Browder described his teenage years at Rikers, which included two years of solitary confinement, as torture. He was released in June 2013 after a robbery charge was dropped.
A 22-year-old man who spent three tortuous years behind bars without being convicted of a crime killed himself on Saturday, the New Yorker reported.
The New Yorker told the story of Kalief Browder last year, and this weekend, writer Jennifer Gonnerman sat with his family in their anger and grief.
His death came after years of beatings, withheld meals, and other abuse at Rikers Island, where he had been held for a crime he said he didn't commit. He was arrested at age 16 after a man claimed Browder had robbed him; authorities dropped charges after three years and before the case went to trial.
Surveillance video later obtained by the New Yorker showed two instances of the abuse Browder faced while in custody from corrections workers and other inmates. In spite of the conditions he faced, Browder said on multiple occasions he refused to take a plea deal because he was innocent.
Browder's story prompted a closer look at problems at Rikers; it turned out he was one of many people caught in the backlog of the jail and the state court system.
"This happens every day, and I feel like it's got to stop," he told the Huffington Post in 2013.
According to a New York Times report earlier this year, 400 people were being held at Rikers for more than two years without a conviction.
In response, Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced a plan to lower the inmate population and deal with the overwhelming delays.
In interviews after his release, Browder said he was trying hard to catch up on his life — going to school and also working. Family members told the New Yorker he was also left with paranoia from his time at Rikers. While in jail, he had tried to kill himself, the New Yorker reported, and he again tried after coming home.
"Prior to going to jail, I never had any mental illnesses," Browder told HLN in 2013. "I never tried to hurt myself, I never tried to kill myself, I never had any thoughts like that. I had stressful times prior to going to jail, but not like during jail. That was the worst experience that I ever went through in my whole life."
SOURCE: BuzzFeed
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