Kalief Browder was
16 when he was arrested in the Bronx for allegedly stealing a
backpack. Unable to raise bail and unwilling to plead guilty to a
crime he didn't commit, Browder spent three years in New York's
infamous Rikers Island jail—two in solitary confinement—while
awaiting trial. After his case was dismissed in 2013, Browder
returned to his family, haunted by his ordeal. Suffering through the
lonely hell of solitary, Browder had been violently attacked by
fellow prisoners and corrections officers throughout his
incarceration. Consumed with depression, Browder committed suicide in
2015. He was just 22 years old.
In Life and Death in
Rikers Island, Homer Venters, the former chief medical officer for
New York City's jails, explains the profound health risks associated
with incarceration. From neglect and sexual abuse to blocked access
to care and exposure to brutality, Venters details how jails are
designed and run to create new health risks for prisoners—all while
forcing doctors and nurses into complicity or silence.
Pairing prisoner
experiences with cutting-edge research into prison risk, Venters
reveals the disproportionate extent to which the health risks of jail
are meted out to those with behavioral health problems and people of
color. He also presents compelling data on alternative strategies
that can reduce health risks. This revelatory and groundbreaking book
concludes with the author's analysis of the case for closing Rikers
Island jails and his advice on how to do it for the good of the
incarcerated.