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Three New York City Department of Correction staffers have been suspended following the latest detainee death at the Rikers Island jail complex, the agency said Friday.
Correction officers found 29-year-old Ardit Billa unresponsive in his cell at the George R. Vierno Center around 12:30 a.m. last Saturday, according to jail officials. The officers and medical personnel they called tried to revive him, officials said, but he was pronounced dead shortly before 1 a.m. — becoming the 10th Rikers detainee to die in or shortly after being released from DOC custody so far this year. That’s double the number for all of 2024, according to city data…