Man cited by Rand Paul in press for criminal justice reform dies

[jct74]

Man cited by Rand Paul in press for criminal justice reform dies

By Anthony Terrell
06/08/15 11:50 AM

On the campaign trail, Rand Paul often emphasizes two major goals: criminal justice reform and expanding the Republican Party to include more young and minority voters. In particular, the Kentucky senator has pushed the GOP to speak out against policies that lead to the imprisonment of minorities. In doing so, Paul often cites the story of an black New York City man, Kalief Browder, who spent three years of his young life locked up at Rikers Island prison without trial.

The story has ended in tragedy: Browder, now 22, – committed suicide at his home on Saturday.

Late Sunday evening, Paul offered his condolences to the family of the young man whose story he has told many times.

“Kelley and I extend our most heartfelt sorrow and deepest condolences to the family of Kalief Browder. May his soul rest in peace,” Paul wrote on Facebook.

In 2010, Browder was a 16-year-old high school sophomore arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. He insisted he was innocent, but spent the next three years of his life – missing his junior and senior year of high school – locked up, awaiting trial. Browder’s case was eventually dismissed by prosecutors in March of 2013.

...

read more:
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/man-cited...ce-reform-dies

[Constitutional Paulicy]

So sad. It's nice to know that Rand was in his corner.

[JohnGalt23g]

Kalief Browder was Hillary Clinton's constituent.

He should drive this home...

[fisharmor]

I'm not sure what the big deal is.

I have access to sensitive consumer data at work. I get trained on the handling of sensitive data every year. I have to know what the laws are and when I am and am not breaking them.
If I release sensitive data intentionally, or even if the data gets released as a result of my negligence, I'll get fired at least, and could be facing criminal charges.
This is because the system in which I work is designed from the ground up to prevent the release of sensitive data. I don't just assume this - I know it because there are multiple checks in place to be sure it doesn't happen - including accountability of the people who fail to protect it.

If there was no training for people in my position, or if people who intentionally - or even negligently - released personal info were never held accountable for it, then the line of people ready to judge the system in which I work as not intended to keep that data secure would go on for miles. It would simply be assumed - there's no serious attempt to stop it, so therefore stopping it must not be the goal.

We see the exact same pattern here. There was no attempt to stop this happening to Mr. Browder. Forget about the three years in prison without a trial: there wasn't even an attempt to stop the arrest or charges getting filed despite a total lack of evidence! There are multiple steps that need to happen to get someone charged for something: at least three different people, and probably more, reviewed the original situation and went ahead and charged him.

There was no attempt to make it right for three whole years. There was no attempt to give him any kind of restitution when it was discovered that it happened. There was no attempt to even cover it up after it went public.



I'm not sure how much clearer it can get.
If the system isn't designed to do exactly this, it at least sure as hell isn't designed to stop it.
And I'm therefore not at all sure how people can talk about "reform" with a straight face.

[thechitowncubs]

Weird, I was put in jail for a non-violent marijuana crime and was declared "unfit to strand trial" and also had a $100,000 bail. I was put into Solitary 3 days after being put into my unit. I was then sent to a Maximum Security Insane Asylum. Yep, I can understand where this guy is coming from.

[anaconda]

Weird, I was put in jail for a non-violent marijuana crime and was declared "unfit to strand trial" and also had a $100,000 bail. I was put into Solitary 3 days after being put into my unit. I was then sent to a Maximum Security Insane Asylum. Yep, I can understand where this guy is coming from.

+1

[anaconda]

I hope Mr. Paul will take this situation to educate and help others.

[nikcers]

I still can't believe what happened to that kid. Its a sad day when criminal justice destroys innocent lives. If we are a decent society we would take this moment to reflect on why we continue to destroy peoples lives. How we can make changes to our rules in society, how we can be better people. Its times like these that make me feel like we can't do better, but I know that is not true. I know that we can be better people, and we should. We owe it to Kalief Browder to rage against the machine, to make sure that this stops. How many more lives do we have to lose in the name of criminal justice?

[Crashland]

Well you can never know what would have happened, but nonetheless the treatment of this young man is completely unacceptable. Hard to fathom how many lives and families are being ruined by poor laws or poor law enforcement.

[presence]

I still can't believe what happened to that kid.

Get used to it. That kid is just a glimpse at a much broader statistic.

[limequat]

Kalief Browder was Hillary Clinton's constituent.

He should drive this home...

Very carefully. He doesn't need to be accused of making political hay out of this kid's death.

[nikcers]

Get used to it. That kid is just a glimpse at a much broader statistic.

Get used to it? This isn't an acquired taste, this will always leave a bad taste in my mouth. The true death is when everyone who has ever known you is gone, and you are forgotten. I will not forget this kid this is going to be my passion to help change this place that we live in.

[fisharmor]

I still can't believe what happened to that kid.

Get used to it. That kid is just a glimpse at a much broader statistic.

I can't rep you right now, presence, but that's the key.
You want to rage against the machine? Great, but you need to go farther than that.
If you can't believe what happened, it's because deep down you think the criminal justice system is supposed to do the things we're all told it's supposed to do by public schools and TV shows.

If you can't believe it, then nothing can be done about it.

When you believe it, you'll be half way there.
When you not only believe it but EXPECT it, you'll be most of the way there.
When you not only expect it but finally come to the realization that this is its purpose, that it is why it exists....
Then you should take a look around, and if there are more people around you than the half dozen on this site who also realize it, then maybe, just maybe we can have a frank, long-overdue discussion about scrapping it, and hopefully that discussion won't result in SWAT raids and bullets in our skulls.

[nikcers]

You and I aren't going to convince the prison lobby controlled populace that we need to scrap the system. We need to argue against the logical conclusion of the system that we have in place because people have been drinking the cool-aid for so long they think that its supposed to taste like turds. We need to point out there are turds in the punchbowl because there are people who don't know that that cool-aid isn't supposed to taste $#@!ty and say that's what you get when you have the for profit prisons lobbying government officials that write our laws to make customers for them. You say this is what happens when we collect tax revenue for the state in the guise of criminal justice. You say this is not criminal justice, this is criminal.

[squirl22]

So very sad.

[tod evans]

I can't rep you right now, presence, but that's the key.
You want to rage against the machine? Great, but you need to go farther than that.
If you can't believe what happened, it's because deep down you think the criminal justice system is supposed to do the things we're all told it's supposed to do by public schools and TV shows.

If you can't believe it, then nothing can be done about it.

When you believe it, you'll be half way there.
When you not only believe it but EXPECT it, you'll be most of the way there.
When you not only expect it but finally come to the realization that this is its purpose, that it is why it exists....
Then you should take a look around, and if there are more people around you than the half dozen on this site who also realize it, then maybe, just maybe we can have a frank, long-overdue discussion about scrapping it, and hopefully that discussion won't result in SWAT raids and bullets in our skulls.

Discussions won't accomplish anything, the time for talking about prison/court reform was prior to Tricky Dick.........