NEW YORK — A new lawsuit claims city doctors botched a plan to ease a Rikers Island detainee with psychiatric issues off prescription drugs, causing a catastrophic seizure from withdrawal that led him to die.
Doctors with Correctional Health Services put Malcolm Boatwright, 28, on the withdrawal plan in November 2021 in an attempt to taper his body’s chemical dependency on clonazepam — a member of the benzodiazepine family of drugs that includes Xanax. Benzodiazepines are used to treat anxiety, seizures and severe insomnia.
Three weeks later — on Dec. 7, 2021, after he supposedly completed the tapering program — Boatwright had a seizure and died. He was one of 35 detainees to die in Department of Correction custody in 2021 and 2022.
