“The case of Kalief Browder, a Bronx teenager who spent much of a three-year stint awaiting trial in solitary confinement at Rikers Island, highlighted the dangers associated with prolonged isolation. After prosecutors dropped their case, he committed suicide in 2015. After his death, Mr. de Blasio said, “Kalief’s story helped inspire our efforts” at Rikers.”
“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.” And all that for allegedly stealing a backpack? What the fuck? A very, very, “broken criminal justice system”, indeed. Or rather, a sick and criminal justice system, kept alive by indifferent and hypocritical people who should be locked up in solitary immediately. No trial needed for them, as they proved to deserve incarceration for years already.
It was a total failure, but I’m not surprised on the INjustice system as it was NEVER to include Black people
Hi Nicole, The system was meant to include Black people as scapegoats for crimes as well as bodies for free labor, entertainment, and sexual favors.
That’s real sick. The devils will reap what they have sown. They are the ones are not human ASE!!!
It seems to be the new way to torture innocent people of color. Throw them in jail for years while awaiting charges or trial on minutia. Do you realize there are people in jail who have not been charged with crimes or are charged with such minor crimes that make imprisonment criminal?
Every day the US criminal system is allowed to continue doing business is a crime against humanity.
So let me get this straight when it comes to New York’s (in)justice system (although this could apply to the rest of the country). Some teenager allegedly steals a backpack and he’s thrown in jail without a trial while people like Harvey Weinstein can sexually harass and assault women and he’s treated with kid gloves. The level of double standards and hypocrisy is overwhelming. The courts treat rapists and murderers better than supposed petty crime.
Hmmm, just posted here e second ago, but it never appeared. Huh?
Well, fuck it then.
It happens very often. Innocent people thrown in jail for years are almost always people of color. Criminals allowed to walk the streets freely are white, usually white men. Wonder why?
Very true and it isn’t the first story I’ve heard about wrongful imprisonment. One of the boys in the Central Park Five was sent to Rikers Island when they were railroad. I picture so many judges and lawyers feeling hesitant because they don’t want to prosecute someone who looks like they could be family to them.
I don’t think like that but it doesn’t surprise me to learn that so many judges, the bastions of justice, are biased in that manner.
Judges, are the bastions of justice? Never thought about it like that. Since when?
I was an extremely naive young woman.
Of course. Confirmation bias certainly plays a role in verdicts. People tend to give harsher treatment to those who don’t look like them.
Confirmation bias is indeed significant particularly in a society fraught with racism. It’s a problem in the verdicts and the entire structure of the system. We experience it every day we read what is considered newsworthy.
Yes, people “tend to give harsher treatment to those who don’t look like them,” and in America, people go out of their way to destroy others who don’t look like them.
Certainly. Granted, it’s not the only form of confirmation bias, but it is one of the more systemic ones in our society today.
That is all too true.