Mamdanis pandering cries for accused killer ignores the real crisis at Rikers Island

After a death on Rikers Island, Mayor Mamdani posted that he was sad about the “death of a New Yorker in city custody,” without mentioning whether he was also sad for the poor guy, Jose Miranda, whom this “New Yorker” had randomly sliced to death on camera.Mamdani’s selective sadness was a craven pander to his empty-the-jails DSA base.But it was also a willful misrepresentation of what’s happening at Rikers, and a distraction from his own responsibility.As a candidate for mayor, Mamdani claimed people who died at Rikers were “killed.” But they weren’t killed.Statistics show most inmates deaths are due to medical episodes, suicides and drug overdoses.At worst they died of negligence, which Mamdani has done little to combat.

He’d rather set criminals free than fix the issues.Clarence Woodward was the seventh inmate to die this year.If this pace keeps up, we could see 11 deaths this year.This toll would be just one less than the average of 12 annual Rikers deaths over the six years between 2020 and 2025, an increase from the pre-2020 annual death toll of nine.Why are more people dying?Most deaths — just under half — are medical, and they haven’t increased (even COVID-19 didn’t have a big impact).The deaths that have soared are suicides (up from one per year pre-2020 to three per year) and drug overdoses (up from fewer than one per year pre-2020 to three per year).And these deaths point to chronic management failures.As Rikers’ longstanding federal monitor reports, video in the hours before one of this year’s deaths showed “little to no effective supervision, with incarcerated individuals moving freely throughout the housing area, including during overnight lock-in,” and only “superficial tours by staff and supervisors throughout the night.”After another 2026 death, the city suspended one corrections officer because “his tours were not meaningful and because he left post without authorization.” Subscribe to our daily...