14th inmate dies at Rikers: ‘Utterly failing’

A 32-year-old Rikers Island inmate died behind bars early Sunday — the 14th in-custody death at the Big Apple jail complex this year, Correction Department officials said.

Aramis Furse “appeared unwell” at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center around 2 a.m. and was taken to Mount Sinai Queens Hospital, where he was pronounced dead fewer than 90 minutes later, according to a rep for the department.

Jail officials did not provide details on the circumstances of Furse’s death.

“The department is mourning the tragic death of an individual in custody,” city Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said in a statement.

“We extend our deepest condolences to his friends and family. The safety of everyone in our care is always our foremost concern, and we will fully investigate this tragedy.”

Records show that Furse has open cases in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens on a series of robbery, grand larceny, burglary and criminal-mischief charges. He was being held on $45,000 cash bail or a $150,000 bond on the pending cases.

His death comes just a little over two weeks since another Rikers detainee, 38-year-old Edwin Ramos, died at Otis Bantum after being found “in medical distress inside a bathroom” early Nov. 21, officials said.

Ramos was taken to the jailhouse clinic and later the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

There were nine deaths recorded at city jails last year and five in 2023, The City reported.

In a statement Sunday, the Katal Center for Equity, Health and Justice, a community-based group that has been vocal about of conditions at Rikers Island, said 47 inmates have died at the jail since the start of 2022 and accused the department of “utterly failing at its responsibilities” in a statement.

Yonah Zeitz, the group’s advocacy director, maintained that inmates at the facility “have suffered immense violence, medical neglect and preventable deaths.”