Terminally Ill Rikers Island Inmate 5th To Die in 2023: DOC

QUEENS — A homeless man serving time for stealing tools died of cancer Thursday, marking the fifth death of a Rikers Island detainee this year, according to the Department of Correction and reports.

Ricky Howell, 60, died Thursday about 5 p.m. from a terminal illness in the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward, a spokesperson said.

Attorneys were battling to release Howell amid a cancer diagnosis after he pleaded guilty in 2021 to stealing tools from a Staten Island garage, according to a local news outlet.

Howell's death was condemned by Legal Aid attorneys who described him as a kind and charismatic person.

"We are both saddened by his loss and angered by the collective indifference from the individuals who condemned Mr. Howell to live out his final days incarcerated rather than in the community," a spokesperson at Legal Aid Society said.

Howell's death is the fifth connected to Rikers Island this year.

Soon after the death of 31-year-old Joshua Valles in May, the city's Department of Correction stopped notifying news outlets when an incarcerated person dies.

The troubled jail complex recently came under fire after a report by a court-appointed monitor detailed the gruesome sanitary conditions at Rikers Island this year.

Activists and attorneys have been urging federal judge Laura Taylor Swain to appoint a receiver — an independent manager — to take over the city jails amid several reports revealing the security and health issues that many have labeled a "humanitarian crisis."