A cancer-stricken inmate died at Bellevue Hospital’s prison ward Thursday – marking the fifth New Yorker to die in the custody of the city’s Department of Correction so far this year, officials said. 

Ricky Howell, 60 – who records show was being held for parole violations, burglary and other thefts – died around 5 p.m. at the facility, where he was receiving “long-term medical care,” according to the DOC and the Legal Aid Society. 

The city medical examiner’s office confirmed that Howell – who was admitted to Bellevue on Feb. 9 – died of natural causes, specifically metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of his tonsils.

A DOC spokesperson confirmed that the death is under investigation and notifications have been made to all appropriate agencies, including Rikers’ federal monitor and the Board of Correction.

“Last night, we learned that Ricky Howell, our former client, passed away from a terminal illness at Bellevue Hospital in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction,” the Legal Aid Society, who represented Howell, said in a statement. 

“Mr. Howell was known for his kindness and charisma, and we are both saddened by his loss and angered by the collective indifference from the individuals who condemned Mr. Howell to live out his final days incarcerated rather than in the community.”

Howell’s legal reps praised the “devoted care team” at Bellevue who treated their client with “dignity and respect,” but ripped the Richmond County DA’s office and the judges involved in his case. 

“The judges and prosecutors on Staten Island who vigorously fought to keep him jailed despite knowing full well his medical condition and imminent death, and that he posed no threat to public safety, is truly disgraceful, callous, and devoid of any human decency,” the statement said. “The Richmond County District Attorney’s Office’s insistence of a prison sentence is equally disturbing, despite numerous letters documenting Mr. Howell’s deteriorative state from his doctors and other medical professionals.”

“This stunning lack of compassion and empathy brandished by Staten Island judges and prosecutors throughout this case is an all too common punitive quality of the criminal legal system that refuses to recognize our clients as human beings.”

However, the Richmond County DA’s office argued that the Legal Aid Society had severely misrepresented the facts of Howell’s case. 

“We empathize with the family of Ricky Howell as they grieve his passing due to illness,” Staten Island DA Michael McMahon said in a statement. “The death of any New Yorker is a tragedy; however the facts and history of Mr. Howell’s journey through the criminal justice system clearly show our office’s repeated efforts, and Mr. Howell’s repeated failures, to lead a law-abiding life and to receive medical treatment outside Department of Corrections custody.”

Howell was initially arrested in June of 2021 for allegedly breaking into a Staten Island homeowner’s garage and stealing multiple items, according to a source familiar with the case. 

He was initially ordered held on $5,000 bail – which he did not post – and remained on Rikers Island for three months until his legal team informed the DA’s office their client was suffering from cancer and needed to be released. 

The court agreed to cut him loose on that occasion and one other time, the source said – but he refused to abide by the conditions, which included attending a supervised release interview, living with his mother and keeping up with medical appointments. 

He also went to Queens, where he allegedly committed two more burglaries in July and August of 2022.

“On two separate occasions, our office consented to Mr. Howell’s release from custody, and on both occasions, he failed to abide by every term of his release, and is alleged to have committed two additional burglaries in Queens,” McMahon said. 

“It is outrageous that the Legal Aid Society would so grossly mischaracterize the facts in this case and also blatantly fail to acknowledge that three different Supreme Court Justices in two different counties reached the same conclusion: that Mr. Howell’s actions and failures to abide by court orders and the terms of his plea agreement necessitated that he be placed back into custody.”

“While we are fully committed to treating each defendant with individual attention and dignity, we also have a duty to protect public safety and to uphold the rule of law, and that balance was struck appropriately in this case,” he said. 

Earlier this week, Rikers Island inmate Felix Taveras, 40 – who was also locked up on burglary charges out of Staten Island – died of an overdose, corrections officials said. 

Following Taveras’ death at the Anna M. Kross Correctional Facility, jail staffers faced disciplinary measures related to “violations” in their response, officials said. 

“Based on preliminary departmental review, procedural violations were discovered and suspensions will be issued,” a spokesman at the time, without providing details of the offenses.

Last year was a particularly deadly one in the city’s jail system, with 19 inmates dying behind bars. 

The DOC no longer issues press releases when an inmate dies in custody as part of a significant shift in policy earlier this year, which led to two deaths initially going unreported.