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Kalief Browder, Held at Rikers Island for 3 Years Without Trial, Commits Suicide
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.
On Saturday, he committed suicide at his parents’ home in the Bronx.
Jennifer Gonnerman, the author of the article in The New Yorker, said in an interview on Monday that it appeared he was never able to recover from the years he spent locked alone in a cell for 23 hours a day.
Once out of jail, Ms. Gonnerman said, “he almost recreated the conditions of solitary,” shutting himself in his bedroom for long periods. “He was very uncomfortable being around people, especially in large groups,” she said.
Mr. de Blasio’s administration in December did away with solitary confinement for 16- and 17-year-olds, citing the damaging effects that prolonged isolation can have on their mental stability.
In a statement released on Monday, the mayor said that “Kalief’s story helped inspire our efforts” at Rikers.
“There is no reason he should have gone through this ordeal,” he added, “and his tragic death is a reminder that we must continue to work each day to provide the mental health services so many New Yorkers need.”
Ms. Gonnerman said she was drawn to Mr. Browder because he was able to speak about what he had been through with unusual insight. She said before he agreed to go public with his story, he insisted on finishing his high school equivalency diploma. “He wanted to show that he had accomplished something before he entered the spotlight,” she said.
In jail he had tried to commit suicide several times. He told Ms. Gonnerman that he was repeatedly beaten by correction officers and fellow inmates, but she said she did not realize the extent of the abuse until she watched security videos showing him being knocked to the ground by an officer and attacked by inmates.
Throughout, he insisted on his innocence, refusing several offers from prosecutors to take a plea deal, including one that would have allowed him to be released immediately.
Ultimately, prosecutors dropped the charges. In the course of the three years Mr. Browder was being held, they lost contact with their only witness.
At the end of the article, Mr. Browder, who was the youngest of seven children and nicknamed Peanut by his family, described being unable to rid himself of the fears that had consumed him in jail. He said he was afraid of being attacked on the subway. And before going to sleep at night, he checked to make sure every window in the house was locked.
There were some good moments in the two years after he was released. An anonymous donor offered to pay his community college tuition. His story attracted the attention of celebrities like Jay Z and Rosie O’Donnell, who invited him onto “The View” and gave him a MacBook Air laptop computer. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, talked about him in campaign speeches. [[Mr. Paul, who is running for president, expressed condolences to Mr. Browder’s family on Twitter on Monday.)
But Mr. Browder’s mental health deteriorated, Ms. Gonnerman said. He became paranoid and last Christmas was hospitalized on a psychiatric ward at Harlem Hospital Center. She wrote in an article on The New Yorker’s website on Sunday that he had thrown out his television because he said he feared it was watching him.
On Saturday, Mr. Browder pushed an air-conditioning unit out of a second-floor window at his parents’ home, wrapped a cord around his neck and, according to Ms. Gonnerman, pushed himself out of the opening feet-first.
His mother heard a noise, according to Ms. Gonnerman, went outside to the backyard and saw that her youngest child had hanged himself.
Mr. Browder was 22 years old.
