A mentally ill homeless detainee held on robbery and bail-jumping charges died in one of New York City’s Rikers Island jails early Thursday just seven days after entering the system, sources said.
Manish Kunwar, 27, becomes the ninth detainee to die in city jails so far this year, following 19 deaths in 2022 and 16 in 2021. Twenty-seven people have died in the jails during the Adams administration.
Kunwar was found dead at around 6:20 a.m. in his cell at the Eric M. Taylor Center, the Rikers Island facility used to process recent additions to the jail population, the Correction Department said.
The city medical examiner is to determine Kunwar’s cause of death.
The detainee intake process has often been plagued with problems of overcrowding, poor sanitation and detainees staying well past court-ordered time limits.
“Mr. Kunwar’s case yet again highlights the harm of incarceration in lieu of treatment. If our client had access to the services he needed and stable housing, today’s tragedy could have been avoided,” the Legal Aid Society said in a statement.
“The carceral system is no place for people struggling with mental or substance abuse issues. DOC’s continuous failure to ensure the well-being of those New Yorkers in its custody and inability to administer basic jail functions is unacceptable.”
A correction officer familiar with the Taylor Center called the conditions in the jail “those of a Third World country, beyond disgusting and inhumane for both officers and inmates.”
“The basic needs of a human being are far beyond gone in that place,” the officer said.
The officer said it appeared that Kunmar may not have been discovered dead for hours.
“Other cells with other mentally disturbed inmates were covered in feces, and urine, the tier was disgusting, and these are where management thinks it’s okay to house those suffering from mental Illness,” the officer wrote.
Records show Kunwar was initially charged with a robbery back in 2022. Prosecutors alleged he brandished a knife at a man on 37th Ave. and 93rd St. in Corona, Queens, on June 20, 2022, court records show. The victim claimed Kunwar stole $1,200 in cash from him.
He then did not appear for a subsequent court date. Sources said he had a relapse of a substance abuse condition and wound up in a Baltimore psychiatric facility for five months and then somehow in Delaware.
While in Delaware, he called 911 because he was suicidal, and authorities there took him into custody, the sources said. He was then extradited to Queens and charged Sept. 27 with robbery, bail jumping and grand larceny charges.
He was due back in court Thursday morning.
Kunwar was born in Nepal and did not appear to have close family in the city, the sources said. His court-appointed lawyer declined comment.
On Aug. 22, Donny Ubiera, 33, was found dead in the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island. The city medical examiner has yet to determine a cause of death.
“Rikers Island continues to kill our neighbors and traumatize our communities and somehow Mayor Adams thinks this is a path we should continue on?” said Darren Mack of Freedom Agenda.
In late August, Adams asked the City Council to rethink the Close Rikers plan.
