A man being held at the Rikers Island jail complex died on Saturday afternoon, at least the third detainee to die in city custody in recent days, according to New York City correction officials.

The Correction Department, in a brief statement on Sunday, offered no details about the circumstances of the man’s death, except to say that staff members were summoned to his aid at the West Facility on Rikers and were unable to revive him.

The detainee, Jimmy Avila, had been at Rikers for less than 24 hours, according to a statement from the Legal Aid Society, which had been representing him. Legal Aid said that Mr. Avila had struggled with serious mental health issues, and that “given his condition, this should have been immediately flagged at intake” and he should have been kept under “close watch.”

A City Hall spokeswoman, Liz Garcia, declined to address the specifics of Mr. Avila’s case but said in a statement that there is a standard intake process for all detainees to determine “any mental health or medical needs.”

“The safety and well-being of every person in our custody is our top priority, and we were devastated to hear about the death of Jimmy Avila,” she said.

The Correction Department said in a statement that it would “thoroughly investigate the circumstances of this tragic event.”