Rikers Island Inmate Dies, Marking Jails' Third Death In 2023: Report

QUEENS — A 31-year-old Rikers Island inmate died on Monday, marking the troubled facility’s third death of the year, according to a report.

Joshua Valles died on May 27 after he was taken to Elmhurst Hospital the week before, according to The New York Times.

He was granted compassionate release, according to the Department of Correction and officials did not release a statement about his death.

The jail system marked the third death of an inmate this year following a somber number of fatalities in the facility in 2022, ending the year with 19 deaths.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine Valles's cause of death.

New York County Defender Services, who represented Valles, said he had no criminal record and was charged with nonviolent property-related offenses.

"While he was clearly in crisis when he entered the criminal legal system, instead of receiving a helping hand or an investigation into his needs, he was jailed at Rikers Island for more than a month," reads a statement from the public defenders.

"We urge an immediate investigation by the New York State Attorney General into the murky and troubling circumstances surrounding Mr. Valles’ death. Mr. Valles’ family deserves to know what really transpired to lead to his tragic death on Rikers Island.”

Valles's death comes days after a report by a federal monitor overseeing the complex detailed the mishandling of five incidents at Rikers Island this month.

“Serious, life-altering harm has occurred, and an imminent risk of harm to others in custody remains,” Federal Monitor Steve J. Martin wrote.

Mayor Eric Adams and Commissioner Louis A. Molina, have pledged to follow a plan ordered and approved last year by a federal judge to enhance conditions at the controversial jail system. Prison reform advocates, however, are calling for a federal takeover of city jails.

"The violence and danger that the Monitor describes is the predictable result of the City's lack of control over its jails and its unwillingness to take strong measures to make the jails safer," The Legal Aid Society wrote in a statement.