Kalief Browder (May 25, 1993 – June 6, 2015) was an African American man who was arrested at the age of 16 for allegedly stealing a backpack. He was imprisoned for three years on Rikers Island without trial and spent most of this time in solitary confinement. Two years after his release, Browder died by suicide. His case is cited by activists who call for the reform of the New York City criminal justice system. On May 15, 2010, at the age of 16, Browder and his friend were stopped by multiple police cars near East 186th Street on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx on their way home from a party. Browder was under the impression that this was a "routine stop-and-frisk", which he had experienced on various occasions. Police officers were responding to a call placed by Roberto Bautista regarding the robbery of a backpack. In Bautista's 911 phone call, he alleged that "two male black guys...they took my brother's book bag... Once Browder and his friend were verbally confronted by officers about Bautista's accusation, Browder replied, "I did not rob anyone; you can check my pockets". Consequently, Browder and his friend were searched but officers failed to find the backpack in question or its respective contents of a camera, $700, a credit card, and an iPod Touch. After searching the pair, the police returned to the squad car where Bautista was sitting in the backseat. Then, Bautista accused the pair of "trying to rob him". Officers returned to Browder and his friend to convey this new allegation. They then returned to Bautista to "finish talking to him". Bautista now alleged that the robbery took place "two weeks ago". Due to the temporal difference in the new accusation, officers handcuffed and pressed Browder and his friend into the rear of the police car. By the end of this confrontation, Bautista had changed his story twice since the initial accusation of robbery. When talking to a detective, Bautista changed the date of the alleged robbery once more; while the report filed on May 15 said "on or about May 2," this date became May 8 in another discussion. Browder asked officers "what [he was] being charged for" and said, "I didn't do anything!" again expressing his innocence. He remembered whispering to his friend if "[his friend] was sure [his friend] didn't do anything," after recalling that an officer said: "We're just going to take you to the precinct. Most likely you can go home". Browder and his friend were taken to the 48th precinct, where they were fingerprinted and kept inside of a holding cell for a few hours. Afterward, they were taken to the Bronx County Criminal Court, where they were processed at the court's Central Booking. Seventeen hours following the initial police confrontation on Arthur Avenue, Browder was interrogated by a police officer and prosecutor, where he continued asserting his innocence from any wrongdoing or crime. Subsequently, Browder was charged with robbery, grand larceny, and assault in a courtroom one day after being processed and interrogated. The presiding judge allowed his friend to go home for the duration of the case, but Browder was ordered to be held by the judge throughout the case's trajectory in the courts, citing his probation from his grand larceny charge eight months prior. During this arraignment, his charge was second-degree robbery. Bail was set at $3,000 but his family was unable to make bail for his immediate release and he was sent to Rikers Island on a Department of Corrections bus. Browder, along with 600 other male adolescents, were locked in the Robert N. Davoren Center (R.N.D.C.) upon arrival. According to a report by then-United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, R.N.D.C. had a "deep-seated culture of violence" where inmates suffered "broken jaws, broken orbital bones, broken noses, long bone fractures, and lacerations requiring stitches. Browder's first experience in solitary confinement or punitive segregation lasted for two weeks at the Central Punitive Segregation Unit (known as Bing on Rikers Island), after a fight with an inmate. As he recalled, "He was throwing shoes at people—I told him to stop. I actually took his sneaker and I threw it, and he got mad. He swung on me, and we started fighting." The 400 cells at Bing were 12 by 7 feet each. He was repeatedly sent to solitary confinement after trivial fights with inmates, as returning to solitary confinement required lesser justification once an inmate had first entered solitary confinement. Although his brother suggested that this alternative would be better than the prison violence in R.N.D.C., Browder recalls facing physical abuse in the form of beatings in the shower by correction officers.
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