Wrongly jailed without trial for 3 years, young man commits suicide.

[Valigarmander]

Because they thought he stole a fucking backpack.

Arrested at 16 years old for a crime he swore he didn't commit. Charged as an adult on suspicion of stealing a backpack. Three years in jail waiting for a trial that never happened.

Kalief Browder spent two of those years in solitary confinement on New York's notoriously harsh Rikers Island. Mentally tormented, he repeatedly tried to take his own life before he was released without charges in 2013 and became a symbol for justice reform in the nation's largest city.

But even as a free man, Browder couldn't make himself whole. It all ended Saturday with his suicide at age 22.

Now, his family wants to make sure what happened to him doesn't happen to anyone else.
"After fighting so hard to get out of jail â€" and then fighting on the outside to restart his life â€" he ultimately was unable to overcome his own pain and torment, which emanated from his experiences in solitary confinement," Browder's family said Monday in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times.

"We ask the public to respect our privacy during this very difficult time, and we pray that Kalief’s death will not be in vain. We ask that the mayor and every public official in New York City take every action possible to ensure that no other person in New York City will ever again be forced to live through all that Kalief endured."

Browder's suicide at home in the Bronx has sent ripples of grief through those who had become familiar with his case, which was documented in a New Yorker magazine story last October.

The story garnered national attention and outrage at a time when extra scrutiny has fallen on the way the criminal justice system handles people of color.

Browder's case drew particular scrutiny on New York's Rikers Island Jail, which has been accused of mistreating not just Browder, but hundreds of other young inmates.

“I think what caused the suicide was his incarceration and those hundreds and hundreds of nights in solitary confinement, where there were mice crawling up his sheets in that little cell,” Browder's attorney, Paul V. Prestia said in a phone interview Sunday evening. “Being starved, and not being taken to the shower for two weeks at a time … those were direct contributing factors.… That was the pain and sadness that he had to deal with every day, and I think it was too much for him.”

Prestia then became emotional, his voice wavering as he recalled Browder, whom he said hadn’t had mental health problems before he was arrested and jailed in 2010.

“He was a good friend of mine â€" I wasn’t just his attorney, you know?” Prestia went silent for a few seconds, then continued: “He was a really good kid.”

Browder's case at least partially inspired New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to announce a plan this spring to speed up the city's court systems to prevent other New York inmates from waiting hundreds of days without trial.

On Monday, the mayor mourned Browder's death.

"There is no reason he should have gone through this ordeal, and his tragic death is a reminder that we must continue to work each day to provide the mental health services so many New Yorkers need," De Blasio said in a statement, adding that jail reforms were ongoing. "On behalf of all New Yorkers, we send our condolences to the Browder family during this difficult time.”

At a Monday morning news conference, Melissa Mark-Viverito, speaker of the New York City Council, said Browder's story was "disturbing" and showed reforms were "desperately needed."

"It really is a depressing situation to think that a young man sat idle in Rikers for three years," Mark-Viverto told reporters, according to audio of the news conference provided by her office. "He came out a broken man, a broken young man, and our system created that reality. We can't walk away from that. So, if this isn't a call to action, I really don't know what is.... This is not just a New York City issue. This is a federal issue. This is a national issue."

Browder's case drew increased scrutiny to municipal jails and courts at a time when news reports and federal officials were beginning to uncover allegations of widespread fining and jailing of residents in Ferguson, Mo., and St. Louis County over minor infractions.

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[Solitary]

I haven't read what was written, but I just know he is black---is he?

[dtq123]

B-b-but we believe he did it! So it HAS to be true!

[Aletheia]

Much of the agony that comes from having a mental illness is feeling completely isolated. Hallucinations, emotional turmoil, and anxiety are rendered unbearable if you feel you are completely alone -- plenty of people can handle the effects of mental illness if they feel connected to other people.

What did they think would happen if  you create an environment in which a person is forced for feel isolated for months or even years on end? We are social animals -- we cannot tolerate long stretches of isolation without dramatic consequences to our mental health.

A punishment is intended to help a person learn from their mistake and not do it again. Torture involves inflicting pain with little to no regard as to whether the person learns a lesson. This doesn't change whether the pain inflicted is physical in nature or psychological.

3 years in solitary confinement feeling isolated from your family, friends, or anyone who can or is willing to help you. Even when he was finally free he lived in fear that any minor infraction (or any random act) could bring him back to that tiny room where time dragged on and your cries fell on deaf ears.

What lesson was the man supposed to learn from this sort of treatment? Why was he placed in solitary confinement while awaiting trial? Why did it take three years to determine his innocence? Isn't our justice system based on the idea of "innocent until proven guilty," not "guilty until proven innocent?" You cannot incarcerate a person unless you have convincing evidence of his guilt. What a horrid overreach of the justice system made all the worse by the tragic waste of a person's life.

Race be damned -- you do not lock up a person on a suspicion. You have to prove a person's guilt before any punitive action can be taken. FFS, who the hell fell asleep at the wheel?

[Johan]

Savages. At the end of the day, that's all we really are. And all we really will ever be.