"Sunday night, after allegedly facing torturous isolation and being denied critical care, Elijah Muhammad died alone in a cell on Rikers Island. It’s now been reported that just days before his death, he spent thirty-two hours in isolation, which violates both policy and conscience.
"His passing is a tragedy, another preventable death in city custody and because of our city’s failures. This loss is yet another urgent call to pass new legislation that ends solitary confinement in practice, not just in name, and provides strict, safer parameters for any temporary separation. Solitary kills, especially on an island where there are failures at every level to adequately provide the safety and security required to protect incarcerated individuals and staff.
"Any plans to reform Rikers are not moving fast enough to contend with a crisis that presents immediate danger to people on both sides of the bars. Urgent action is morally mandated to enact change, to decarcerate, and to finally end the deeply damaging, sometimes deadly practice of solitary as we work toward closing Rikers."
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