers had contributed to Mr. Nieves’s death. Medical workers who responded to the emergency weren’t informed that Mr. Nieves was bleeding intensely, so they didn’t bring gauze or bandages. Nor did medical staff immediately apply pressure to Mr. Nieves’s wound, which also contributed to Mr. Nieves’s death, Dr. Kristen Landi, from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, told investigators.
Correction leaders also were confused about department rules. Robert Gonzalez, the department’s deputy commissioner of training and development, told investigators that correction officers are required to apply pressure to open wounds as they wait for medical staff to arrive. Christopher Hennessey, a first-aid instructor at the department’s academy, said officers were not required or trained to provide wound care.
The deputy commissioner was wrong, Ms. James found. Jail workers are required to provide immediate medical care only to prevent inmates from hanging themselves, or to provide CPR or treatment with a defibrillator to inmates who have stopped breathing or whose hearts have stopped, according to the attorney general’s review of department rules. “The lack of clarity in their training and in the rules” contributed to Mr. Nieves’s death, Ms. James found.
The post Correction Officers Who Failed to Aid Dying Inmate Won’t Be Charged appeared first on New York Times.