Kalief Browder Estate Will Receive $3.3M From New York City

FirstLadyB | Merging Faith and Black Entertainment News

New York City has to pay the estate of Kalief Browder $3.3 million, lawyers said on Thursday.

Browder committed suicide at the age of 22 after being incarcerated for three years (two of them in solitary confinement) at Rikers Island for allegedly stealing a backpack. Browder, who was 16 at the time of his arrest, was never charged with a crime, but spent three years in the notorious jail because he didn’t have money for bail.

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The case was dropped and Browder was released. But he took his own life, due in part to the violence and psychological damage suffered at Rikers, family members said.

“Kalief Browder’s story helped inspire numerous reforms to the justice system to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again, including an end to punitive segregation for young people on Rikers Island,” according to a statement by the New York City Law Department.

“We hope that this settlement and our continuing reforms help bring some measure of closure to the Browder family.”