The death of my brother Kalief Browder sparked an international outcry — not just because of the terrible injustices he faced, but because he defied the odds, refused to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit, and demanded fairness. In honor of his fight, I have been demanding fairness, too, through the Kalief Browder Foundation. Now is a moment we must all rise up to stop a new plan by Gov. Hochul that could lead to countless more tragedies like the one my family suffered.
You may be familiar with the story: As a child of 16, Kalief was falsely accused of stealing a backpack and arrested. Even though the accusation involved no alleged violence, prosecutors charged him with a violent felony in adult criminal court. They also sought — and the judge set — unaffordable bail. While Kalief languished on Rikers for three years, despite the constitutional right to a speedy trial, including two years in solitary confinement, prosecutors withheld key “discovery” material, or evidence. Though beaten and abused by jail officers, Kalief fought to clear his name.
That last part made his case unique. Prosecutors had offered a deal. He could have pled guilty in exchange for his release. Nearly everyone — tens of thousands of people across the state every year — in that situation submits, including those who are innocent but railroaded. But Kalief refused.
Finally, after three years at Rikers, prosecutors turned over discovery, admitting they had no case, and it was dismissed. But it was too late for my brother. The emotional scars were permanent. Two years later, just a week after his birthday, he died by suicide.
New York State’s old policies on bail, discovery and the age of criminal responsibility killed my brother. You only know his name because he refused to capitulate to the enormous power of the state using those very laws to coerce guilty pleas.
The outcry over Kalief’s death led lawmakers to make modest but impactful — though often misrepresented and maligned — reforms. Among the reforms enacted in his name were a Raise the Age law ensuring that most 16 and 17 year-olds accused of crimes are sent to Family Court rather than prosecuted as adults, in line with widely accepted neuroscience about adolescent brain development. This reform had already been implemented across the country. Likewise, lawmakers reformed our discovery law, aligning New York with nearly every other state and ensuring everyone accused of a crime has prompt access to all the evidence in their case. Finally, lawmakers passed a common-sense bail reform law that established protections against pre-trial jailing in many cases while providing judges with more tools and discretion to ensure people return to court, and even to address their underlying challenges.
And law enforcement data is clear the reforms haven’t caused the recent uptick in shootings.
But rather than continuing to make progress toward justice, the governor has proposed a mass jailing plan that will gut those reforms and send more people, including children, to deadly jails. If enacted, these policies will surely take more lives, like my brother’s. Worse, she is attempting to sneak it into the budget without any public input.
This is bad policy and bad process.
I know gun violence in our neighborhoods is intolerable. I’m raising a son in the Bronx and there’s nothing more important to me than keeping him safe. But I also know that jails destabilize people and cause violence, and that the safest communities have the greatest resources, not the highest incarceration rates.
It is an affront to Kalief, to me and to my family that Hochul would undo even these very modest gains made in my brother’s name, especially because her efforts are purely political, a result of fearmongering and outright lies by the NYPD, prosecutors and politicians. And it’s just plain disgraceful at this time of the dire humanitarian crisis of New York City’s jails and jails across the state. Sixteen people died in 2021 in New York City’s jails alone, and three more people have already died in 2022.
Let’s be honest: A system that condemns a 16-year-old kid to Rikers Island based on a false allegation of stealing a backpack needs a complete overhaul. With deaths piling up, we need urgent decarceration. Our so-called leaders are blatantly ignoring the crisis and instead trying to send more people to deadly jails solely for political gain. That’s beyond the pale.
New Yorkers galvanized across this state to end mass incarceration and in the past few years our efforts started coming to fruition. Now New Yorkers are beginning to see some lawmakers flip flop and revert to the failed policies of the past. Instead, legislators must demand resources that we know will deliver real safety for my child, for your child, and for everyone in New York State.
Browder is the founder of the Kalief Browder Foundation.
