Shut Down Rikers: Meet Akeem Browder, Fighting to Close the Jail That Took His Brother's Life

[discocrisco01]

[Chakab]

1. It's not just Rikers. They need to reform prosecutorial practices in New York City (and several

other jurisdictions in the US). Kalief Browder was held on remand for three years because many DAs offices employ a tactic of deliberately postponing trials to force defendants to accept pleas and hence reduce the trial workload of the office.

The entire reason that Kalief was freed was because a judge finally got tired of issuing continuances and forced the DA's office to take the case to trial. When the assigned ADA actually the reviewed the evidence (or lack thereof), they were forced to drop the charges due to lack of evidence. If Kalief's right to a speedy trial had been respected, he would have been out much sooner.