Friends and family have said that Ms. Polanco had a seizure disorder, which they said jail personnel were aware of. It was unclear whether the disorder played any role in her death.

Department of Correction officials referred questions about medical care to the correctional health care system, which said it could not comment, citing patient privacy laws.

On Tuesday, several members of the city’s Board of Corrections, which oversees the city’s jails, expressed their commitment to investigate Ms. Polanco’s death and the circumstances that led to it.

On Monday night, hundreds of people gathered under gray skies at a rally in Lower Manhattan to demand answers and justice in Ms. Polanco’s death.

“Black and brown trans people have been in a war since we were born, in a world that continuously tells us we shouldn’t exist,” Raquel Willis, the executive editor of Out magazine, said at the rally, which was organized by the New York City Anti-Violence Project.

Ms. Polanco was a member of one of the most storied groups in New York City’s drag ball scene, the House of Xtravaganza. Indya Moore , a fellow Xtravaganza and a transgender and nonbinary actor in the FX series “Pose,” was at the rally on Monday and said Ms. Polanco’s death was a reminder of the challenges faced by transgender women.

“Cis, hetero people are deciding whether or not we deserve human rights, and that must end,” Ms. Moore said, referring to straight people whose gender identities matched the sex they were assigned at birth. “We cannot lean on the understanding or empathy of cis, hetero people.”