Staff: Okay, we’ll let you guys do your thing They had her in an adult-sized jumpsuit but she looks like she could be in middle school.Ĭ: So this is the recorder, this is the microphone, I’m going to get kind of close so I can get good sound.
Clean with passion for now season 1 episode 9 series#
I was led back through a series of locking gates to a small classroom.Ī few minutes later a corrections officer brought her in. I came here to meet a young woman we’re going to call Imani. This place has been rated among the worst jails in New York. And being in jail means, for the most part, they haven’t yet had a triall they haven’t pled guilty or been convicted of a crime.and it means they’re probably being locked up with adults.Ĭourtney: So I took a trip upstate to check out one of these jails, in Onondaga County. If a kid like Kalief Browder is being held in a county jail besides Rikers, they can be put in solitary. There’s a loophole for kids in county jails. So, Courtney, how's it look? Is the ban put in place back in 2014 working?Ĭourtney: You know, that ban only keeps teenagers in New York State prisons out of 23-hour solitary confinement. We partnered with the Marshall Project to investigate it, and WNYC producer Courtney Stein was a part of the team… So we wanted to find out what kids like Kalief Browder face around New York State now, when they are held while waiting for trial. And following a lawsuit, NY State banned extreme forms of solitary for juveniles in prisons.īut as with anything, there's often a gap between the rules at the top and the reality inside the system. New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio banned its use for anyone under 21 years old at Rikers. President Obama banned solitary for juveniles in federal prisons. In recent years, reform advocates have made a lot of progress in curtailing the use of solitary. But first…we are going to focus on this one extreme form of punishing kids. We’re gonna return to his story later in this episode. Z is the 17 year old who we last heard from after he’d been re-arrested. The kid who really got us started reporting this series has landed in Rikers too. All that time, he was awaiting trial, atrial that never took place. Browder spent 3 years in jail on NYC’s Rikers Island. Kalief Browder killed himself on Saturday. He did finally get out of Rikers - the prosecutor dropped the case because they lost touch with the single witness. Kalief Browder tried to kill himself several times while in solitary. I mean the practice is just basically considered around the world as inhumane, cruel and degrading expert on torture has called for absolute prohibition of solitary confinement. He says solitary confinement is so dangerous for young people like Kalief that the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists recommends any kid held for more than 24 hours should get immediate evaluation.ĭwayne: It is so bad that the U.N.
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it's already hard in there because the three trays they give, you are still hungry so if they starve you one tray, that could really make an impactĭwayne: We don't now lack for evidence that this is horrific.ĭwayne Betts is the poet and lawyer who's been with me throughout this podcast. Kalief: And in solitary confinement they control your food and when it's time for so if you say anything that can tick them off in any kind of way, a lot of them.
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Both inmates and guards abused Kalief at Rikers. And he spent three years at Rikers Island waiting for a trial, because he couldn't pay his bail and refused to take a plea. He was arrested in New York City at age 16, because someone accused him of stealing a backpack. It's one the names in the roll call, of black lives taken by the criminal justice system. Kalief: You miss everything, everything about being home - the fresh air, your family, certain events.