All language subtitles for TIME.The.Kalief.Browder.Story.Part.1.720p.HDTV.x264-W4F

all: ♪ Happy birthday,
dear Kalief ♪

- Hi
- Hey, how yng doi?

- Good evening.
- Good evening.

- Um, today is May 15, 2010.

The time is now about
7:47 in the evening.

- I just needed
to get my story out.

- And you are
Mr. Kalief Browder.

Is that correct?
- Yes.

I was just going home
from a party.

- 911 operator 1719,
what's the emergency?

There was a guy saying
that I had robbed him.

[indistinct
police radio chatter]

They said, "We're gonna take
you to the precinct."

- Did you rob somebody

in the beginning part
of May, Mr. Crowder?

- No. No.

- The time is now
10 to 8:00.

This interview
is concluded.

- They said, "Most likely,
we're gonna let you go home."

- Rikers...

- One of the most
violent jails in the country.

- All right, all right!
- Look what he's doing!

- Stop! We missed it!

- But then...
[buzzer blares]

- The [bleep] is wrong
with you, man?

- Time-out.
- I never went home.

- Kalief was my son.

I know what he went through.

[buzzer blares]

I went through a lot
with him.

- I felt like I was done wrong.

I felt like something
needed to be done about this.

[indistinct yelling]

If I just say that I did it,

nothing's gonna be
done about it.

I didn't do it.
No justice is served.

Nobody hears nothing at all.
I had to fight.

[dramatic music]

You want me to walk away
like it's okay?

It's not okay.

♪ ♪

I lost my childhood.

I lost my happiness.

- They destroyed my life,
my family's life.

- What's his name?
all: Kalief Browder!

- 911 emergency.
- Oh, my God!

- Ma'am?
- This is supposed to be

the greatest city
in the world.

And we are supposed to trust
in this justice system.

Where's the justice?

♪ ♪

- Let's do it again.

All right, tell me
when this gets annoying,

and I'll stop.
- [laughs]

- Sorry.

- Yeah.
[chuckles] It's all right.

- Thank you.

- I don't know I'm just nervous.
I don't know.

- How many times did I start
over, right?

I kept doing that, too.
I was like, "Wait, time-out.

I got to say it again."
- [laughs]

- He broke records.
I'm kidding.

- All right, um...

In order--

I'm sorry, hold on.

I'll just let them go by.
It's just personal for me.

- Yeah.

- In jail as a 16-year-old
high-school sophomore,

now more than three years
later, this young man is free.

- He may be physically free--
- Criminal charges--

- Kalief Browder...
- Kalief Browder...

- Kalief Browder...
- Kalief Browder...

- Was arrested at 16...
- For stealing a backpack.

- A backpack.
- Backpack.

- In jail on Rikers...
- Solitary...

- Solitary confinement.
- Torture.

- Torture.
- Torture.

- He did three years
on Rikers Island,

trapped there, without having
been convicted of a crime.

- This video was obtained
by the "New Yorker Magazine."

- It caused a lot
of people to act.

- President Obama banned

solitary confinement
for juveniles.

Obama cites Kalief Browder
in New York City.

- Republican Senator Rand Paul
mentioned his name.

- How are you?
- Rosie O'Donnell

had him on "The View."
- You are really a hero.

[applause]

- And Jay Z met him...

took a picture with him.

- Kalief moved so many people.

I just felt compelled
to meet with him.

I believe our prophets come

in many shapes and forms.

Sometimes our prophets come
in the form of young,

undeveloped energy that will
teach all us grown-ups

how to love better
and have more compassion,

and Kalief Browder
was a prophet.

♪ ♪

- Now, more than
three years later,

this young man is free--

criminal charges
completely dropped.

- You know, I just came home.

- Good morning to you.
Here's what we've got, guys.

Delays all the way back
to the Bruckner Interchange.

We got a couple of other
incidents in the Bronx

that we're gonna be
looking at as well.

- When I was 16, I mean,
I liked to play sports.

[crowd cheering]

- Yankees win!
The Yankees win!

- I used to like
to go to the park.

- Rare sister cubs
are at the Bronx Zoo,

the Malayan tiger--

- I used to like
to go to parties.

- We're in the South Bronx,
Hip-Hop Boulevard.

It's an honor to the place
that created hip-hop

on August 11, 1973.

- I can't even
have fun right now.

Coming home,
I was very discouraged,

and sometimes
I'm still discouraged.

I don't even think I can make it
like these guys out here.

I see businessmen
and businesswomen

dressed in suits.

I want to be like them,
you know?

That's my--
that's just me.

I want to be successful
like them.

Everything is just
straight work and school

and catching up
on my life.

Like, right now as we speak,
I just--

from the stuff that
I've been through prior,

I just feel like I have a lot
of just demons walking with me,

and it's not
from anything I did,

but just stuff that I've seen
and been through,

and it's like--
it just won't leave me.

[shouting]

I can't go to sleep
at night, you know,

and every time
I get time to myself,

I think about those things,
and it just stresses me out.

[airplane passing overhead]

- Physically, he'll be
right in front of you.

Mentally, he's not there.

And, you know, I'm his mom.

I could see when there's
a difference, and he just--

It's like he's in and out.

This is how
he releases his anger.

And when he thinks about
Rikers, he gets really upset.

The city knows
what they've done.

I'm just waiting for the day
Kalief gets justice.

- When Kalief came home, we
went to 11 different attorneys,

11 different attorneys
that turned him down right away,

said he had no case.

This wasn't
about getting him money.

It was about
getting him justice.

- You know what?
You mess with these kids

who are in jail to try
to compel a plea

and ask for these bull[bleep],
illusory adjournments, whatever.

I know that. I was a DA.
I did the same thing.

- Paul had no doubt about
the fact that he had a case.

- So, basically,
my whole argument is,

this is an issue
of the city of New York.

- 911 Operator, 1719,
what's the emergency?

- All they had to do
in this case

was bring one victim forward.

And the thing
about this victim was,

he had given
different statements

in the police paperwork
about when this robbery

actually happened.
- 2:40 a.m.?

- Yes.
- I was home.

- You were home, definitely?
- I had to have been home.

- Um...

- The DA wasn't ready
for trial.

They didn't have a witness.
The DA was on vacation.

The DA's on another trial.

It was excuse after excuse
after excuse.

[buzzer blares]
He was in solitary

as a teenager
for 14 months in a row.

They just kept him there.

It was torture.

To me, it just underscored

the injustice in our system.

[elevator bell dings]

It was a long, slow process.

Finally, the attorney
for the city

scheduled
the first deposition.

- Stand clear
of the closing doors, please.

- I explained to Kalief,

"Look, deposition's
an examination under oath.

It's gonna be a lot
of questions."

He was nervous.
He wasn't sure what to expect.

- Good morning, Mr. Browder.

- If you've never been
in a deposition,

Pray to God, "Thank you,"
and hope you never have to be.

A deposition
is this chess match

between you and an opponent,

that is the most
mentally stressful thing.

You are under oath.

- Tell me about Rikers.

- The correction officer
slapped me on the floor.

Every chance he got, he slammed
my face into the wall.

He used to starve me for days.

I remember their faces.

- You know,
we want to make sure

this information's accurate.

- A deposition
is not about addressing

the issues that you raised.

It's to discredit
and destroy you if they can.

- Have you ever heard
of Children's Services?

Were you ever screened
of mental-health issues?

What is going on
with your mom?

Kindergarten, detention,
smoking marijuana--

Are you affiliated
with any gang?

- It's a farce to believe

that when you sit someone
at a deposition

that you want the truth.

You don't want the truth.

- I think the truth is messy...

because if he's right,
you got to look at the police.

- The 48th Precinct.

- You got to look
at the prosecutor.

- The Bronx DA's office
is refusing to say--

- Got to look at the court.

- Hundreds
waiting to see a judge...

- You got to look
at this jail system.

- In jail on Rikers Island...

- You got to look
at solitary confinement.

- Human rights groups
consider it torture.

♪ ♪

- He's got to be wrong.

Otherwise, what the [bleep]
are we doing?

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- In May of 2010,
16-year-old Kalief Browder

was walking home
from a party in the Bronx

when he was stopped
by the police

for allegedly stealing
a backpack.

- I'm gonna advise you
of your rights, okay? Yes?

- All right.

- Uh, you have the right
to remain silent

and refuse to answer
any questions.

Do you understand?
- Yes.

- With his family unable
to make bail,

he was hauled off to one of the
toughest jails in the country--

Rikers Island.
[shouting]

- Stop resisting!

- He would spend
the next three years there,

locked up for a crime
he never committed.

Kalief and his attorney
Paul Prestia

are here right now,
demanding answers.

We hear of people
wrongfully arrested.

We hear of people waiting
too long to get sentenced.

We hear of people
with exorbitant bails,

We hear about people who are
abused by correctional officers.

But it's rare to hear of all
of them happening to one person.

Right now,
America is watching you.

People are listening to you.

If you had one message
to tell the country,

what would it be?

- I feel like the whole point
of me being on this show

is just to get
my story out there,

because I feel like
this happens every day.

This happens every day, and
I feel like it's got to stop.

- What can be done to at least
hold somebody--

somebody accountable
for what's happened?

- We filed the lawsuit
in Supreme Court, Bronx County,

for the wrongful arrest,
malicious prosecution--

From that interview,
he gets love and support

from, like,
people around the country,

and he's like, "Wow, people
really care about, like,

what happened to me."

And when he's in the deposition
speaking about it,

it's not love.

It's suspicion...

and doubt.

- Mr. Browder, I have to ask
you a number of questions

with regard to your claim.

What is your address?

- 2124 Prospect Avenue,

Bronx, New York, 10457.

[car horn honking]

- The Bronx is really
an epicenter of poverty

in New York City.

- This congressional district

was one of the poorest
in the nation.

- Poor folks and folks of color
born into ghettoization,

in Child Protective Services,
in failing schools--

they are "the others"

we allow to exist
just on the periphery

of our own imagination.

We're going to have to learn
to care about them.

- How long have
you lived there?

- My whole life.

- And your address is
2124 Prospect Avenue?

- Yes.

- That's a private house?
- Private house.

- Do you rent
or own that house?

- I actually stay
with my mother.

- What is your mother's name?

- Venida.

- How old is she?

- She's probably about 50.

- Mm.

Oh, gosh.

- Let's go through your
brothers and sisters.

What's your brother's name?
- Kamal.

- He was fun,
energetic, annoying.

He was always determined...

trying to get
all the right pieces together.

- Your next brother?
- Deion Browder.

- He'll burst my door open,

say, "Hey what are you
doing today?"

He had so much to say.
He would not stop.

And you would just
sit there like, "Okay..."

- What about your sister?
What is her name?

- Nicole.
- He had the dumbest laugh.

[imitating laughter]
"Get away from me."

You know constantly, the laugh.

- What about your other
two brothers?

- Other two brothers--
Akeem...

- He was my workout partner.
[chuckles]

Like, he had a eight-pack,
like, when he was a baby.

Kind of jealous about that.
[laughs]

- What about the last brother?
- Raheem.

- He would try
to play basketball

with me and my friends.

I don't know what he thought
he was doing,

but it wasn't playing
basketball.

[laughs]

- Who are your friends
that come over?

- Tyrone, David.

- Me and Kalief were neighbors
for years, since diapers.

We used to throw snowballs
at cars

and then just start running.

My stoop, be his stoop,

Tyrone's is all the way
to the left.

- Everybody called us
on the block

the Three Musketeers.

- We would play video games,
play sports.

- We used to play a lot of
football, tackle on the street,

in the front--on concrete.

Just not caring,
throwing each other at cars.

Like, just like regular kids,
you know?

- Kalief was a goofball.
Like, he told all the jokes.

- Kalief named me Jewish Boy
as my nickname,

'cause when I would get
a lot of hair, it would curl.

And I'm the only white person
on the block,

so they called me Jewish Boy
for that, too.

It's so weird.
[laughs]

He always made people laugh.

He was a funny kid,
had a good heart, too.

- Once, Kalief and Ty
wanted to go to the beach

with me and my friend,

and we didn't want to go

'cause we were
more self-conscious,

and he said, "There's nothing
to be ashamed of.

You're beautiful."

And that touched me.

For him to say that really
gave me confidence.

[voice breaking]
He was a really good friend.

Sorry.

- I'm not the same anymore.

I'm happy I'm home,
but should I really be happy?

Because I shouldn't have
been there.

It's crazy
because I don't fit in anymore.

Before, I fit in.

- This is not about truth.

This is not about justice.

This is about you
getting put in a corner,

so when you walk
out of that room,

you have no case.

They thought it up for weeks,

and you are now
the mouse in the mousetrap.

- When did you find out
you were adopted?

[dramatic music]

- Kalief was just like, "What?"

- Were you a foster child
of your mom and dad

before you were adopted?

- I don't know.

♪ ♪

- Throughout the time
of my being a foster parent,

which was 15 years,
I had about 30 kids.

♪ ♪

You're on call 24 hours,
and sometimes

I would get a call, like,
2:00 or 3:00 in the morning,

and it was rough.

- I'm afraid we have
an epidemic on every level.

- Despite all the warnings,
a growing number of babies

are being born
already addicted to cocaine.

- If the child is born
drug-addicted,

the mother never gets
that child.

- It didn't matter
how much you used,

what you used,

you were gonna be separated
from your kids.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Kalief was born
into Child Protective Services

because his mother having been
a crack addict

and never receiving the kind
of treatment that she needed

and instead being criminalized.

The War on Drugs led to
really tragic consequences.

People's families
were being torn apart.

People's futures
were being erased.

- I love you.

- It's a mistake
to look at Kalief's story

just as a snapshot.

Here is a young man who
was raised in this system...

Swept, then, into
a criminal justice system...

[shouting, buzzer blares]

A system that failed him
every step of the way.

[dramatic music]

- During the deposition, there
were some difficult moments.

I felt like the attorney

was very aggressive
towards him.

It just felt like
it was too much.

- Were you suspended at all
in middle school?

- Kalief is somebody who's
been under, essentially,

state surveillance
their entire life.

The kid's a foster-care kid.

They've got every report.

They've got
every altercation in school.

- We are now
in the tenth grade.

Do you recall any of your
teachers from the tenth grade?

- One of them
was Miss Charlene.

- I do remember Browder
very vividly.

Usually, he didn't go
to other classes except mine.

I taught him tenth-grade
global history.

He came at his leisure,
did not take notes,

did not have a notebook,
did not have a pencil.

He carried a book bag.

Now, was there any books
in the bag?

I don't think so.

Maybe I let Browder
do these things

because I didn't see anything
really bad in him.

And I think he liked
the attention that I gave him.

I know how hard it is.

Their homes are not good.

They don't feel
anyone loves them.

But they came up that way.

So by the time
they get to high school,

they're already conditioned.

- This is not statistics.

This is not an issue.
This is not a cause.

This is human beings.
This is kids.

But these kids in urban America

don't have the right
to be human.

- When did you find out
you were adopted?

- I believe I was 12
or 13 years old.

- Somebody in the family
told him.

Kalief just kept saying,
"It's not right, man.

It's not right.
It's not right."

- Were you getting
into trouble at home?

- He was lost.
He was, like, lost.

He needed, like, his father.

- What's your dad's name?
- Everett Browder.

- How often do you
see your dad?

- Not often, because we haven't
been talking too much.

- My dad left home.

He didn't leave
on good terms with anybody.

- My mom would be downstairs
crying, upset,

and all the kids see this.

- Kalief was really hurt
by the situation.

- 'Cause after he left,
Kalief switched quick.

♪ ♪

- [barks]

- Kalief, he started coming
outside when he was 11, 12.

- Seemed like he was looking for
friends, and then he was lost.

- And I was like,
"You know, you shouldn't

be around these people,"
and this and that.

He didn't want to listen.

- You feel like
you do need a family.

You're by yourself out there.

You need people that share

those same experiences
with you.

So you're sitting
next to the guy, like,

"Yeah, my dad left, too.
[bleep] him. I hate him."

You're actually
letting those feelings out,

not in a way that's evolved.

- He found that family
that was like,

"We're gonna be there for you.
We will defend you.

We will help you."

- How is your relationship
to Shamel Peterson?

- He was from the neighborhood.

- I wasn't in school
at that time.

He used to tell me
to come pick him up,

then have a bunch of dudes
with us, chillin', parlaying,

like, regular.

[laughs]

Smoke marijuana here and there,
you know what I'm saying?

Probably drink some,
you know what I'm saying?

Like, doing regular
kid things, having fun.

- Shimmy came along.

I didn't hang out
with him too much.

It's like, you know how
trouble comes

looking for you sometimes?

It was like that with him.

- You leave your kids
vulnerable in the streets,

and, you know, they're bound
to do criminal activity.

- Increasingly,
the police are being tasked

with more and more
of society's heavy lifting.

It used to be teachers
and community centers.

Now it's the cops.

And so the net
is getting bigger.

The catch-bin zone
is getting bigger.

- You had a prior incident.
Is that correct?

- Yes.
- What was that arrest for?

- They said I was driving
a bakery truck.

- When I found out
what he was arrested for,

I couldn't believe it.

Joyriding in a bread truck?

You know, and then the cops
started making jokes,

"What's the matter?
He was hungry."

- I think it was more
on the lines of peer pressure,

'cause the crowd that he hung
out with at the time

really had
a big influence on him.

- I guess you would say
I was being a follower.

- What do you mean
you were being a follower?

- Did he have to steal
a bakery truck?

No, he didn't.

But as a kid, you don't think
about things like that.

You make silly mistakes.

- New York is one
of only two states

in the entire country
that sets the age

of criminal responsibility
at 16.

- Kids get arrested
on a charge.

They're offered probation.
They take it.

They don't realize
how serious it is.

- Now you're kind of tagged
as a problem,

and every police encounter
you have after that,

you'll be viewed as that kid
who has a record,

whether you've even
been convicted or not.

♪ ♪

- I remember that night
he wanted to have fun

and go out to a party.

- We went to one
of his friend's parties.

♪ ♪

2:00-something in the morning.

We walking, we talking
about our night.

We was the only ones
out there.

[siren wails]

[indistinct
police radio chatter]

- There was a guy
in a police car

saying that we robbed him
two weeks ago.

The police officer,
he told me and my friend--

he said,
"Oh, don't worry about it.

"We're just gonna take you
to the precinct,

"and we're gonna see
if he filed a police report,

and most likely
we're gonna let you go."

- Good evening.
- Good evening.

- Um, today is May 15, 2010.

The time is now
about 7:47 in the evening.

- It's sad that these seconds

changed
this man's life forever.

[indistinct
police radio chatter]

- Now, Mr. Browder, where were
you when you got arrested?

- On Arthur Avenue.
[siren wails]

[indistinct
police radio chatter]

- I remember getting
the phone call

saying that he was arrested.

And it terrified me.

They told me Kalief robbed
this person of a backpack,

and it had a camera, $700,

a credit card, and an iPod.

I was in such a state,
I don't even remember

if I went to the station,

'cause once I start crying,
I don't remember much.

- When I found out,
I was pissed,

'cause I didn't know
he got arrested

until, like, the next afternoon
when I came after work.

I didn't think
it was gonna escalate

to be anything, like, serious.

- I'm like, "Oh, they ain't got
no evidence."

Like, they normally just
pull people off the streets,

I'm thinking
it's probably a lineup,

he's gonna be out
within a few hours.

- We all went down
to the precinct

to see if, you know,
he can come back home.

They weren't letting him go.

- To be honest,
I thought it was just

a routine stop-and-frisk.

- Stop-and-frisk--

police officers
stop people on the streets.

They would pat them down
whether there was evidence

they were committing
a crime or not.

- Stop-and-frisk, which worked
very well in New York--

- It was first
aggressively used there

under Rudy Giuliani,
who was the mayor at the time.

- On the black side, you've got
to teach your children

to be respectful
to the police.

- [screams]
- You must submit yourselves

to unjustifiable stops,

disrespectful encounters
with police officers,

They will go and stop people,

regardless if
there is a reason or not.

- I didn't do nothing wrong!

- Stop-and-frisk street stops
by the NYPD

have exploded under
commissioner Ray Kelly--

roughly 1,600 times a day.

- People who were stopped,

it was disproportionately
nonwhite.

Whites were only 9%.

Blacks, Latinos making up
much more of it.

- [shouting]

[screams]

[indistinct shouting]

- That's the climate
Kalief grew up in.

Where every young black
and Latino--

when you walk out the door,
you're a suspect.

- Kalief would talk to me
a lot about cops

just frisking them
and throwing them on the ground

or being cuffed
and stuff like that.

He felt like, you know,
they would just

do what they want with him.

- Children were always
being profiled.

Stop-and-frisk
was involved then.

So it was like
everyday occurrence.

Sometimes I would say,
"Who got stopped today?"

It's just part of the course.

Every single day,
a ton of people

are falsely arrested
in this city.

When something happens,
the police department

will just grab someone

in the immediate vicinity
of something.

- Kalief was walking home
with a friend of his.

They were stopped
by police officers,

put against the wall,
handcuffed almost immediately.

There was a victim in the car,

a spotlight was shone on them
from the police car,

which, of course,
is inherently suggestive.

- They told you
that this person

had accused you
of robbing him.

- They searched me.
I didn't have nothing.

He said, "Let me go talk
to the guy."

- They ask
very directed questions,

like, "Isn't this the guy
who did it?

Is this the guy who did it?"

- Then they went back,
and he said,

"No, this person
tried to rob me."

- I said,
"How did I try to rob him?"

He said, "Let me finish
talking to him."

- If the person immediately
says, "You know, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure," and then
the third time says,

"Maybe it was,"
that creates probable cause.

- When he came back,
the guy said

I robbed him two weeks ago.

He changed his story
three times.

- The witness is changing
his story back and forth.

This person
was contradicting himself

on when the robbery occurred

and, quite frankly,
even if it occurred.

[indistinct
police radio chatter]

- There was multiple errors
in the police paperwork.

The dates are
all screwed up.

- He was arrested
on May 15, 2010.

In the criminal complaint,
it was alleged

that the robbery took place
on May 2, 2010.

In another police report,
it's alleged

that it was May 8, 2010.

So right there you have
inconsistency from the victim.

- When the defendants
were brought into the precinct,

there was no immediate follow-up
by a detective

on the date of arrest.

And that may be important,

because the location where
the original crime occurred

and the location
of the arrest two weeks later

were in close proximity.

Go to that alley.
Check the lighting conditions.

You may go there and say,
"I don't know

"how this complainant
is ID'ing the perps.

You know, it's pretty dark
in this alley."

They could've applied
for a search warrant

to go and search the residences
Of Kalief and Shamel.

Perhaps credit cards
were around.

Perhaps the camera was around.

Perhaps the backpack
was around.

That said,
if I'm a victim of a crime

and I see the suspect
walking down the street

and I notify
the police officer,

"That person robbed me,"
two hours in the past,

two days, two weeks, two months
or two years in the past,

that police officer
has to make that arrest.

They don't have any recourse.

And that's what happened
in this situation.

- Good evening.
- Good evening.

- You are Mr. Kalief Browder.
Is that correct?

- Yes.
- Do you know why

you were arrested
in this case?

- They said that I, um--

they said I tried
to rob somebody,

then they told me that
I robbed somebody previously,

one of those.

- Did you rob somebody

in the beginning part
of May, Mr. Browder?

- No, no.

- Okay, so you have no idea
why you were arrested.

- No.

[indistinct shouting, thud]

- Do you recall what time you
arrived at Central Booking?

- About 6:30 a.m.

- It was scary,
just in Central Booking alone.

It was older guys, and I see
people making threats.

- Did you have
an attorney with you?

- I had Legal Aid.
- Your mama's not here, boy!

- Kalief's defense attorney
at the time,

I think, could've been
more adamant

in his representation
and more vigorous.

- Um, yeah, I mean...

- That public defender--

he's not judged
on his acquittal rate.

He's judged on how many cases
he can get off his desk.

- Public defenders are some of
the best people in the world,

but they're given caseloads
that would destroy

a small law firm,
and they're just one person.

- Did you eventually get
brought before a judge?

- Yes.
- This is the kind of case

where you want to really work
the arraignment

and see if you can get the
lowest bail or maybe no bail.

If this judge sets
a substantial bail,

he's never getting out
on the case.

If this judge sets no bail,
he's out.

So just let him go,
get him out of there,

because something's
gonna happen to him.

[gavel bangs]

- Was bail set?
- Yes.

- How much was the bail?
- $3,000.

- The first thing you could say
is just the significance

of a little bit of money.

The majority of people
who are accused in the Bronx--

it doesn't matter
if it's a $1 million bail

or $750 bail.

They just don't have
the means to get out.

- Bail was set at $3,000,
but the bond was $900.

Sounds like a small amount,
but when you don't have it,

you don't have it.

And I did not have it.

[cries softly]

And I couldn't do anything.

This was my child.
They took my child from me--

just snatched him
off the street.

- Let's continue.
This was my child.
They took my child from me--

When you were brought
before a judge,

did you learn what charges
you were facing?

- Robbery, robbery
in the second degree.

- Was bail set?
- Yes.

- Do we really think
that $3,000

was gonna make the difference

between whether he came back
to court or not?

[dramatic music]

- A lot of people
just go to the ATM.

But we're sitting in the poorest
congressional district

in the country.

85% to 90% of people
can't make bail

right out of arraignment.

- From what I know,
you know, my mom told me

she didn't have the money,
and it was true.

She didn't have the money.

It was a lot for my mom.

- When you don't make bail,

then you would go
to a bail bondsman.

- Hi, how may I help you?

- Bondsmen are
for-profit companies.

- We help work with the families
with some type of collateral.

It doesn't always have
to be cash.

- We take jewelry.
We take 401(k), life insurances.

- Furs, cars, houses,
things like that.

- You say, "Well, jeez,
that seems bizarre."

What they're being punished for

is that they don't have
enough money to make bail.

That's their crime.

- Our court system
isn't saying

they can't be released
to society.

Our court system is saying

they have to cough up
some cash first.

- Our family--
we didn't have money like that.

My father just recently left,
you know, my mom.

My mom depended on him.

She had to rely
on whatever he could give her.

She had no food in the house.

- Ma, you need help?
- No, I got it.

- You cool?
- Yeah.

- She couldn't work because
she has heart problems.

- I had my first heart attack
in 2000.

And then in 2007,
I had my second heart attack.

That's the one that did me in.

Part of my heart's dead.
It's gone.

It only pumps 25%,
and the medicine I take

is not to make me get better.

It's just to keep me going.

♪ ♪

- It was hard.
It was really, really hard.

- Is your father
currently employed?

- He's retired.

- As far as the job he had,
do you know what he did?

- He worked for the MTA.

- My father used to work
all the time.

- He could've.

He could've.

- He had already
made up his mind,

"Oh, if Kalief is in Rikers,
something is wrong."

He just kept saying it--
"Oh, no, he's bad, he's bad."

♪ ♪

The only thing we could think
of was to ask our neighbor

that used to live
across the street.

And he gave us the money.

We went to bail bonds
on 161st Street.

♪ ♪

And the guy was
doing the paperwork.

He accepted the money,

and then he's typing stuff
in the computer,

and then he said,
"Oh, bail is denied."

So I'm like,
"What are you talking about?"

And that's when he said,
"Because he violated probation."

- He was sentenced to probation
for riding in a bakery truck

with another friend of his.

- He was on felony probation.

He violated the probation
by getting rearrested.

He might've been
an innocent guy,

but that's not something
that's magically determined

by, you know,
some force of nature.

I mean, that has to
play itself out.

- The Department of Probation
can say,

"We're gonna put a hold on you,"

meaning you can't leave jail
until this case is resolved,

and that's what they did here.

♪ ♪

- In New York State, for
a 16- or 17- or 18-year-old,

they are treated like an adult.

They are charged like an adult.

They are sentenced
like an adult.

They are sent to Rikers Island
like an adult.

♪ ♪

- Kalief was imprisoned
at Rikers Island.

It's isolated.
It's away from our view.

Some people have called it

New York's own tiny
little Guantanamo Bay.

- Officers and inmates at risk
on Rikers Island.

- This stuff breaks grown men,
let alone a young guy.

- The only way you're gonna
come home to your family

is to plead guilty,
whether or not you did it.

And anybody who thinks
that you won't plead guilty

to get off Rikers Island
has not been to Rikers Island.

You would plead guilty
to anything to get off

something that violent
and that frightening.

- I didn't do it--
you're not gonna make me say

I did something
just so I can go home.

If I got to stay in here
just to prove

that I'm innocent,
then so be it.

- I feel sorry for adolescents
coming to the prison system

because I know they gonna
get violated.

♪ ♪

[indistinct shouting]

- It's hell on Earth.

[shouting, pounding]