If you learn anything about our “justice” system. It should be, that it is more aptly called an injustice system. It is dark, and evil, and past reform. It should be thrown out and we should start over….
~MFP
Imagine being young, vulnerable, and facing criminal charges for a crime you didn’t commit. The justice system sees you as nothing more than a statistic. Your case is not worth their time and resources. The question of your innocence is actually of little interest to the DA’s office. You are just another file on top of an endless stack of others. Their only goal is to move your paperwork from their stack to someone else’s.
Before you are even given the chance to adequately defend yourself in court, you are given two options: continue to maintain your innocence and face the full consequences of the legal system or agree to a reduced sentence by accepting a plea deal and admitting guilt.
This was the choice given to sixteen-year-old Kalief Browder. But unlike so many others in the same position, he had the courage to say no to the plea deal. And so the system destroyed him.
Browder took his own life. And the country took notice.
Kalief Browder
If you didn’t follow the Kalief Browder story as it unfolded, Time produced a beautiful documentary series exposing the entire debacle that is now available on Netflix. Falsely accused of stealing a backpack and unwilling to take the DA’s plea bargain, Browder was placed in the infamous Rikers Island prison while the system routinely delayed his trial.
It took three years for Browder to get his day in court. Two of those three miserable years he spent behind bars were in solitary confinement, a traumatizing experience that he never recovered from. His time outside of solitary confinement was spent being brutally beaten by both guards and other inmates.
Once it was made clear that Browder was innocent, the damage had already been done. The physical and psychological horrors he endured weren’t magically erased when the system realized they had screwed up.
Browder took his own life. And the country took notice.
Plea deals prey specifically on the most economically and socially vulnerable.