Sick And In Solitary On Rikers Island

Sick And In Solitary On Rikers Island
A view of buildings on Rikers Island penitentiary complex where IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn is being held in New York on May 18, 2011. Strauss-Kahn has asked a second New York judge to release him on bail after being jailed on charges he sexually assaulted and attempted to rape a hotel maid in Manhattan. Strauss-Kahn's proposal includes a requirement that he be confined to home detention 24 hours a day in Manhattan with electronic monitoring, in addition to posting USD 1 million in cash for bail, according to court filings.AFP PHOTO/DON EMMERT (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)
A view of buildings on Rikers Island penitentiary complex where IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn is being held in New York on May 18, 2011. Strauss-Kahn has asked a second New York judge to release him on bail after being jailed on charges he sexually assaulted and attempted to rape a hotel maid in Manhattan. Strauss-Kahn's proposal includes a requirement that he be confined to home detention 24 hours a day in Manhattan with electronic monitoring, in addition to posting USD 1 million in cash for bail, according to court filings.AFP PHOTO/DON EMMERT (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)

Last summer, a 25-year-old robbery suspect at Rikers Island took a ball of concentrated soap meant to clean his jail cell and swallowed it. Jason Echeverria had been held for two months inside the Department of Correction's Mental Health Assessment Unit for Infracted Inmates, where the confined typically spend 23 hours a day on lockdown. By swallowing the soap, Echeverria hoped to spring himself from his confinement; instead, for 20 minutes a corrections supervisor ignored his condition as he became violently sick and eventually died from the poisoning. The city's medical examiner has found that the lack of immediate medical treatment constituted a homicide.

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