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AKEEM BROWDER, LEGISLATORS AND OTHER SOLITARY CONFINEMENT SURVIVORS AND IMPACTED FAMILY MEMBERS COMMEMORATE ANNIVERSARY OF KALIEF BROWDER’S RELEASE FROM JAIL & DEMAND AN END TO SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

(New York, NY) -- Today, Akeem Browder, other New Yorkers who have survived solitary confinement or lost family members to suicide in solitary confinement, and Kalief Browder’s state representatives Senator Gustavo Rivera and Assembly Member Michael Blake held a virtual press event to commemorate the date of Kalief’s release from Rikers Island -- a day Kalief considered to be his “rebirth”. As we come upon the five year anniversary of Kalief’s passing on June 6, a devastating new report finds that solitary confinement in New York continues to drive people to death by suicide. At the same time, solitary is exacerbating the spread and harm of COVID-19. Participants in the event called on New York State to urgently pass the HALT Solitary Confinement Act and New York City to enact the Blueprint to End Solitary, both of which have broad support.

Akeem Browder, founder of the Kalief Browder Foundation and brother of the late Kalief Browder, who died by suicide after release from solitary, said: “I often say it always seems impossible until it gets done. That statement was made by a man who went to prison and did hard labor and walked out the door and shortly after became the president of South Africa -- Nelson Mandela. That statement, on the day Kalief’s rebirth, highlights the tenacity, the strength of Kalief, as he continued to do the impossible. To live and struggle day to day for three years when he was in Rikers and when he came out, until he decided to end his life because of the torture he endured in solitary confinement. Change can happen, though. The corruption and insanity that happens in Rikers led him to being who he ended up being. Today, his rebirth, to me, symbolizes the thought that we should never allow ourselves to forget what we came here to fight for.”

Darlene McDay, mother of the late Dante Taylor who died reportedly by suicide in solitary after being beaten by corrections staff, said: “They kept him in Keeplock for about three months. They take everything away from you: no TV, no commissary, so no food. I mean, you can’t even have a donut that might make you feel a little better for a moment. No phone calls to family. No hope, really. And then, there was one night when they say he smoked something. I got a call from an incarcerated person saying they believed my son had a seizure. The officers rushed in and they just started beating him. I called Wende prison right away and asked can I speak to someone, something might have happened to my son. The officer said who’s your son and I said Dante Taylor. I said maybe my son’s at the hospital, and the officer said no he’s back. He said I have to speak to the watch commander. Here I am being so polite and nice because I know if you’re not you don’t get anything and if you’re polite to these nasty people maybe they’ll take some pity on you. I waited a while and I called back and I spoke to the watch commander. He said he would check in his file and have someone call me back. After quite a long wait, I received a call from a minister who said I need you to sit down. It was so horrible. But after that, I got nothing. You get nothing from them. When you call and try to find out, you get absolutely nothing. I’m a nurse practitioner and I was able to figure out more. He was taken to the hospital after he was beaten. At the hospital, he was treated by a physician’s assistant and I don’t think they did very much. They do test but they don’t wait for the results to come back. I had to drive up to Buffalo. I live out in Long Island. I went there to pick up medical records. They did a CAT scan of his head. But they didn't read the results. He had bleeding in his brain, but they didn't read the results until the next day when he was dead. They took him back to Wende [prison] and left him alone in his cell. They say he hung himself. We don't know what happened. There was a photo. I'm telling you his face was unbelievably disfigured. As a mother, just the hopelessness that he must of felt. I can't think of it.”

Candie Hailey, solitary survivor and member of the Jails Action Coalition and the #HALTsolitary campaign, said: “When I was in solitary at Rikers, I was not only isolated in my cell, but also shackled and required to wear a mask whenever I was taken out of it. That experience haunts me. The first time I put on a mask during this pandemic, I fell right back into the trauma of those years in isolation. At this point I would rather contract COVID-19 than put on a mask, which most people would say is the same as suicide. People who know my story ask me why Kalief Browder committed suicide. I tell them it had to be from the torture of solitary. How can we continue this torture that results in the death of so many people and leaves scars on those of us who survive for years after our release?”

Assembly Member Michael Blake, who represented Kalief, said: “I always say I don’t believe in coincidence. As we’re celebrating a day when Kalief should still be here, this afternoon many of us will be down in Foley Square to also talk about injustice again and the utter disrespect for Black and Latinx lives. They don’t care if we die. And we have to remind people often that we’re not going to be silent. And we’re going to demand accountability. We’re going to continue to push for HALT. We come here today to remind people that enough is enough. Too often, we're in a space where we're wondering if we're gonna get home. Nobody should be wondering, Can I survive today? What has happened repeatedly from Department of Corrections -- state & city -- has been the epitome of institutionalized racism. Attacks on our bodies, attacks on our souls, attacks on our minds. It is inhumane and it is torture for solitary confinement to still exist.”

Senator Gustavo Rivera, who also represented Kalief, said: “We are here to remember that fallen king, Kalief Browder, and how his memory has served as a rallying point for a simple request: that we get rid of solitary confinement because it is torture. And it is only one of the many things policywise that we need to change. What is happening in this moment across our country and certainly in Minneapolis, and the way this public health crisis has challenged all of us again, underline that there are things that are broken in this country. It underlines the obligation for those of us who recognize injustice to actually fight harder to ensure there is justice. That means that we have to put pressure on those folks who are holding the line and not letting the change actually happen. That means everyone in government who is not taking a stand on these issues needs to be held to account. I’m asking all my colleagues and the governor of this state, are you accountable for this? Why are you not acting?”

BACKGROUND: Kalief Browder spent three years in jail pre-trial on charges of stealing a backpack that were eventually dropped after he suffered three years in pre-trial detention on Rikers Island, including two years in solitary confinement. Because of the horrific treatment he had endured, Kalief considered May 29 - the day he was released from jail - as his “rebirth.” As the world came to learn, the devastation he had experienced in solitary confinement was too much and he tragically died by suicide after his release. Recent studies demonstrate that Kalief’s experience is a far too common one, with people who have spent any time in solitary being at greater risk of death from suicide, overdose, and other causes upon not just while they are inside but also upon release from prison.

In conjunction with the five year anniversary of Kalief’s death, the #HALTsolitary campaign released a devastating new report this week documenting a surge in suicide and self-harm in New York prisons, driven by solitary confinement. The report was featured in the New York Daily News and El Diario. The report comes at a pivotal moment, as incarcerated people face extraordinary pressure due to the spread of potentially deadly coronavirus infections and the state’s medically inappropriate and dangerous use of solitary confinement in contravention of health experts’ recommendations and instead of proper quarantine, care and treatment. At the same time, New Yorkers abiding by orders to mostly remain at home are getting just a small glimpse of the exponentially more devastating horrors of solitary confinement. The #HALTsolitary Campaign, an effort led by survivors of solitary confinement and their loved ones, is organizing to pass the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, which would end the torture of prolonged solitary confinement and replace it with more humane and effective alternatives. (Note: Solitary confinement is not medical isolation; HALT would not restrict true medical isolation. Please see a one-pager here.)

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