revelarts
06-10-2015, 08:21 AM
Kalief Browder was sent to Rikers Island (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/rikers_island_prison_complex/index.html?inline=nyt-org) when he was 16 years old, accused of stealing a backpack. Though he never stood trial or was found guilty of any crime, he spent three years at the New York City jail complex, nearly two of them in solitary confinement.In October 2014, after he was written about in The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/before-the-law), his case became a symbol of what many saw as a broken criminal justice system. Mayor Bill de Blasio cited the article this spring when he announced an effort to clear the backlogs in state courts and reduce the inmate population at Rikers.
For a while, it appeared Mr. Browder was putting his life back together: He earned a high school equivalency diploma and started community college. But he continued to struggle with life after Rikers.
On Saturday, he committed suicide at his parents’ home in the Bronx.
Jennifer Gonnerman, the author of the article in The New Yorker (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/the_new_yorker/index.html?inline=nyt-org), said in an interview on Monday that it appeared he was never able to recover from the years he spent locked alone in a cell for 23 hours a day....
...In jail he had tried to commit suicide several times. He told Ms. Gonnerman that he was repeatedly beaten by correction officers and fellow inmates, but she said she did not realize the extent of the abuse until she watched security videos showing him being knocked to the ground by an officer and attacked by inmates.Throughout, he insisted on his innocence, refusing several offers from prosecutors to take a plea deal, including one that would have allowed him to be released immediately.
<aside class="marginalia comments-marginalia selected-comment-marginalia" data-marginalia-type="sprinkled" data-skip-to-para-id="story-continues-4" style="border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: dotted; border-top-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); width: 300px; float: right; clear: right; margin: 0px 0px 45px 7px; padding-top: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Continue reading the main story (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/nyregion/kalief-browder-held-at-rikers-island-for-3-years-without-trial-commits-suicide.html?_r=0#story-continues-4)<header></header></aside>Ultimately, prosecutors dropped the charges. In the course of the three years Mr. Browder was being held, they lost contact with their only witness.
...Mr. Browder’s mental health deteriorated, Ms. Gonnerman said. He became paranoid and last Christmas was hospitalized on a psychiatric ward at Harlem Hospital Center. She wrote in an article (http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/kalief-browder-1993-2015)on The New Yorker (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/the_new_yorker/index.html?inline=nyt-org)’s website on Sunday that he had thrown out his television because he said he feared it was watching him.
On Saturday, Mr. Browder pushed an air-conditioning unit out of a second-floor window at his parents’ home, wrapped a cord around his neck and, according to Ms. Gonnerman, pushed himself out of the opening feet-first.
His mother heard a noise, according to Ms. Gonnerman, went outside to the backyard and saw that her youngest child had hanged himself.
Mr. Browder was 22 years old.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/nyregion/kalief-browder-held-at-rikers-island-for-3-years-without-trial-commits-suicide.html?_r=0
For a while, it appeared Mr. Browder was putting his life back together: He earned a high school equivalency diploma and started community college. But he continued to struggle with life after Rikers.
On Saturday, he committed suicide at his parents’ home in the Bronx.
Jennifer Gonnerman, the author of the article in The New Yorker (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/the_new_yorker/index.html?inline=nyt-org), said in an interview on Monday that it appeared he was never able to recover from the years he spent locked alone in a cell for 23 hours a day....
...In jail he had tried to commit suicide several times. He told Ms. Gonnerman that he was repeatedly beaten by correction officers and fellow inmates, but she said she did not realize the extent of the abuse until she watched security videos showing him being knocked to the ground by an officer and attacked by inmates.Throughout, he insisted on his innocence, refusing several offers from prosecutors to take a plea deal, including one that would have allowed him to be released immediately.
<aside class="marginalia comments-marginalia selected-comment-marginalia" data-marginalia-type="sprinkled" data-skip-to-para-id="story-continues-4" style="border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: dotted; border-top-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); width: 300px; float: right; clear: right; margin: 0px 0px 45px 7px; padding-top: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Continue reading the main story (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/nyregion/kalief-browder-held-at-rikers-island-for-3-years-without-trial-commits-suicide.html?_r=0#story-continues-4)<header></header></aside>Ultimately, prosecutors dropped the charges. In the course of the three years Mr. Browder was being held, they lost contact with their only witness.
...Mr. Browder’s mental health deteriorated, Ms. Gonnerman said. He became paranoid and last Christmas was hospitalized on a psychiatric ward at Harlem Hospital Center. She wrote in an article (http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/kalief-browder-1993-2015)on The New Yorker (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/the_new_yorker/index.html?inline=nyt-org)’s website on Sunday that he had thrown out his television because he said he feared it was watching him.
On Saturday, Mr. Browder pushed an air-conditioning unit out of a second-floor window at his parents’ home, wrapped a cord around his neck and, according to Ms. Gonnerman, pushed himself out of the opening feet-first.
His mother heard a noise, according to Ms. Gonnerman, went outside to the backyard and saw that her youngest child had hanged himself.
Mr. Browder was 22 years old.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/nyregion/kalief-browder-held-at-rikers-island-for-3-years-without-trial-commits-suicide.html?_r=0