Rikers wrath: Families, advocates demand mayor immediately reduce prison population

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Rikers Island has become a death sentence rather than a detention facility, criminal justice advocates charged Tuesday.

Over the course of nine months, five individuals have died while in the custody of Rikers Island. Activists and families of the dead prisoners are left to wonder what’s happening on the penal island to cause so many custodial deaths?

The most recent death happened on Aug. 30, when Segundo Guallpa, an incarcerated individual serving time inside the controversial jail complex, apparently took his own life. Guallpa is the second inmate to die this month following the suicide of Brandon Rodriguez on Aug. 10.