It was like hell on Earth. Time: The Kalief Browder Story II: The Island, Kalief
Rikers Island has a predatory population. They’re usually the younger inmates. Those inmates fight, stab, slash, they light people on fire when they’re sleeping. ibid. Bernard Kerik, former commissioner NYC department of corrections
Before you know it, the whole house is jumping me. ibid. Kalief
A place where beatings are routine while accountability is rare, where a culture of violence endures even while a culture of silence prevails. ibid. Preet Bharara, US attorney for the southern district of New York
Inside the Program: Secrets of Sadistic Rikers. ibid. press article
Delay after delay after delay when their case had no basis. Time: The Kalief Browder Story III: The Bing
The United Nations defines any period longer than 15 days straight in solitary confinement as ‘torture’, When Kalief was 17, his first extended stay in solitary confinement was over 300 days straight. ibid.
97% of criminal case are resolved by plea. ibid. judge
Being in a Kafkaesque world, a world where you are suddenly being taken over by these malevolent forces. ibid. psychiatrist
Go down to any hall of justice in any city in America and what you’re gonna see is poor black and brown people lined up going off to prison for doing stuff that rich people are doing every day. Time: The Kalief Browder Story IV: The Witness, Van Jones, author & activist
Kalief attempted suicide 4 more times while at Rikers. Each occasion, he was sent back to solitary confinement. ibid. caption
They dismiss the case. 2:00 a.m. they release him. They just gave him a Metro card. Time: The Kalief Browder Story V: Injustice for All
I felt like I lost my childhood. ibid. Kalief
In the fall of 2013, Kalief’s story started to spread across local news stations in New York City. ibid. caption
After an attempted suicide, Kalief underwent psychiatric evaluation at St Barnabas hospital. ibid.
Kalief was shot point-blank in his neighbourhood escaping with a flesh wound to his abdomen. ibid.
Kalief spent Christmas in the psych ward at Harlem Hospital. ibid.
Kalief just thought he was cursed. And he couldn’t overcome his nightmares even when he was back in the Bronx. He may as well be back at Rikers. ibid. attorney
When I opened the back door I saw him hanging. ibid. mom
Thank you for trusting me. Time: The Kalief Browder Story VI: The After Life, Rosie O’Donnell text
Rethinking Solitary Confinement. ibid. Barack Obama op-ed
He is the face of Truth and Justice. ibid. mom
Darcel Clark was one of nine judges to preside over Kalief Browder’s robbery case. She allowed the Bronx DA to delay his case for 322 days while he was in solitary confinement. ibid. captions
Prison is about submission and compliance. This is no place for teenage defiance … They blasted her cell with pepper spray. It’s just another day in the life of inmate Ashley Smith. The Fifth Estate: Ashley Smith: Out of Control, CBC 2007
It [video tape] exposes just how kids with mental health and behavioural problems are treated behind bars in this country. ibid.
By Grade 8 Ashley was failing and she was regularly getting expelled for being defiant, disrespectful and disruptive. ibid.
She managed to accumulate 800 documented incidents. ibid.
After almost three years in solitary confinement [accumulated from a one-month sentence] at the New Brunswick youth centre 18-year-old Ashley Smith has been moved to an adult prison. ibid.
‘Please don’t taser me! I’m scared!’ ibid. Ashley
Ashley would strangle herself often several times a day. ibid.
She was never fully assessed or meaningfully treated. She was never in one place long enough. ibid.
It’s the racket they running in them facilities, that’s the real crime: you know one ten-minute phone call from Yusuf costs $23. Where am I going to get that from? When They See Us III, mother, Netflix 2019
Post-riot 22 April 1993, Southern Ohio Correctional Facility: Lucasville was an explosive environment every day. Captive I: Prison Riot USA, caption, Netflix 2016
Lucasville was an explosive environment every day. ibid.
It was way out of control. ibid.
They killed him right there. Snitches get ditches. ibid. inmate
There were a lot of old vendettas being settled. ibid.
400-500 guys running about extremely hyped up and mad. ibid.
In a world of hate and violence women are often thought of as the peacekeepers, the nurturers, the gentle sex. But of the nearly 3,500 convicted murderers currently on America’s death row, 53 of them are women, and nearly one third of them are convicted of murdering their children. Women on Death Row I II III IV, Sony TV 2019
How did they end here? What is their side of the story? And what is their fate? ibid.
They have been convicted of the most heinous of crimes and are among the more than 150 females sentenced to death in the United States. ibid.
They stood trial for murder and were sentenced to death … Each of them … face execution and the consequences of their crimes. ibid.
During American involvement in the Vietnam War 57,000 men lost their lives. Over 100,000 wounded were rescued … What happened to our servicemen who went down behind enemy lines, men who were known to be alive on the ground? Could new evidence mean that Americans are still alive in the jungles of Indo-China? In Search of s6e4: MIAs, 1981
Britain’s prisons are bursting at the seams. And with 80,000 men locked up, there have never been more women serving their own sentences on the other side of the bars. With kids to feed and bills to pay, they’ve got to maintain relationships, work out what to tell the kids, and support their men on the inside too. So who would be a prisoner’s wife? Prisoners’ Wives: Visiting Hour, Channel 5 2019
Thousands of women visit their men inside every day. ibid.
‘For the third time. I kind of got used to it by then. Why are we still together? What a question. I dunno. I just think obviously your family’s your family, innit, you’ve got to like stick by each other through thick and thin. He’s the kids’ dad, and when he is around, he’s good. He’s not around as much as he should be.’ ibid.
If life is tough for the prisoners’ wives, what’s it like for the kids? ibid.
Thousands of people are jailed here after being fined for being homeless, just for sleeping in a park, for loitering, for standing around in public. The Americas with Simon Reeve II, BBC 2019
I’ve been seeing someone. Brawl in Cell Block 99 2017 starring Vince Vaughan & Jennifer Carpenter & Don Johnson & Udo Kier & Marc Blucas & Mustafa Shakir & Thomas Guiry & Dion Mucciacito & Geno Segers & Willie C Carpenter et al, director S Craig Zahler, her to him
I’m going to drive packages for a friend. ibid. him to her
Make your mark in this world, son. Always be your mom’s protector. And no matter what you hear about me, you keep moving forward and never look back. Shot Caller 2017 starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau & Omari Hardwick & Lake Beell & Jon Bernthal & Emory Cohen & Jeffrey Donovan & Evan Jones & Benjamin Bratt & Holt McCallany & Juan Pablo Raba et al, director Ric Roman Waugh, father’s letter
I’m rich. I wanted some o’ that O J justice. Big Stan 2007 starring Rob Schneider & Jennifer Morrison & Scott Wilson & Henry Gibson & Richard Kind & David Carradine & M Emmet Walsh & Sally Kirkland & et al, director Rob Schneider, Stan found guilty
Don’t go near those guys – they’re Scientologists … They’ll talk you’re ear off then sue your arse. ibid. cellmate in exercise yard