A New York man named Kalief Browder, who spent three years behind bars without a trial after being accused of a robbery in 2010, committed suicide this past Saturday in his Bronx home. His story is now raising questions for many about the prevalent injustices inherent in our prison system.

In 2010 Browder, then 16, was arrested on suspicion of stealing a backpack. He was eventually sent to Rikers Island where he would spend three years awaiting a trial that he hoped would prove his innocence. Browder spent roughly two of his three years in solitary confinement suffering intense physical and emotional abuse and was severely beaten by officers and other inmates. He also attempted suicide at least six times.

In a 2013 New Yorker interview with Jennifer Gonnerman, Browder recalled punishments he would receive from the guards for attempting to commit suicide. Browder recalled one incident where he ripped off the sheets of his bed in his jail cell and fashioned them into a noose. When he was about to hang himself, guards stormed into his cell, tackled him into his bed, and punched him repeatedly. As a punishment for this suicide attempt, the guards starved Browder for up to four meals at a time.

In 2013, he was allowed to go home after the charges against him were dropped. He never had a trial. 

His attorney, Paul Prestia, described the difficulties that he faced after leaving prison, saying, “every day was a struggle. He lived with a degree of sadness every day since his release.” Prestia said:

When he came out [of jail] and I first met him, he was completely broken — I had to show him how to use a computer; he had to get a job. These were issues he was going to have for his whole life. It’s not his fault. He didn’t deserve that.

After his release, Browder experienced deep bouts of depression and became increasingly paranoid. Six months after his release, Browder attempted suicide, and was hospitalized. During his time in the hospital, Browder was said to be gaunt, restless, and deeply paranoid. While he was eventually released from the hospital, and succeeded for some time–at one point earning a 3.5 GPA at Bronx Community College and tutoring GED students, these issues appear to have persisted. Browder committed suicide on June 6; he had just turned 22 years old.

Browder’s story is deeply tragic and problematic. Someone stuck in a prison for three years waiting for a trial should not be subjected to severe beatings, starvation and other mistreatments. Of the 10,000 inmates at Rikers Island, about 1,500 have been there for the last year without being convicted of a crime. It’s hard to determine how long the wait for a trial usually is; some statistics say a few months, while others wait several years. In Browder’s case, a real trial was never had, and he was released without the necessary resources.

The horrible facts of Browder’s incarceration echo multiple concerns about the way we treat our nation’s prisoners, particularly the racial inequalities in the justice system. The U.S. is said to currently imprison a larger percentage of its Black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. African Americans are incredibly overrepresented in prisons. Despite making up only 13 percent of the population, they made up 38 percent of state prisoners in 2011. This highly problematic reality is highlighted by cases like Browder’s: how many lives must end before citizens, particularly African-American men, are treated fairly in our justice system?

There are also concerns specifically about Rikers Island that are now coming to light. A report from the U.S. Department of Justice described “rampant use of unnecessary and excessive force” by guards against teenage inmates on Rikers Island. Surveillance footage obtained by Gonnerman shows Browder being beaten by a guard and assaulted by a large group of inmates. Prestia points out that the fact that this kind of treatment happened in the U.S. is shocking, stating:

When you go over the three years that [Browder] spent [in jail] and all the horrific details he endured, it’s unbelievable that this could happen to a teen-ager in New York City. He didn’t get tortured in some prison camp in another country. It was right here!

In April in a statement provided by the New Yorker, New York City Mayor Bill de Blaiso said that Browder’s “tragic story put a human face on Rikers Island’s culture of delay — a culture with profound human and fiscal costs for defendants and our city.” Since Browder’s release some progress has been made and de Blaiso’s administration has issued a series of major reforms at Rikers. For example, it was able to end the practice of putting 16 and 17-year-olds into solitary confinement. While that’s certainly progress, the tragic end to Browder’s story still brings up many seriously problematic issues that are far from being solved.

Angel Idowu

Angel Idowu is a member of the Beloit College Class of 2016 and was a Law Street Media Fellow for the Summer of 2015. Contact Angel at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Injustice in Baltimore dominated the news cycle last week, and Law Street was no exception. The number one article of the week, by Jennifer Polish, is a provocative look at race and justice; number two, from Anneliese Mahoney, follows the latest developments in Brian Williams’ future at NBC; and number three is an interesting account of two gangs coming together amid the turmoil in Baltimore. ICYMI, check out the best of the week from Law Street.

#1 Hey Fellow White People: We Need to Shut Up About Baltimore

Hey, fellow white people. If you’re not going to be in support of people rising up against racism in Baltimore–and elsewhere–then shut up about it. And listen (or read, or watch. There are plenty of sources that aren’t from white people–like the ones cited throughout this piece–that we can tune into). Read full article here.

#2 Brian Williams’ Troubles at NBC Continue

The trouble isn’t quite over yet for Brian Williams. Williams, who headed up “NBC Nightly News,” was suspended for six months by NBC this winter. The suspension came in light of the revelation that Williams had not been truthful about an instance in which he claimed to have been in a military helicopter that took fire during the early days of the Iraq War. Now it has come to light that there were other instances in which Williams lied or embellished aspects of his reporting–at least ten have been reported so far. Read full article here.

#3 Crips and Bloods: Unlikely Allies in Baltimore Riots

Continuing protests over the death of Freddie Gray erupted into Ferguson-like riots yesterday evening following his funeral in Baltimore, Maryland, where cries of “black lives matter” have echoed since last year. But this time it was the city’s most notoriously violent groups who aligned for peace while groups of rioting Baltimoreans burned and looted the city against the Gray family’s wishes, even injuring officers and other protesters. Read full article here.

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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A recent study concluded that private prisons are more likely to hold African American prisoners when compared to public correction facilities. The study argues that contractual provisions, specifically health care related exemptions, have a measurable effect on the racial makeup of private correctional populations and are the primary contributors to this trend.

This report was the second part of a research study conducted by Christopher Petrella, a UC-Berkeley graduate student, and sought to explain the existence of the disparities found in his initial research. Petrella argues that the existence of unique medical exemptions in private prison contracts has caused their populations to include more black Americans than public prison populations.

We have covered private prisons before, but this study marks another example of why private prisons have become controversial recently. Private for-profit prison companies hold over 12 percent of the total prison population. The total number of inmates in these facilities totals over 130,000, and has continued to rise in recent years. These prisons have grown dramatically in size over the years and continue to develop political influence.

According to Petrella’s research, the presence of health exemptions for private prisons, allow such companies to avoid holding prisoners with chronic medical conditions or who may have above average medical costs. Statistics further indicate that younger inmates are much more likely to be black, and older inmates are relatively more likely to be white. The study attributes this disparity to the recent “war on drugs” campaign, which has had a disproportionate effect on young black Americans.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Prisoners in 2010 report, the estimated sentenced prisoner rate per 100,000 people was significantly larger for blacks in every age group, particularly those under the age of 50. Consequently, age becomes what Petrella calls “a proxy” for race, as grouping inmates by age also tends to separate them by skin color. Petrella cites a study done by the ACLU to explain how age affects health care costs. The ACLU found that the annual cost of holding the average prisoner is $34,135, but the cost of holding a prisoner over the age of 50 years old is $68,270.

It is also important to note that Petrella decided not to use statistics from federal detention centers that are operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or local ones controlled by the U.S. Marshall’s Service in order to avoid inflating the statistics even further.

Steve Owens, the senior director of public affairs for Corrections Corporation of America, told NPR that he found the study to be “deeply flawed.” He cited the fact that the government agrees to the contracts and typically has a lot of control over what prisoners are held in private facilities.

Although, it does not appear that race was the motive for these exemptions and policies, it does point to another example of discrimination and racial injustice within the prison system. Profit is clearly the overriding rationale behind the actions of private prison companies, but this problem is simply a part of a much larger issue of racial injustice.

Racial Injustice in Prisons

Here is an infographic created by ArrestRecords.com, which outlines many prominent examples of racism in the criminal justice system. According to the infographic, African Americans represent 37.1 percent of the American prison population, yet makeup only 12.6 percent of the country’s citizens. Racism is arguably even more noticeable among prisoners on death row, as blacks represent 43 percent of that population. Furthermore, African Americans who have killed white people were sentenced to death 22 times more often than a white person convicted of killing a black person.

Statistics also show a growing trend in the proportion of blacks in the overall prison population. This holds true for men, women, adults and children, as prisoner totals have gone up dramatically since 1960. Not only are blacks more likely to be incarcerated during their lifetime, they are also more likely to receive higher bail totals, longer prison sentences, get stopped by law enforcement officers in public, and get convicted by all-white juries.

The infographic also indicates how the “War on Drugs” has adversely affected the black community in America. Although blacks represent just over 12 percent of the population, they constitute 38 percent of those arrested for drug offenses, and as many as 58 percent of the people in state prisons for such crimes. According to The Sentencing Project the average drug related sentence for African Americans is almost the same as the average violent crime sentence for a whites. This indicates that not only are black people more likely to be convicted of a crime, but are also more likely to serve more jail time than a white person would be for the same crime.

Finally, some statistics indicate that there is hope for the future, as the incarceration rate for both black male and females has started to decrease in recent years. These rates remain well above those of white males and females, but these trends may indicate that the gap is starting to close. However, there is a long way to go before the American prison system is equitable, and much needs to be done to combat the extensive history of injustice within the United States. Creating awareness and making reforms in the criminal justice system are an important part of addressing many of the existing issues.

[NPR] [The Color of Corporate Corrections]

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

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This week the entire world is mourning the passing of one of the greatest individuals of the twentieth century: Nelson Mandela. The man began as a militant revolutionary fighting back against an oppressive Apartheid regime, became the visionary figure we know today while incarcerated for twenty-seven years on a prison island [think Alcatraz but without Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage], and ended up as the first Black President of a nation nearly 80 percent Black. When news of his passing swept across the globe, there was an outpouring of emotion from everyone from present and former heads of state, to people in small villages throughout South Africa.

I am as astonished by the story of Mandela as I am the brutal regime he helped to topple. Apartheid, which is an Afrikaans word meaning “the state of being apart,” was enforced by the National Party of South Africa which was in power from 1948 to 1994. It is ridiculously astounding that Apartheid lasted so long. I mean, think about it: the Civil Rights Movement in the United States managed, for the most part, to cripple Jim Crow by the mid-Sixties. But seriously, why did the world tolerate this brutal regime for so long?

This post is primarily designed to put Apartheid in perspective and convey my own shock at the failure of action by the international community to stop this regime. A nationwide institution of legally-imposed oppression co-existed with so many things of the modern era.

1. X-Men: The Animated Series

Yes, perhaps the preeminent cartoon of the Millennial generation co-existed with Apartheid. While Wolverine was fighting Sabretooth in the frozen tundra on Fox Kids, Nelson Mandela was breaking rocks with a pickaxe on Robben Island.

2. The Lion King and Pulp Fiction.

Now I know what you’re saying. You’re saying, “this is really two things and not one.” My response might be, “this is my post and I can write what I want.” I might also say, “they are both in the same class of things that co-existed with Apartheid, namely, great movies that came out in 1994. The Apartheid regime existed while Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa sang their way through the jungle. Samuel L. Jackson was giving one of his most famous monologues, and Travolta was explaining the nuance of naming American fast food in countries using the metric system while Mandela was reciting the poem “Invictus.”

3. President Bill Clinton

I think Bill Clinton is the quintessential President of my childhood. While I was technically brought into this world during the term of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton is the president I remember. His jogs on the mall. How he enjoyed McDonald’s and interns. Everything from Whitewater to his saxophone playing on Arsenio Hall occurred while 80 percent of South Africa couldn’t sit at the lunch counter or even vote in elections.

4. Cheers

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. Sometimes you want to stand up for the essential human dignity that comes with being a part of the civic and social life of a nation you call home without being subordinated to a transplanted, colonial, European population. To each his own, I guess.

5. Everyone on Earth Over the Age of 19.

The thrust of this post has been humorous. But much truth is said in jest. The most poignant point I am trying make here is the responsibility of everyone alive to fight back against injustice in any form, whether racially-based or not. Government around the world turned a blind eye to Apartheid for far too long. American conservatives like William F. Buckley said Nelson Mandela belonged in jail. While the President was on campus campaigning against Apartheid and encouraging divestment, others like Grover Norquist and Jack Abramoff felt no need to speak out. But a threat to justice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.

It cannot be emphasizes more how we all have an obligation to make sure our laws are more just for more people. While the law certainly cannot make the White man love the Black man, it can make the White man respect the Black man.

That Apartheid co-existed with so many things in even my own young life is a testament to the failure of the spirit of governments and people the world over. It is an indictment of freedom-loving peoples everywhere. It is a stain on the moral fabric of this world. We should all look around to highlight and decry institutions, legal or otherwise, that oppress people.

Do your part, speak up, because the world beyond your iPad screen can be a nasty place.

Dominic Jones

Dominic Jones is originally from Atlantic City, NJ. He attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. followed by law school at the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, DC. In his spare time he enjoys art, photography, and documentary films. Contact Dominic at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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