"Time: The Kalief Browder Story" details Browder’s arrest, and the subsequent time he spent in Rikers. The premiere shows viewers the "abuse" and "torture" Browder’s case has been linked to, acts unfortunately far from uncommon in New York City's most infamous jail.

1. 12/29/2017 'Time: The Kalief Browder Story' Is an Urgent Call to Improve U.S. Prisons
http://www.spring.st/kalief-browder-review 1/6
by Asia Ewart
Mar 03, 2017
(https://www.facebook.com/sharer/shareu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spring.st%2Fkaliebrowder-review)
PHOTO: TWITTER (https://twitter.com/S_C_/status/837034686098485248) / @S_C_
Before his death in 2015, Kalief Browder spent over 1,000 days in New York
(http://www.spring.st/news-bite-trump-new-york-city-visit/)'s Rikers Island jail complex for
allegedly stealing a backpack ve years earlier.
He spent over 800 days in solitary con nement and had over 30 court dates—many of which were
continuously moved—before his case was ultimately dismissed.
(/) 1

2. 12/29/2017 'Time: The Kalief Browder Story' Is an Urgent Call to Improve U.S. Prisons
http://www.spring.st/kalief-browder-review 2/6
On March 1, Spike premiered the rst episode of a six-part documentary entitled Time: The Kalief
Browder Story.
It details Browder’s arrest (http://www.spring.st/news-bite-kim-kardashian-robbery-case/), and the
subsequent time he spent in Rikers. The premiere shows viewers the "abuse" and "torture" Browder’s
case has been linked to, acts unfortunately far from uncommon in New York City's most infamous
jail.
spiketv Follow
572 likes 32 comments
Spread the word and share Kalief's story with photos from'TIME: The
#KaliefBrowder Story' on Tumblr. Link in bio.

3. 12/29/2017 'Time: The Kalief Browder Story' Is an Urgent Call to Improve U.S. Prisons
http://www.spring.st/kalief-browder-review 3/6
By program’s end, the tragedy of Browder’s story—heightened by his eventual suicide after not
being able to shake the "demons" he confronted while behind bars (http://www.spring.st/real-life-
orange-is-the-new-black-prison/)—hangs uncomfortably in the air.
And while that discomfort has everything to do with how cruelly Browder was treated, it has so
much more to do with the state of the United States’ criminal justice system. And the corruption
that landed him in Rikers in the rst place.

4. 12/29/2017 'Time: The Kalief Browder Story' Is an Urgent Call to Improve U.S. Prisons
http://www.spring.st/kalief-browder-review 4/6
spiketv Follow
10 MONTHS AGO
14.8k views 125 comments
A 16-year old boy was sent to Rikers Island for three years without being
convicted of a crime. Part one of the six-part documentary event, 'TIME:
The #KaliefBrowder Story' premieres tonight at 10/9c. (via @60secdocs)
As prominent activist voices like Al Sharpton and Van Jones discus in the documentary’s rst
episode, racism, poverty, and an inherently awed justice system disproportionately put people like
Browder in jail.

5. 12/29/2017 'Time: The Kalief Browder Story' Is an Urgent Call to Improve U.S. Prisons
http://www.spring.st/kalief-browder-review 5/6
Depositions and attempts to sue end up working against the plainti —in this case, Browder, when
he sued the city of New York in 2014—because higher-ups would rather be wrong than admit police
o cers, judges, district attorneys, and the like have a bias.
It's an issue Browder's sister, Nicole, has been vocal about since his death. As she notably laid out in
a recent interview with FADER (http://www.thefader.com/2017/02/28/nicole-browder-kalief-
browder-interview-prison-system):
"Everyone knows the system is set up for you to fail, and it targets poor people, people who
don’t have money. They get paid for all those inmates in there. It’s business after all, a very
nasty business. And human life has to su er for it. It’s unorganized. It’s hard to get a court
date. They’re just buying time, wasting taxpayer dollars, wasting an inmate’s life."
But for Nicole and the rest of the Browder siblings, though there is anger over the injustices their
brother and so many Rikers inmates faced, there is also a drive for change.
Time: The Kalief Browder Story revs up the urge to change the current state of the government for
everyone who watches it. It's a very real, very painful look at the violence happening daily to
inmates, but it also empowers its audience to push for reformation in the justice system.
One of the most prominent people on the cause has been former president Barack Obama
(http://www.spring.st/obama-book-deal/). His ban on solitary con nement for juvenile inmates in
federal prison—as discussed in his 2016 Washington Post op-ed
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/barack-obama-why-we-must-rethink-solitary-
con nement/2016/01/25/29a361f2-c384-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html?
utm_term=.622c43f85687), where he talks about Browder's case at length—has put an even bigger
spotlight on what goes on behind jail walls.
Akeem Browder, Kalief's brother, has also taken to community activism
(http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/05/30/akeem-browder) and holding rallies to ght against
injustice in prisons.

6. 12/29/2017 'Time: The Kalief Browder Story' Is an Urgent Call to Improve U.S. Prisons
http://www.spring.st/kalief-browder-review 6/6
Time: The Kalief Browder Story isn't going to get any easier to watch in the coming weeks. But
Browder's story has become the driving force behind a uni ed quest for an unbiased criminal justice
system.
No matter how bittersweet, it's a step in the right direction.
#shutdownrikers Akeem Browder fighting against the injustices that
led to his brother #KaliefBrowder's suicide.
4:59 PM - Jun 6, 2016
1 114 141
Innocence Project
@innocence