Kalief Browder

This piece was created on Procreate and released to Instagram for its initial publication.

"Kalief Browder was only sixteen years old when he was put in Riker's Island for a crime he wasn't convicted of. He spent over 1000 days waiting for a trial he never received. He was forced into solitary confinement for 14 months, where video showed officers repeatedly beating him. Kalief made several suicide attempts while wrongfully incarcerated and after his release. He gave reports of outrageous amounts of abuse at the hands of his captors, which can be read about in an interview with @newyorkermag. Sadly, Kalief took his own life in 2015 at the age of 22. He was at home with his mother when he hung himself with bedsheets.  Kalief's life mattered. His future mattered. The work he did trying to expose outrageous abuse in our prison systems matters. His family and their grief at the loss of their loved one matters."

More information about Kalief Browder's death can be found here.