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Kalief Browder was sentenced to Rikers Island jail as a teen for allegedly stealing a bookbag

This story is pure tragedy.

A while back I posted the story of this young man enduring abuse at the hands of prison guards while incarcerated at Rikers.

It is very unfortunate to see the story end this way as it is very evident that Mr. Browder was unable to recover from the physical and mental abuse he had endured as a child locked away on Rikers Island, one of the most dangerous high maximum prisons in the U.S.

What’s even more sad & unfortunate is that he was not given proper treatment & rehabilitation needed in order to transition back into the outside world, thus resulting in him taking his own life.

RIP Kalief Browder.

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Kalief Browder was sent to Rikers Island when he was 16 years old, accused of stealing a backpack. Though he never stood trial or was found guilty of any crime, he spent three years at the New York City jail complex, nearly two of them in solitary confinement.

In October 2014, after he was written about in The New Yorker, his case became a symbol of what many saw as a broken criminal justice system. Mayor Bill de Blasio cited the article this spring when he announced an effort to clear the backlogs in state courts and reduce the inmate population at Rikers.
For a while, it appeared Mr. Browder was putting his life back together: He earned a high school equivalency diploma and started community college. But he continued to struggle with life after Rikers.