Two inmates in Department of Correction custody died within an hour and a half of each on Rikers Island on Friday afternoon.
Inmates 37-year-old Benjamin Kelly and 56-year-old James Maldonado both died on Friday, bringing the Rikers death toll to seven, two more than all of last year.
According to the DOC, an officer found Kelly in medical distress at around 2:59 p.m. at the Eric M. Taylor Center on Rikers while conducting a tour…