A Rikers Island inmate died early Thursday morning, officials said, marking the city’s ninth in-custody death of the year. 

Manish Kunwar, 27, was found unresponsive at the jail complex around 6:20 a.m., a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Correction said.

The Legal Aid Society, which was representing Kunwar, said it was “devastated and outraged” to hear of his death. 

"We extend our sincere condolences to Mr. Kunwar’s family, friends, and community at this extremely difficult time,” it said in a statement. 

According to the DOC, he had been in custody since Sept. 27.

Details surrounding the death have not been released. The DOC said the city’s medical examiner will determine the cause. 

The state Attorney General and the city’s Department of Investigation will also investigate, as is protocol with all in-custody deaths. 

The death comes after a string of in-custody deaths occurred in July. The most recent in-custody death happened during the early morning hours on Aug. 22, when 33-year-old Donny Ubiera was found unresponsive in his cell at the George R. Vierno Center, the DOC said. 

A DOC spokesman declined to say whether jail staff found Kunwar in order to bring him to court.

But the issue of bringing detainees to their court dates, and tracking the times they refuse to go, was the subject of a bill the City Council passed Thursday.

“Having something like this that adds to the transparency, in which we’re recording their refusals, whether on body worn camera or handheld, and having a database of this information and being able to get this information to someone like a public defender within a number of business days,” Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, who sponsored the bill, said.

According to the DOC, notifications about Kunwar’s death were sent to his next of kin and other agencies, as well as the independent federal monitor — the same day the monitor issued a critical status report on the DOC, stating that “the jails remain dangerous and unsafe, characterized by a pervasive imminent risk of harm to both people in custody and staff.”

On in-custody deaths, the monitor reported that two deaths were suspected to be drug-related and two involving self-harm.

In at least five of the deaths, the report states, “poor staff practices precipitated and/or exacerbated these events,” though the report notes the DOC reported taking immediate corrective action in many of the cases.”

The DOC did not provide comment on the report.