NEW YORK — Mentally ill detainees on Rikers Island and in other city jails have become more likely to deliberately hurt themselves in recent years, data obtained by the New York Daily News shows.
Incidents of self-harm in better-staffed Rikers Island units for mentally ill detainees made up 65% of all such incidents in the jails in December, the figures show.
In all there were 154 incidents of self-harm in the jails in December, with 100 of them taking place in mental health units on Rikers. The overall number of self harm incidents in December exceeded the 110 incidents reported in January 2022 by 40%.
