The city shelled out $13.1 million to settle personal-injury lawsuits stemming from incidents at Rikers Island and other jail facilities last year — up 66 percent from the prior year, Comptroller Scott Stringer said Wednesday.
That trend is poised to continue because of an increasing number of claims against the city — which shot up 27 percent last year, to 2,846, and is on pace to grow another 39 percent this fiscal year.
“We are spending more taxpayer dollars only to see a rise in incidents that lead to claims. Some of those . . . settlements . . . truly create a huge cost-burden for our city,” Stringer said.
He noted that an increase in the rate of assaults — as well as injuries from accidents attributed to the poor physical plant at Rikers Island — led to the increase, not an attempt to clear cases off the books.
City Hall officials said that judgments and settlements typically are from years-old incidents.
The three inmate deaths cited by Stringer, which each yielded a settlement topping $1 million, all occurred before Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte took office in early 2014 and launched a series of reforms.