The United States houses about 25% of the world’s inmates. With mass incarceration being at a high of 2 million, the system is bound to break. With the Kalief Browder story, it truly did.
The Criminal Justice system’s duty is to give someone due process; they failed to implement that for Kalief Browder, a bronx teen. At the age of 16, Browder was accused of stealing a backpack. He spent more than a thousand days awaiting trial. He was later sent to Riker’s Island, famous for having inhumane conditions. Just like Browder, about 80% haven’t been found guilty or innocent of their alleged crime. He spent three years at Rikers. On his first day there, video footage shows him repeatedly being beaten by officers. Browder was a target in the jail; due to his adolescence he was sought out. He was abused mentally, physically, and emotionally by inmates and officers for 1,095 days. During his torture, he maintained his innocence that he never stole a backpack and refused several plea deals. After the starvation, beatings, and 800 days spent in solitary confinement, Browder’s case was dismissed; he was never convicted of stealing the backpack. All the pain that he endured was catastrophic; he tried to commit suicide several times in jail.
After the media attention of his story, he started speaking out against the criminal system. Browder’s public speakings and story helped persuade New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio to reform the city’s criminal justice system. He attained his GED and went to college where he was an honor roll student, but he was suffering inside. Due to Rikers, he endured many mental issues. He suffered from depression, paranoia, and PTSD. His mental illnesses consumed him and he committed suicide by hanging himself; he was only 22 years old.
This painful story shows the reality of the justice system for black men. The justice system’s duty is to protect and serves, but for people of color it oppresses. It should not take for such a horrific incident to happen for change. It should start before social media, before the news circuit, and before it gains national median attention. The system is very broken, still encompassed by institutionalized racism and prejudice. The very dated American criminal justice system needs intense reform so a Kalief Browder does not happen again.