A Rikers Island detainee died from a suspected fentanyl overdose late Sunday, leading to a rookie correction officer getting fired – while another two were rushed to hospitals overnight into Monday, The Post has learned.

The suspected overdose marked the 10th death in city Department of Correction custody this year. It was the agency’s fourth fatal overdose of 2022, three of which happened in the last two months.

Elijah Muhammad, 31, was found unresponsive in his cell at the George R. Vierno Center at about 9:45 p.m. Sunday and was pronounced dead about an hour later, internal records obtained by The Post show. 

The Kentucky native, who arrived on Rikers Island on June 8, had multiple open cases in Brooklyn and was due to be arraigned Monday on an attempted murder and felony assault indictment that was handed down last month, according to court records.

Muhammad pleaded guilty in May to felony robbery and possession of stolen property charges, and was also due in court Monday in connection with that case, the records state. 

A spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said she was unable to provide further details on the cases because they had already been abated by the defendant’s death.

DOC Commissioner Louis Molina said a “preliminary review” of Muhammad’s death “required… immediate action against the staff involved” and an officer was fired as a result.

“It is heartbreaking when someone dies while in custody. We treat every death with the utmost seriousness and understand that it is our mandate to keep every person entrusted to our care safe,” Molina said.

“We will also be referring this incident to the Department of Investigation immediately. Our hearts go out to the deceased’s family and friends.”

The canned officer was a rookie assigned to Muhammad’s housing area who had just started with the agency in December, records show.

Jailhouse sources said he was still on a probationary period, which is why the DOC was able to swiftly fire him without intervention from the the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association. The union didn’t comment on the incident.

Meanwhile, two other men in the same housing area as Muhammad suffered medical emergencies overnight and investigators are seeking to determine if fentanyl was involved, jailhouse sources told The Post Monday.

Their conditions aren’t immediately clear and the DOC didn’t comment when asked for additional information. 

“What DOC and the courts are failing to admit is that we are in a human rights emergency,” Darren Mack, the co-director of the advocacy group Freedom Agenda, said in a statement. 

“The chronic staff absenteeism continues while DA’s and judges are unnecessarily sending people to a potential death sentence. New York City’s communities need accountability, decarceration, and ultimately closure of the jails.” 

Fentanyl, a highly potent and deadly opioid, has been “circulating” through the jail, sources previously said, and it’s been difficult to control due to the agency’s long-standing staffing crunch caused by chronic absenteeism and a host of other issues at the mismanaged agency. 

In June, Board of Correction officials revealed there weren’t enough staff in the jail’s intake unit to screen new admissions for drugs or other contraband. 

The facility, which sees about 45 new admissions a day, only conducted 40 body scans for the entire month of May and, in the first 12 days of June, just seven body scans were done, the BOC said. 

The 10 deaths in city DOC custody so far this year follow a dire 2021, which saw 16 detainee deaths – the most since 2016 and more than 2019 and 2020 combined. 

The fatalities so far this year have outpaced those seen in 2021. At this time last year, seven detainees had perished, compared to the 10 already seen in 2022. 

Three detainees died within four days of each other last month, including one who hung himself in a Bronx court holding cell and succumbed to his injuries eight days later.

Earlier this year, a scathing BOC report revealed staffing issues contributed to the jail’s first three deaths of the year. 

Under Mayor Eric Adams, who took office Jan. 1, and Molina, city lockups remained in a “state of crisis,” federal authorities declared in April as they threatened a takeover of the system.

Absenteeism has continued to be a chronic issue and the rate of violence in the Big Apple’s jails was “seven to eight times higher” than observed in other correctional systems, court records show. 

In April, Adams expressed opposition to a federal takeover of the jail, even as conditions were deemed “severe and potentially life-threatening.” 

A month later, he created a task force with the goal of addressing the prevailing staffing issues and dangerous situation at the jails and submitted a 30-page blueprint for reform to Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain to stave off a federal takeover. 

In June, she accepted the plan and gave the agency until November to put it into action. 

Late last month, Adams held a victorious press conference on Rikers Island, days after two detainees died within a 48-hour period, and told reporters “I am truly pleased with what I’m seeing” in an unequivocal defense of the agency. 

Due to ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s roughly $9 billion plan, Rikers is slated to close by 2027. Under Adams, the facilities are in the process of being replaced by four city jails located in every borough except Staten Island.