NEW YORK—An inmate on a New York City jail barge died Wednesday after a medical emergency, the city’s Department of Correction said. It is at least the 12th death of a city inmate this year and the second this week amid what some elected officials and advocates have deemed a “humanitarian crisis” in the city’s lockups.
The Department of Correction said in a statement that the inmate at the Vernon C. Bain Center, a floating Bronx jail across the East River from the Rikers Island jail complex, appeared to be in medical distress and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 10:50 a.m.
