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Rikers Island is a horrible place to die, and this year, two New Yorkers have already lost their lives there. Barry Cozart, 39, died on March 25, followed shortly by 49-year-old John Price, who died on Sunday. Cozart and Price are the first people to die while being held on Rikers during the Mamdani administration, and under new Department of Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards, the only DOC commissioner to have firsthand experience of being held on Rikers.
But if the pattern of the last few years holds, Cozart and Price will not be the last. According to the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for criminal justice reform, 15 people died on or immediately after release from Rikers in 2025, four in 2024, nine in 2023, and 17 in 2022.