16-year-old arrested, held for 3 years in prison, 400 days in solitary confinement.....no conviction

[Cali_Democrat]

Teen Thrown In Violent New York Prison For Years Without Ever Having Been Convicted
By Amanda Scherker

Bronx resident Kalief Browder was walking home from a party when he was abruptly arrested by New York City police officers on May 14, 2010. A complete stranger said Browder had robbed him a few weeks earlier and, consequently, changed the 16-year-old's life forever.

Browder was imprisoned for three years before the charges were dropped in June 2013, according to a WABC-TV Eyewitness News investigation.

At the time of the teen's arrest, Browder's family was unable to pay the $10,000 bail. He was placed in the infamously violent Rikers Island correctional facility, where he remained until earlier this year.

Now that he's free, the young man is speaking up about his experience.

<...>

The official complaint states Browder was "physically assaulted and beaten" by officers and other inmates during his time at Rikers Island. The document also maintains the accused was "placed in solitary confinement for more than 400 days" and was "deprived meals." In addition, officers allegedly prevented him from pursuing his education. Browder attempted suicide at least six times.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/kalief-browder-rikers-teen-violent-new-york-prison_n_4302360.html

[factsarenotfair]

1. 2010 - Bloomberg and Kelly were in charge

I'm really happy there has been a change in NYC. This story is just horrific.

[yeoman6987]

37. Bail

So sad that the parents couldn't come up with the bail. I can't believe the community didn't do anything. Well hopefully he can do something with his life. He may be able to become an inspirational speaker going around high schools.

[factsarenotfair]

49. Maybe the Occupy Rolling Jubilee could help with bail in cases like this. n/t

[Dawson Leery]

55. Both are thugs!

[gopiscrap]

2. he needs to sue the fuck out of the city

[grahamhgreen]

18. And the people responsible need to go to jail.

[mwooldri]

25. ... and stay there instead of clocking out at the end of their shift...

It is alleged that Mr. Browder was physically assaulted and beaten by prison officers. Though Rikers Island sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to me.

Yes there are decent prison guard officers out there. Can't paint them all with one brush... plus IMO there's too many people in jails in the USA that just don't belong there. Period.

[gopiscrap]

39. I agree

[JimDandy]

22. He is...

"In October, Browder filed a civil lawsuit against the Bronx District Attorney, City of New York, the New York City Police Department, the New York City Department of Corrections and a number of state-employed individuals."

[sakabatou]

3. I'm sure this happens more than reported

[Blue_Tires]

8. You can bet the house on it....

[gollygee]

29. I have no dout

That poor kid. My first thought was, "How could this happen?" But then my second thought was that I know very well how it happens.

[surrealAmerican]

4. There is so much wrong here.

The bail system, unsafe prison conditions, inadequate legal representation, ....

That poor kid.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Shit. This is too damn demoralizing.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

42. Feeling provoked is far more healthier and effective. nt

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R

Sickening.

[Egalitarian Thug]

7. Until those that are granted license to exercise the power of the state are held accountable

when they abuse that power, things like this will continue to happen.

This man has lived a nightmare that will haunt him forever, the very least we can do is make sure he never again wants for anything.

[FreakinDJ]

52. DAs have immunity by Federal Law

[Egalitarian Thug]

57. Almost all government, law, and court officers are immune from the consequences

of their action or inaction. I learned this lesson the hard way pretty late in life.

[blackspade]

9. Absolutely disgusting

NYPD's war on the poor and minorities continues.

[TeeYiYi]

10. Soooooo depressing...

...the world we live in. It feels like it's getting worse; the for profit prison system and the militarized police state.

TYY

[struggle4progress]

11. One of my high school friends eventually became a public defender. A few years back,

she found a guy in jail in a major Texas city, who simply fell through the cracks: he'd been arrested on weekend, and was supposed to come before a judge Monday, but somehow the right paperwork never worked through the system, so he sat in that cell for more than a year without ever even being brought into a courtroom

Yup: arrested, booked, thrown in lock-up -- and then in limbo forever, due to somebody's mistake

I think she found it by using her limited off-time to discover gradually who was jail and why

She got him released

[reACTIONary]

30. Say thanks to her from an appricative citizen !!!

Public defenders are the real keystone of the justice system.

My brother new a DA and he told him that if you ever need a lawyer and can't afford the most expensive talent there is, then go with a public defender. They know all how to handle anything and everything.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

46. How many constitutional violations are a part of a story such as this?

Due process. Speedy trial. Evidence. Opposing counsel.

And I know the work-a-day drones are just work-a-day drones but don't the officers passing out meals and taking him to the showers say to their superiors, "Ya know, that kid sure has been here a long time."

"By Jove, Officer Smedley, you're right! Helen, get me the magistrate at once."

In other words, people had to have noticed something wasn't right. Something needs to happen to put the "correction" back into "corrections officer."

[struggle4progress]

58. I don't know for sure but I wonder if what happened there might have been related

to the results of the Rosenhan experiment "On being sane in insane places" -- in which normal volunteers checked into a psychiatric hospital, claiming pre-admission to hear voices saying "hollow" or "thud" but acting completely normally post-admission: institutional staff then interpreted many of these pseudo-patients' activities as evidence of psycho-pathology

Evidently, it can be extraordinarily difficult for institutional staff to distance themselves from their own preconceptions

So if one landed in jail and then found oneself forever in limbo through someone else's mistake, one might need to be an extraordinarily effective self-advocate to gain a sympathetic ear from low-paid not-well-trained over-worked jail staff: they might be inclined to presume in many interactions that the prisoner is a maladjusted liar with poor self control -- and a prisoner's own lack of education, or social marginality, or poor self control would only reinforce such staff presumptions

But, yeah, you're right: citizens ought to be able to expect the officials who run the lock-up to keep better tabs on the population, and certainly somebody who interacted with him should have asked why he was there so long. And, of course, that wasn't a harmless "oops! -- there there are scads of serious constitutional violations there

[Vattel]

12. Something is missing here.

If he had representation, how could he possibly go three years without trial? Granted the USA is moving in the direction of being a police state, but I didn't think we were this close.

As for the conditions at Rikers and other prisons across the country, I think the Courts need to step in and do something to correct it. Our fucking legislative and executive branches are too fucked up to fix the problem.

[tsuki]

15. If he had a public defender, they are so over burdened with cases, I can see this

happening.

[Vattel]

17. I guess you are right. I would like to find out that part of the story.

Odd that the article didn't address it.

[uponit7771]

24. PD not requesting he be ordered free, it's that simple... I'm looking for contact with PD

[hourglass1]

35. "moving in the direction of a police state"

wow, it is obvious the usa is now a police state - your freedoms have been shredded - for your safety - of course. more and more of your prisons are privately owned profit centers - that have got to have inmates. activist judges help fill them - then just look at scotus ...

how was this young man allotted a bunk, meals, laundry, etc., without any paperwork? easy. no one gives a shit. wall street financed madison ave, media, have taught americans that being poor is now a crime - added to the long-held notion that being black and poor, or brown and poor, is the cause of all america's current economic woes. not your endless wars of acquisition and endless readiness upgrades against one evil or another.

[davidn3600]

13. And some of us get laughed at for suggesting we are becoming a police state

[ReRe]

16. Anyone, I repeat anyone...

... who says America isn't now a police state, is the one that needs to be laughed at. Key up those wild wild west New Mexico wannabe cops bashing out the windows and shooting at a van with a load of children inside. Hell, just key up Rodney King getting his body brutalized by all those cops! (rest his soul.)

[RKP5637]

28. It is a police state, and a surveillance state - far too many are in denial. n/t

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

32. Don't forget, it's legal now to arrest someone

without charging them with a crime, giving them a trial, or holding them forever, enemy combatant comes to mind.

[Enthusiast]

41. +1 a whole bunch.......nt

[Enthusiast]

40. +1 a whole bunch.......nt

[Orrex]

45. When fleeing the scene of a traffic stop twice is outlawed

Then only outlaws will flee the scene of a traffic stop twice.

[MindPilot]

47. If the police have instilled so much fear in the population...

that running from a traffic stop is the safer alternative.

You might live in a police state.

(With apologies to Mr. Foxworthy )

[Orrex]

50. Fear can be used to justify anything.

Your argument equally applies to the assholes who passed the Patriot Act or the asshole with a shotgun who murders a 19 year old woman on his porch because he was afraid.

We need a better justification than "I was afraid."

[brindis_desala]

59. You are confusing fear (subjective) with

threat, which based on the evidence, if you are poor and/or a minority is becoming transparently objective.

[Orrex]

60. All right, but then she shouldn't have been speeding

And the situation didn't escalate until she drove off from a routine traffic stop, and then did it again.

We can discuss the undeniable reality of DWB, but the bottom line is she left the scene, and in so doing she changed it from a speeding ticket to pursuit with probable cause. The same would be true even if it had been a white guy in a suit; flight from the scene is a crime in itself.


No one is defending the asshole cop who opened fire, by the way.

[neffernin]

61. That being said

I have been pulled over for "speeding" by an angry cop before when I managed to raise up to over 2mph over the speed limit when he was going 5 under waiting for someone to pass him. After being harassed a bit he left with my ID and insurance so I ran across the parking lot after his vehicle to try to get his attention so I could get it back from him. He pulled his gun on me and told me to go back to my vehicle and that he didn't have my stuff. To this day I will not pass a cop.

[Arugula Latte]

14. What.The.Eff.

As the parent of a son this age, this just makes me so angry, and so sad.

[City Lights]

19. This makes me sick. nt

[ReRe]

20. Just when you think you've....

... heard the worst thing ever imaginable, then you hear something like this. Children. What are we doing to our children? Everyday, every single day, some sort of child abuse event. And this one by the State of NY! WTF is wrong with this country? I think it all stems back to Ronald Reagan... he is the one, after all, who really started the austerity in this country. He wanted to shut down the government a lonnnnnggg time before Grover Norquist arrived on the scene.

I hope this young man gets the counseling & TLC that he deserves, and that he is remunerated profusely for the theft of 3 years of his life and for the abuse that he endured.

[popsdenver]

21. I'll tell you what……….

If I were President Obama, I would call the Attorney General of the United States, at home, TONIGHT, and all Hell would break loose tomorrow morning.

A FULL investigation, people not only losing their jobs, but prosecuted……..and sentenced to Rikers for at least THREE years!!!!!!!

[RobertEarl]

27. That would be justice

And set a good example.

But hey, at least the kid is still alive. Many others are dead and buried already.

[Enthusiast]

43. +1 a whole bunch.......nt

[valerief]

23. Oh, that poor baby! It makes me soooooo mad. nt

[RKP5637]

26. Yet another huge WTF in US = United Stupidity. n/t

[Logical]

31. Until officials go to jail for this shit it will keep happening. Lawsuit hurts no one involved. n-t

[Orrex]

51. ^^This. I usually don't like using that meme-speak label, but even so. This^^

The judge in PA who supplied the for-profit prison system with lots of innocent teenagers is facing jail time, at least. He should be an example for others of the same ilk.

[Aaron8418]

33. My thoughts

See now there is the country i know, officers abusing their power and causing people heartache and dis pare. Also WTF WAS HE DOIN IN A PRISON FOR ANYWAY!! HE WAS 16!!!! Dude somebody needs to do something before " The People " Like the whole nation rises up and does it for you!

[WowSeriously]

34. Gitmo relocated to The Big Apple, apparently.

[Demo_Chris]

36. Unreal. Just unreal. nt

[LittleGirl]

38. This is the saddest thing

I've read....today.

WTF? that poor kid lost 3 yrs of his life and how many more while he's in counseling to recover from that torture. Fuck.

[yuiyoshida]

62. Agree and what that did to him

psychologically is something he will have to live with the rest of his life. That in itself seems like a crime.

[LittleGirl]

63. yup. so very sad for him.

I wished I could hug him to tell him I'm sorry the world let him down.

[Enthusiast]

44. We need some recognition of this problem.

Like right now!

[MindPilot]

48. One more reason to lower the voting age. n/t

[lunasun]

53. Just want to say I did not even have to guess before clicking on post...........that is all

[Blue Owl]

54. What is it with the USA and prisons?

Jesus fucking Christ.

[heaven05]

56. amerikkkaner justice, strikes again