Family of Rikers Island inmate who suffered severe brain damage says troubled jail complex must be closed
NEW YORK -- New York City has agreed to pay $28 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a Rikers Island inmate who suffered severe brain damage after he attempted to hang himself while correction officers did nothing for nearly eight minutes.
Madeline Feliciano showed pictures of her grandson both before and after a horrifying incident at Rikers, where the then-18-year-old attempted to take his life. Nicholas Feliciano was hanging for seven minutes, 51 seconds in plain view of correction officers before they came to his aid.
"My grandson will never be the same. He has cognitive impairment. He has mobility impairment. He has speech impairment. He won't be able to walk. He won't able to do the things like a normal human being," Madeline Feliciano said.
Surveillance video obtained by the New York Times captured the incident and the failure of more than a half a dozen correction officers to immediately rush to his aid. The video shows they did not intervene until he became limp.
"Rikers Island needs to be shut down. No human being should go through what my grandson is going through," Madeline Feliciano said.
She has fought for justice for her grandson since the 2019 incident. A spokesman for the city Law Department said, "The settlement of this tragic case was in the best interest of all parties. DOC is working to ensure the safety of all on Rikers, including those afflicted with serious mental illness."
It comes as Mayor Eric Adams' administration is fighting tooth and nail to prevent a federal judge from appointing a receiver to run the jail complex. And even though the Feliciano incident happened when Bill de Blasio was mayor, it has added new pressure to remove the city as the administrator.
"How could eight people walk by a human being who is trying to kill himself and do nothing?" Feliciano family attorney Jonathan Moore said.
"We all know that Rikers Island is a dumpster fire, is a stain on our city. We all know that it must close," City Councilman Lincoln Restler said.
The Bronx district attorney filed felony charges against three of the guards and a captain. Two guards pleaded guilty to misdemeanor misconduct. The cases against the other two are pending, but the lawyers want the DA to seek stiffer penalties.
Rikers is scheduled to close in August 2027, but it likely won't for two reasons. First, the four community jails that are supposed to replace it won't be ready in time, and, second, they are only supposed to hold abut 4,000 inmates. There are currently more than 6,000 men and women at Rikers.
