Another New Yorker died on Rikers Island on Monday morning, bringing the number of Rikers deaths this year to five. In just the first three months of 2025, the jail has already matched the total of all deaths of people detained in the jail complex for 2024. Since Mayor Eric Adams took office in 2022, 38 people incarcerated at Rikers have died, either at the jail or immediately upon leaving the facility after becoming ill or injured.
Twenty-seven-year-old Dashawn Jenkins, who was arrested in Queens last July for burglary, petit larceny, and criminal possession of stolen property, according to Gothamist, had been held at Rikers since July 18, with another court date scheduled for May 13. According to correction officials, Jenkins became "visibly ill" shortly after 9 p.m., and by 10 p.m., he was pronounced dead.