NEW YORK CITY — The family of a Rikers Island inmate who took his own life behind bars last year will receive a $2.25 million settlement from the city.
Failures by jail staff to prevent Kevin Bryan’s suicide were so indefensible that Comptroller Brad Lander said he approved the settlement without the case first going to court.
“While no amount of money can bring Kevin Bryan’s life back, we hope to achieve a small bit of justice by reaching this settlement swiftly,” Lander said in a statement Friday.
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“Since well before Kevin Bryan’s death, I have been calling out the crisis at Rikers as being out of control, yet more and more people are being sent there, and too little is being done to address the crisis. Pre-trial detention should not be a death sentence.”
Bryan, 35, died by suicide in Rikers Island on Sept. 14, 2022.
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He had spent six days behind bars after being arrested on a trespassing charge and having his bail set at $5,000, authorities said.
A subsequent probe by the Board of Correction found another inmate pushed Bryan out of his dorm and a guard, who did not inform a supervisor about the incident, let him sleep in a vestibule.
Bryan then went into a staff bathroom and locked the door, which guards didn’t notice for nearly 30 minutes, according to an investigative report. Jail staff finally broke inside the bathroom after roughly an hour, where they found Bryan dead with a linen tied around his neck and a pipe, the report states.
Michael Aviles, a lawyer for Bryan’s family, said the settlement hopefully sheds light on systemic problems at Rikers.
“The family of Kevin Bryan has suffered a tremendous loss that could and should have been avoided,” he said in a statement. “A mother lost a son, a sister lost a brother and a grandmother lost a grandson.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, there are resources to help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day by calling 988. Its website offers services including a live chat.
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