After another death at Rikers, family says it's struggling to get answers

Family members of the most recent person to die in custody on Rikers Island said they're struggling to get answers after his death.

City Department of Correction officials said Dashawn Jenkins, 27, died at 10 p.m. on Monday, 45 minutes after staff at the facility noticed he was “visibly ill." On Wednesday, his brothers Arthur and Edward Jenkins said their family was still reeling and wanted more information.

Edward Jenkins, 68, said family members are concerned Dashawn Jenkins may have been extorted for cash by other prisoners. Arthur Jenkins, 28, said he had a hard time believing it when the correction department contacted him on Tuesday about his brother’s death.

“They told me he died, there was no sort of foul play, they have him on video going in and out of his cell, he threw up, then he was unresponsive,” Arthur said. “I just need answers. That's my brother and I just want answers.”

The correction department told the family to call the coroner's office, which didn’t have answers, Edward Jenkins said.

“And now, the coroner won’t let us see the body. I want to see if he’s bruised, if he’s been beat up, something like that,” Edward Jenkins said. “They’re saying his heart stopped. He’s a healthy kid, 27 years old. He just had a birthday.”

The city medical examiner’s office told Gothamist family members do not need to visit its facilities to confirm a loved one’s identification in most cases. Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie said the department “will investigate every aspect of this tragedy.”

Dashawn Jenkins was being detained at Rikers following an arrest in Manhattan in July, when he was charged with assault and attempted murder, police said. According to the criminal complaint, Jenkins had approached a man sitting on a chair on East 34th Street and Park Avenue and cut his neck using a boxcutter, causing serious injury that required emergency surgery.

Edward Jenkins said since then, his brother repeatedly asked him and other family members to send money to others during his time at Rikers. Edward Jenkins said he worries that may have had some connection to Dashawn Jenkins’ death.

“This whole thing sounds very suspicious,” Edward Jenkins said. “He called me about every day to send money to these different Cash Apps. … He was saying send it to this guy’s Cash App and say it was from Bobby, which was his handle.”

Arthur Jenkins said last year’s death of their grandmother, who raised the brothers, severely affected Dashawn’s mental health.

“Ever since she passed away, you know, his mind been just gone,” Arthur Jenkins said. “When he was outside, he was checking himself into these rehab programs and things like that, just to try to get his mind back right, but that wasn't working.”

Now, Dashawn Jenkins' family is trying to come up with the money to bury him.

Edward and Arthur Jenkins said they consider the city responsible for their brother’s death.

“It's, it's the system. Something in that system is wrong.” Arthur Jenkins said. “I just don't understand, you know, I didn't expect him to die.”

Edward Jenkins said he was going to “hold their feet to the fire."

Dashawn Jenkins’ death is the fifth of a person who was either in custody or recently released from custody since the start of the year.

The Legal Aid Society, which was representing Dashawn Jenkins in the Manhattan case, said the incident was “a stark reminder of the human rights crisis unfolding at Rikers Island,” and called for an investigation.

“His untimely death, just one day after his 27th birthday, makes this tragedy all the more devastating and demands an immediate, swift, and independent investigation,” the group said in a statement. “This needless loss of a young life underscores the urgent need for the immediate appointment of an independent body, such as a receivership, to take over the city’s jail system.”

Two people died on Rikers Island earlier this year. Another died in Department of Correction custody while being held for a court appearance, and another died at a Queens hospital after becoming critically ill while at Rikers.

Five people died at the Rikers complex throughout all of 2024, according to the Board of Correction.

This story has been updated with more information.