JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Last week, the brand new York City Department of Corrections introduced it’s going to stop using solitary confinement to punish adolescents held in its troubled Rikers Island jail complicated, the second-largest jail system within the country. But a federal prosecutor cognitive natural brain health supplement brain booster supplement said the city’s reforms had been shifting too slowly to deal with a, quote, “culture of violence,” and warned he might file a civil lawsuit over situations for teenagers held in Rikers. New York is one of only two states nationwide that automatically cost 16- and stir.tomography.stfc.ac.uk 17-yr-olds as adults. AMY GOODMAN: Well, at present we glance on the unimaginable story of a 16-yr-outdated highschool sophomore who was jailed at Rikers Island for nearly three years after he refused to plead responsible to against the law he said he did not commit. It was May 15, 2010, when Kalief Browder was strolling dwelling from a get together along with his associates in the Bronx and was stopped by police primarily based on a tip that he had robbed somebody weeks earlier.

He instructed HuffPost Live what happened subsequent. KALIEF BROWDER: They had searched me, and the guy actually stated-at first he said I robbed him. I didn’t have something on me. MARC LAMONT HILL: When you say “nothing,” you mean no weapon and none of his property. KALIEF BROWDER: No weapon, no money, something he mentioned that I allegedly robbed him for. So the guy actually changed up his story and mentioned that I actually tried to rob him. But then one other police officer got here, and so they mentioned that I robbed him two weeks prior. And then they said, “We’re going to take you to the precinct, and almost definitely we’re going to let you go house.” But then, I never went dwelling. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Kalief Browder did not go house for 33 months, even though he was never convicted. For nearly 800 days of that point, he was held in solitary confinement.

He maintained his innocence and requested a trial, but was only supplied plea offers whereas the trial was repeatedly delayed. Near the end of his time in jail, the judge provided to sentence him to time served if he entered a guilty plea, and higgledy-piggledy.xyz told him he might face 15 years in prison if he was convicted. He refused to simply accept the deal and was only released when the case was dismissed. AMY GOODMAN: Well, for www.mindguards.net more, we’re joined by Jennifer Gonnerman, reporter, author, contributing editor at New York journal, and Mind Guard focus formula contributing writer to The brand new Yorker journal. She recounts Kalief Browder’s story in the present situation of The new Yorker in a piece headlined, “Before the Law: A boy was accused of taking a backpack. The courts took the next three years of his life.” Jennifer Gonnerman has long chronicled problems with the criminal justice system. Her ebook, Life on the surface: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett, tells the story of a girl who spent 16 years in prison for a first-time offense under New York’s Rockefeller drug legal guidelines.

And we’re joined by Kalief Browder’s present attorney, Paul Prestia, who has filed a lawsuit against town, the NYPD-the new York Police Department-Bronx district attorney and the Department of Corrections on Browder’s behalf. Prestia can also be a former assistant prosecutor in Brooklyn. Jennifer Gonnerman, test.onelondon.online Paul Prestia, welcome to Democracy Now! Jennifer, inform us Kalief’s story. JENNIFER GONNERMAN: Well, you did a fairly good job of setting it up, and it was terrific that we got to hear Kalief’s voice describing what happened. But just to recap a bit, May 2010, he’s coming residence from a occasion late one evening in the Bronx, walking together with his pal down the street, classicalmusicmp3freedownload.com and w003.cloud a police automotive pulls up. There’s any individual within the back seat who points him out, saying, you recognize-accusing him of a robbery that had occurred one or two weeks earlier. AMY GOODMAN: Well, first, he truly says, “I didn’t steal anything tonight.

JENNIFER GONNERMAN: Right, proper. JENNIFER GONNERMAN: Right, so there was, from the start, it sounded like, at the least the best brain health supplement way Kalief tells it, some confusion in regards to the dates, which is important. And he goes into the precinct considering, “I’m just”-and he’s within the holding cell, thinking, “I’m just going to be right here for a couple hours. We’ll clear up this misunderstanding.” And, as you mentioned, he ended up doing almost three years on Rikers Island, for a lot of causes, but the system type of fully failed him in each doable approach. There was no speedy trial. memory and focus supplement through that time, he was locked up within the adolescent jail on Rikers Island. AMY GOODMAN: Explain Rikers. JENNIFER GONNERMAN: Sure, positive. You understand, after we discuss Rikers Island, it’s a jail advanced. There’s 10 different jails there. And I feel lots of people get confused between prison and jail. A prison is the place you go after you’ve been convicted and sentenced. A jail is the place you go while you’re ready to your case to undergo the court docket.