NEW YORK (PIX11) — A 49-year-old detainee at the Rikers Island jail facility died Thursday, marking the second Department of Correction custody death of the year, officials said.
George Pagan, who’d been in custody at the Eric M. Taylor Center died at Elmhurst Hospital. He’d been taken there Thursday morning and died just after 8:30 a.m. His cause of death was under investigation by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Pagan had been in DOC custody since March 9. It wasn’t immediately clear what the charges were against him.
“Any death in custody is a tragedy and we send our deepest condolences and sympathy to this individual’s friends and family,” DOC Commissioner Louis Molina said. “We are working with our partner agencies to conduct a full investigation into the causes and circumstances.”
In late February, another Rikers inmate died. There were 16 DOC-related deaths in 2021; most of the 16 died while in custody, but two died shortly after they were compassionately released.
