The rhythm of Erick Tavira’s life was by no means fairly so easy.
“He would ask me, ‘Mommy, what did you concentrate on that tune?’ I might say, ‘It was stunning,’” Haydeth Tavira, Erick Tavira’s mom, stated via an interpreter. Her face was damp with tears.
His household defined, sitting in his aunt’s house within the Bronx, that music was one of many remaining vibrant spots in his life.
“He beloved to sing,” his mom stated via an interpreter. “From a younger age, he beloved it and performed devices just like the guitar. That caught his consideration.”
The music abruptly stopped in October.
That’s when Tavira, who was 28 years outdated, died on Rikers Island. His loss of life has been dominated a suicide.
It’s certainly one of six suicides that occurred in metropolis custody in 2022.
What You Want To Know
- About 16% of individuals on Rikers Island have a critical psychological sickness
- Due to workers shortages and an absence of capability, sources say the jails psychological well being care system is harassed
- Self-harm incidents have doubled because the pandemic started. In 2022, there have been six deaths dominated suicides by the medical expert’s workplace
Tavira is among the many estimated 16% of individuals on Rikers Island affected by a extreme psychological sickness — a gentle inhabitants that has turned parts of the town’s jails into devoted psychological well being wings.
It was in a type of housing items the place Tavira killed himself.
For months, NY1 has examined the care these on Rikers, like Tavira, have been getting. Our investigation discovered a once-praised psychological well being care system is now harassed by workers shortages and an absence of area. Self-harm is skyrocketing, and suicides are on the rise — a part of a nationwide development taking root proper right here on Rikers.
Partly pushed by the pandemic, detainees like Tavira with a psychological well being prognosis are staying for much longer in metropolis jail, solely exacerbating the isolation awaiting trial. As of fall 2022, a mean detainee on Rikers Island will spend 110 days in custody. However for these with a psychological well being prognosis, that quantity virtually doubles to 208 days on Rikers.
Erick Tavira was on Rikers for 494 days.
“What they did to him shouldn’t be honest,” his mom informed NY1 via an interpreter. “Not simply to him. I really feel indignant, offended, pissed off. And I ask God to not permit for any extra hatred to enter my coronary heart as a result of it’s not good for me. However what I ask for is justice.”
As Erick Tavira struggled with psychological sickness, music was one of many remaining vibrant spots in his life. In June 2021, Tavira was arrested and despatched to Rikers. In October 2022, after 494 days on the jail, he killed himself, based on the town’s Workplace of the Chief Medical Examiner. (Picture courtesy of the Tavira household)
Tavira was identified with schizophrenia with paranoid delusions as a teen. He ended up on the streets and in homeless shelters. Whereas his household was shut, when he was off his treatment, his paranoia may make him aggressive. It may put a gulf between them.
“Typically when he didn’t take his meds, sure, his temper would change,” his mom stated via an interpreter. “He thought he was being adopted. On the practice once we had been collectively, he thought that somebody was looking at his sister, and I felt a worry that one thing would occur to him, or one thing would occur to us as a result of he would wish to defend us.”
His household says he would go to the hospital for remedy.
That’s what he did in June 2021. Tavira went to Metropolitan Hospital for assist.
Surveillance video obtained by NY1 reveals Tavira within the emergency room within the midst of a psychotic break. He takes off his shirt.
He then will get right into a combat with one of many hospital’s safety officers.
He was arrested with out getting remedy and was launched.
However the next week, Tavira, nonetheless unmedicated, was in Higher Manhattan and he allegedly attacked a 14-year-old from behind, hitting and making an attempt to strangle the teenager. He then allegedly fought with one other one who was making an attempt to intervene.
Tavira was arrested once more, and he was despatched to Rikers on strangulation and assault expenses. Bail was set at $20,000.
“My brother would name consistently,” says Amariliz Torres, Tavira’s sister. “Two, 3 times a day. We knew when he wasn’t OK. All we may do was discuss to him, attempt to calm him down.”
A month earlier than he died, Tavira was transferred to a psychological well being unit that sources inform us had about 40 detainees in it, excess of some clinicians would suggest.
In unique physique digicam video obtained by NY1 via the Freedom of Data Regulation, Tavira is seen protesting the transfer. Officers are huddled round him explaining “psychological well being” needs him to go. Once they get him as much as transfer him, Tavira resists. He’s then sprayed with a chemical agent.
A month later, he was present in his new cell with a sheet round his neck.
In response to this video, the commissioner of the town’s Division of Correction, Louis Molina, despatched NY1 a press release:
“Our deepest condolences exit to the Tavira household and we perceive that this video is likely to be tough for them to look at as they’re grieving their loss. Transferring individuals in custody from one facility to a different is a regular prevalence, and utilizing an authorized chemical agent is a regular correctional apply if a detainee resists. The officers concerned on this video had been justified of their actions. Nonetheless, it’s unlucky that this video was offered by the NYC Board of Correction with out regard for this necessary context, or the sentiments of the Tavira household.”
In response to a preliminary investigation by the Board of Correction, which has oversight of the Division of Correction, there was just one clinician serving the unit when Tavira died and there have been no “regular officers,” who’re sometimes assigned to psychological well being items to offer consistency for the workers and detainees.
The report discovered Tavira had spent “three consecutive days in his cell and didn’t step out to eat or bathe.”
On the time of Tavira’s loss of life, there have been no suicide prevention aides working and the officer on responsibility didn’t conduct 15-minute rounds of their place.
A Division of Correction spokesperson stated it’s their coverage to have suicide prevention aides in these items 24/7. That spokesperson stated Tavira’s loss of life continues to be underneath investigation.
On Rikers Island, correction leaders and officers from Rikers’ well being care supplier contend they’ve a system of care that works. They only want extra of it.
“I’ve been on this job 27 years. The numbers of psychological well being have grown exceedingly, like by 10,” stated Antoinette Cort, the appearing warden of George R. Vierno Heart, one of many jails on Rikers Island. “As a result of after I first got here on, we didn’t have so many psychological well being items, and now now we have the necessity for greater than those that now we have.”
The appearing warden is referring to what’s referred to as a PACE unit — the best degree of care detainees with critical psychological sickness can get on Rikers Island. Not like lower-level psychological well being items, these items have scientific workers, therapists and social staff, embedded on web site. They had been broadly praised once they had been opened in 2016.
There are actually 10 of them throughout Rikers.
Former Mayor Invoice de Blasio dedicated to increase that to 12 in 2016, however workers shortages put that on pause.
“There’s a lengthy wait record,” Cort stated. “These guys in 17a, they’re psychological well being sufferers, however they’re match for PACE. In order quickly because the beds grow to be out there, they’ll consider them as fast as they’ll, and we’ll simply transfer them when she tells us to, to get them to the care they really want.”
Some households, like Tavira’s, are questioning whether or not they’re getting that care.
Knowledge from Correctional Well being Providers present over the course of the pandemic, the variety of psychological well being appointments that had been accomplished in a given month has slowly decreased. In September 2022, simply 53% had been carried out.
(NY1 graphic)
Well being officers say there are a number of explanation why appointments are canceled, together with correction officers failing to supply detainees and detainees refusing to go. Nonetheless, they acknowledge they’ve workers shortages.
“I feel it is a actually onerous time for any well being care system to actually workers adequately,” stated Lauren Stossel, chief of service for psychological well being at Correctional Well being Providers, which runs well being care on Rikers. “There’s simply been large challenges in retention and hiring since COVID, when plenty of psychiatrists and psychologists have had the chance to work remotely. It’s not a straightforward time to be working within the jails.”
The numbers agree.
Because the pandemic rolled on, so did the quantity of self-harm in metropolis jails. Pre-pandemic, there have been fewer than 100 incidents per thirty days. Now, that quantity has doubled. The vast majority of these incidents are occurring in specialised psychological well being items.
(NY1 graphic)
Even so, well being officers argue the care detainees get on Rikers is extra strong than they get in the neighborhood.
“Our sufferers are literally getting an infinite quantity of psychological well being remedy in these items, akin to what you would possibly get in an inpatient unit, or an intensive day-treatment program or a partial hospitalization — so actually a degree of care that’s a lot, a lot larger than what sufferers would possibly get in the neighborhood in the event that they had been simply seeing an outpatient supplier,” Stossel stated.
John Gallagher was a deputy warden in command on the Division of Correction and was one of many officers that helped begin psychological well being items on Rikers. He retired in June 2021.
“A variety of issues fell aside,” he tells us.
Gallagher stated earlier than he left, the division was now not centered on detainees with psychological sickness. It was scrambling to adjust to the federal monitor, in addition to the motion to shut Rikers and eliminating solitary confinement.
These with psychological sickness took a backseat.
“The mentally sick inhabitants are the stepchildren of the division and that at all times bothered me,” Gallagher stated. “There wasn’t sufficient focus. Everybody will complain that individuals shouldn’t be in jail, however I see only a few individuals wish to do something about it.”
Coaching, he stated, fell off throughout the pandemic.
“You discuss suicide prevention, no person actually paid consideration to that anymore,” Gallagher stated. “Trainings weren’t being carried out, inappropriate workers. One of many large issues I had, and the chief tried to right it, is we might practice workers, however then they had been by no means placed on the unit.”
Previous to that, he stated, the psychological well being items had been getting acclaim nationally.
“It’s like Jenga. You pull out that one block and so many issues are going to collapse,” he stated. “I can inform that for a truth, plenty of the actually good scientific workers that I labored with over time left, and a part of that was frustration.”
That frustration is now with households just like the Taviras, who simply have footage and letters to undergo.
“‘By that point, I’ll be right here eight months and that’s a yr in Rikers Island,’” Tavira’s sister stated, studying certainly one of her brother’s letters from behind bars. It was sient about 10 months earlier than he died.
“‘I really like you all greater than you’ll be able to think about. I hope to see you quickly.’”
