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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Jennifer Gonnerman's Interviews with Kalief Browder

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Washington, News, Politics, President, Wickenden, Wnyc, Barack, Obama, Lizza

4.33.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2016

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kalief Browder was jailed at Rikers Island at the age of sixteen; he spent three years locked up without ever being convicted of a crime, and much of that time was spent in solitary confinement. In 2014, the New Yorker staff writer Jennifer Gonnerman wrote about Browder and the failings of the criminal-justice system that his case exposed: unconscionable delays in the courts, excessive use of solitary confinement, teen-agers being charged for crimes as adults, brutality on the part of corrections officers. In 2015, Browder committed suicide. On The New Yorker Radio Hour, Gonnerman shares excerpts from the interviews she recorded with Browder, in which he described the psychological toll of spending years in a twelve-by-seven cell.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:12.5

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to Namibia, where the expert guides delivered a truly once-in-a-lifetime

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of a wilderness adventure. eBay, it's a place to fall in love with new pre-loved vintage and rare

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0:42.5

Yeah, eBay.

0:44.0

Things people love.

0:48.7

I'm Dorothy Wickendon.

0:50.6

On today's Politics and More podcast, New Yorker staff writer Jennifer Gonerman discusses

0:55.6

Caliph Browder.

0:57.6

In 2010, Browder was arrested for robbery at the age of 16 and imprisoned on Rikers Island.

1:04.3

He spent nearly three years awaiting trial for a crime he said he did not commit.

1:09.0

Much of that time was spent in solitary confinement.

1:12.4

Last year Browder took his own life. Jen Gonerman met with Browder several times after

1:17.9

his release and shares excerpts of those conversations.

1:24.7

Now before we hear about our next story, take a moment and think back to your high school years,

1:29.5

where you lived, who your friends were, what you were into.

1:33.5

Now imagine that your junior and senior years of high school never happened.

1:38.2

And instead, you had spent those years trapped in a jail cell without ever being convicted of a crime. This is not a story

...

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