How long should someone be able to be held in jail without a trial?
"Kalief Browder, the young man who was held for years in a New York jail without a trial, killed himself on Saturday," writes Eyder Peralta for NPR.
Browder was the subject of a profile in The New Yorker. He was 16 years old when he was arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. Because his family was unable to raise his $10,000 bail, Browder languished at Rikers Island for three years awaiting trial.
The teen said he endured beatings by officers and other inmates. He tried to commit suicide and spent more than 400 days in solitary confinement.
Eventually, in 2013, his case was dismissed. The publicity surrounding his case led to a plan to try to curb the violence at Rikers. But as Browder told the New Yorker, he emerged from the ordeal broken.
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