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One Year Anniversary of the Death of Kalief Browder

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A group of around 34 people turned up at Columbus Circle to say #ShutDownRikers and to remember the short life of Kalief Browder who was arrested at the age of 16 for allegedly stealing a backpack in May of 2010. He spent the next 3 years on Rikers Island for not being able to afford the $3,500 bail, 2 of them in solitary confinement. He was also beaten to prison guards and inmates. Kalief was never charged or tried. He was offered many plea deals to be released but, he would have had to plead guilty. Kalief refused to plead guilty to something he didn’t do. Eventually, his case got dropped and he was released in June of 2013 but not before attempting suicide multiple times.

After being released he hung himself in June 2015 out the 2nd story window of his mother’s house using an air conditioner cord. The conditions of his incarceration were widely believed as being responsible for his mental state and the multiple prior attempts at suicide while being incarcerated. Six days after Kalief’s death, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy invoked Browder’s experience in his opinion regarding an unrelated case. The lawsuit suggesting violation of Browder’s rights under a Speedy Trial Clause of the U.S. Constitution continues til today on behalf of his family, despite his death.

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Sandeep Kandhari of The Legal Aid Society holding FACT #2, 79% of those incarcerated are there because they cannot afford to post bail. Making poverty a crime.
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In an interview with Sandeep he told me that, “Why is a 16 year old being charged as an adult? Why was he held in prison for 3 years pending a trial? We have a ‘speedy’ trial statute then why aren’t we actually using it? Why was he being held in solitary confinement at all let alone for 2 years? Why was he being held for $3.500? He was being held for being poor. All of these put together show the illness of the criminal justice system. I want Kalief’s story to be known by as many people as possible.”
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Sandeep is the Director of Peace Week which is partnered up with 18 anti violence programs called, Cure Violence, around the city. “We are partnered up to try to reduce gun violence in the city. We provide legal services to them in their communities. We want to help communities from what is gun violence.” Sandeep suggest that people go to criminal court and pay attention to how much it’s about “the sur charges and fines. We use the criminal justice system as a revenue generation system and we put it on the backs of poor black and brown people. And so that is disgusting and unacceptable”. “And 2, the bail system is supposed to be a release mechanism, a way to release people and it’s become a way to hold people and coerce a plea out of them. So, when you see a poor and you say, ‘You can get out for $1000 but, you know they don’t have $1000 so, what your really saying is, ‘I’m going to hold you in jail until you plead guilty”, said Sandeep.
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Akeem Broder, brother of Kalief Browder, speaking at Columbus Circle yesterday at the #ShutDownRikers rally for the 1 year anniversary of Kalief’s death saying, “He took his life after getting out of Rikers and being tortured on Rikers for 3 years, it followed him home. Being brought home like that, that heavy to hold on his back, as a kid, at 16 years old is a lot to take in.
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Me, personally, I can’t stand it anymore. It’s a year later and the Gov still says they’re going to change the law, “IT’S JUST LIP SERVICE”. “I’M FED UP WTH IT, MY BROTHER IS NOT AN ANOMALY AND YET IT CONTINUES TO HAPPEN”.- Akeem Broder, brother of Kalief Browder
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Supporters holding signs with facts about Rikers Island
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Dakem Roberts from The Negation spoke about his time on Rikers Island at the age of 16 for 2 years. He said, ” I haven’t been a child for a while but, I’m still a prisoner and I’ve been a prisoner since I was a child. Like Kalief, I became a prisoner at the age of 16. Unlike Kalief, I was found guilty and sentenced to Life in prison, wrongfully. As a child I was never given a second chance, Even though Kalief was given a second chance, the conditions he was placed under ultimately destroyed him. THIS IS WHY NO CHILD SHOULD BE PLACED UNDER THOSE CONDITIONS. THOSE CONDITIONS ARE NOT REHABILITATIVE. They’re not organized to re condition the human psyche. He went on to say the prison system is designed to be a slave system and not rehabilitate and give people a second chance. “YOU HAVE A SYSTEM UNDER THE CONSTITUTION THAT HAS ESTABLISHED A SYSTEM OF CHILD SLAVERY IN WHICH CHILDREN ARE PUT UNDER THOSE CONDITIONS TO BREAK THEM”. Dakem spoke about guards trying to rape him in order to break him. “THEY TRIED TO HAVE ME RAPED”.
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Another Fact of Rikers Island; RIKERS BREEDS PHYSICAL AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE.

In 2014 Guards used physical force 4,074 times. Sexual victimization occurring on Rikers is reported almost three times as much as the national average. 8.6% vs 3.2%

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Another Statistic about Rikers Island; RIKERS ABUSES CHILDREN AND MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE. Federal Agents found that 43.7% of male adolescents on Rikers had been subject to the use of force by staff on at least one occasion. 40% of the people held suffer from mental health issues and make up about three-quarters of the injuries from staff use of force.
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RIKERS ACTS LIKE A PRISON, NOT A JAIL. 85% of the people on Rikers Island have not been convicted of a crime and are held there during proceedings. Court cases linger for much longer than 6 months stipulation by NY’s “SPEEDY TRIAL” law, The Ready Rule.

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For more info go to https://www.shutdownrikers.org/

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About Cat Watters

Cat Watters is a journalist, blogger, videographer, photographer and radio host on Peoples Internet Radio. She is an expert at photographing, filming and editing footage of street protests, street actions, political rallies, and other events. Cat writes for Democracy Chronicles from Brooklyn, New York and you can tune in to her radio show at Peoples Internet Radio every Tuesday from 6 to 8pm EST.

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