Bail was medieval. Going back won’t fix crime.
Manhattan: Please don’t abandon bail reform. Our criminal justice system is bloated, ineffective and, most importantly, cruel and unjust. We are overdue for this opportunity, this racial reckoning, and need to do the challenging work for justice. Beware the whiplash of the pendulum swinging back to the past.
“The time is always right to do what is right,” said Martin Luther King Jr. Let us value human lives and dignity and always remember Kalief Browder. Bail reform is necessary and just. Rikers Island is a hellhole. Kalief (photo) was 16 when he was arrested, accused by a man with inconsistent stories about the theft of a backpack. Kalief spent three years on Rikers without being convicted of the crime of stealing a backpack. A backpack!
He remained there because his family could not afford to pay his $3,000 bail. It costs, according to different sources, $450,000-$550,000 to keep one person on Rikers for a year. The city spent about $1.5 million to imprison Kalief, who was repeatedly beaten and starved by officers, beaten by inmates and never found guilty — never even brought to trial. He spent most of his time in solitary confinement. He repeatedly tried to kill himself. He was broken. After his release, Kalief struggled and eventually agreed to reveal his experience in order to save others from this cruel and unjust imprisonment. Jennifer Gonnerman, a journalist, obtained shocking video of his assaults by guards and inmates.
On June 6, 2015, Kalief died by suicide. He was 22. Remember Kalief. Remember all the others.