Protesters demand justice for mistreated black prisoner in New York
A group of New York protesters took to the streets on Saturday to demand justice for Kalief Browder, a young black man who committed suicide after spending three years in the Rikers Island prison without any trial.
Kalief who was only 16 at the time of detainment by police was accused of a robbery he insisted he had not committed.
He was taken to the Rikers Island prison in 2010 without any trial and spent more than a thousand days there, looking forward to a trial that never happened.
Prison days left him with so much mental problem that psychiatric care did not help and he eventually committed suicide on June 6 after several unsuccessful attempts.
A group of angry citizens and activists who assembled at the Rikers Island prison demanded justice for Browder.
According to the protesters, the Department of Corrections, which is in charge of incarceration and well-being of prisoners in the United States, is responsible for the death of Kalief Browder.
One of the protesters told Press TV that mistreatment of prisoners is common in US prisons.
“Sexual assault is very common and people are taken advantage of,” said Namala Conte, a former inmate.
She also added that Wall Street banks have turned imprisonment of people into a profitable industry.
“It is a business so that you can make more money off of us because whenever you are in here every day they make money off of you,” she said, adding “that is why correction and police officers arrest before you find out what is going on.”
Denise Romero, another activist attending the protest whose brother was also a former prisoner, said that the treatment he received in prison “did not make him a better person.”
Romero said that instead of being incarcerated, people like his brother needed better mental healthcare, and better support system to keep them from becoming a criminal at the first place.
The protesters were marching towards the Rikers Island prison, but encountered a heavy presence of security and police forces.
Kalief’s suicide has angered black communities inside the United States and activists have been demanding the prison to be shut down.
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