At the age of 16, Kalief Browder was arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. Although he was never convicted of the crime, he spent three years in New York City’s Rikers Island prison while he waited for his case to go to trial. During his time, he was beaten by prison guards and inmates and spent more than two years in solitary confinement. Two years after his release in 2013, Kalief committed suicide on June 6, 2015.
We discussed the tragic details from Kalief’s story, what could have been done to prevent his suicide, and the desperate need for prison reform with Evie Litwok, the Founder of Ex-Offender Nation and an active member of NYC Jail Action Coalition