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The truth about Rikers’ deaths and Mamdani’s reckless agenda

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Last month Mayor Mamdani conveyed his condolences, and that of the city, to the family of Clarence Woodward, an inmate who passed away on Rikers Island while awaiting trial for the brutal stabbing murder of one man and the injuring of another. 

“We do not yet know the cause of death,” the mayor stated, “but we do know that too many New Yorkers have died on Rikers Island. Our administration is fully committed …..(to) closing Rikers Island as quickly as possible.”

The mayor felt compelled to single out this death as a matter requiring his personal attention. Why? Because it subtlety serves his crass political agenda.   

Every year in New York City, population 8.5 million, approximately 60,000 people die — about 164 a day.  About 2,000 — 5 a day — die of drug overdoses each year.  The NYC Department of Health reports that in fiscal year 2025, 634 homeless people died in NYC — about 2 per day. About 600 people a year commit suicide. At the time Mayor Mamdani made his comments, 172 people had been murdered in NYC on his watch. How many of those people’s families received condolences from the mayor?

You would think, listening to the mayor, that people were dying every day on Rikers from mistreatment and neglect. But that is just not true. 

In the almost eight years from January 1, 2019, through August 31, 2026, a total of 82 people died in city custody.  That is an average of 10........

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