In 2010, 16-year-old Kalief Browder was arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. He could not afford to post bail and spent nearly three years on Rikers Island, one of the country's worst correctional facilities. Mr. Browder spent two of these years in solitary confinement. He repeatedly tried to take his life. In 2013, the prosecutor's office dropped the charges and released him. Two years later, he committed suicide.
The Browder tragedy captured widespread public attention. Mayor Bill de Blasio, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and others weighed in on this miscarriage of justice. In October, rapper Jay Z announced his plans for a film about Browder's life. Ava DuVernay's new mass incarceration documentary 13th, discusses Browder's case and includes surveilliance video that shows Browder being beaten by inmates and correctional officers. One week after the film's release, Kalief's mother Venida, an outspoken criminal justice reform advocate, died from a heart attack, or in the words of her lawyer, “a broken heart.”
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