Former Rikers Island Inmate Who Was Jailed for Years Without Trial Commits Suicide

Kalief Browder was 21 years old.

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Complex Original

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A man who was held for three years at Rikers Island without being convicted of a crime or even standing trial committed suicide over the weekend, authorities say. 

The New York Daily News reports that 21-year-old Kalief Browder hung himself using a the cord to an air conditioner at his family's Bronx residence on Saturday.

Browder was arrested in 2010 at the age of 16 following another teenager's claim that he stole his backpack. Because his family was unable to post his $10,000 bail, Browder remained incarcerated, and rejected a plea deal offered to him after 33 months in prison.

According to the Daily News, the charges were ultimately dropped in May 2013, but by then, Browder's conditions had gotten to him. Aside from reportedly spending upwards of 400 days in solitary confinement, he was subjected to beatings from corrections officers and fellow inmates, and attempted suicide on multiple occasions. 

The New Yorker adds that Browder also attempted to hang himself six months after his release from Rikers. Just a week ago, his attorney, Paul V. Prestia, filed a lawsuit against the city of New York on his behalf. 

[via New York Daily News and the New Yorker]

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