♪♪ ♪♪ -Next on "POV"... -I'm caught up in time as it stands still.

-...accused of stealing a backpack at 16, Kalief Browder spent three years at Rikers Island awaiting trial.

His mother's poetry reflects on the tragedy and transformation that followed.

-My poems are an extension of me.

-"For Venida, For Kalief" on "POV."

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -I'm caught up in time as it stands still.

Things are happening around me, but... but for me, everything is moving at a snail's pace.

♪♪ My mind is adrift.

As the visions of life float around me.

You see time stopped for me the day my son died.

I cannot fast forward the clock to the present.

Nor can I rewind it and prevent his death.

I will forever be stuck in time on that fateful day.

June 6, 2015.

The day my son Kalief... ...took his life.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ My heart aches for what he went through.

It aches that I couldn't prevent it.

It aches that he is no longer here.

He was accused of stealing a backpack, robbery.

But it is the system that is guilty of robbery.

After three years on Rikers without a trial, they dismissed his case and let him go home.

But not before he suffered the beatings, the starvation, the taunts, the threats, the humiliation, and the degradation of not even being allowed to take a shower.

He faced psychological trauma, depression, and numerous suicide attempts brought on by the two years spent in solitary confinement.

He wanted a speedy trial, but that's not really how the system is designed.

I often relive the steps I took to finding him, hanging out of the back window of the second floor, just lifeless.

-Kalief growing up was quiet, observant, reserved.

Kalief was one of those that until he had something to say, he didn't say it.

Totally different from a lot of us, especially myself.

I talk a lot.

But Kalief fit in with our family perfectly.

And then being sent to experience the injustice in the Department of Corrections, he changed in a way that was not recognizable to his prior self.

So Kalief's Law was to change the speedy trial process, which we did end up doing and passing in 2019, just June.

If you're arrested for a felony, within 120 days, your case was supposed to be dealt with.

However, for a case like my brother's and many others throughout the state of New York or anywhere else, they had learned how to play with the time clock, meaning they learned how to stop the clock and no longer count your days individually, which was a process they used to hold the person in jail longer to convince or coerce or get a plea out of that person by the torture that happens in these jails.

Actually, 98% of the population in New York gets a plea bargain.

That means 2% make it to trial.

And those statistics have been lasting ever since the '70s.

This was my mother's pillowcase that I used as a bag while I got our records, our report cards, our yearbooks.

So this was a folder that my mom had created for Kalief.

Of Kalief's things when he was in school, like all the artwork that he's done.

"Kalief's pumpkin patch."

My mom foster cared 33 kids, and you won't find one of them that had a negative thing to say.

Unfortunately, she couldn't adopt all of them.

That many kids that went, came and gone, still came back and said like, "Oh, that's mom."

My mom was a mother that was dedicated to her kids, that tried her best to keep up with us in our learning.

She wasn't anything until she had to be.

So when my mom needed to be an activist, she was an activist.

That wasn't until Kalief died.

When Kalief died, that rage started burning in her.

That fire started igniting.

It didn't happen until de Blasio, the mayor, told my mom to her face that it wasn't the Department of Corrections that killed her son.

My mom deteriorated through emotional trauma from like visiting him in solitary confinement, visiting or going to court 32 times.

She suffered heart problems because of all that, having her first heart attack actually on Rikers Island.

We didn't know that my mom's heart from that heart attack went down to 30%.

After Kalief came home, she had another heart attack, and that went down to 18%.

How does your heart work at 18%?

It's inevitably a death sentence for Kalief and my mom for stealing a backpack.

So I made this of my mom's memoirs and her poems.

My mom always wrote until she died.

-This writing serves no other purpose than to release some of my hurt, frustration, and anger.

I've been referred to as a story teller the way I talk about Kalief.

But I think my destiny is to keep telling Kalief's story and one day write a book.

-I have to let it out, and that's how I let it out.

You know, I cry and I look at his pictures and I talk to him.

But most importantly, I write.

Whenever I feel anything, I write it down.

My list is -- my stories are getting longer and longer and that's how I keep a little part of my sanity 'cause it is so hard.

And he started, Kalief started speaking out.

I'm his advocate.

I'm just keeping it going.

I want everybody to remember him.

I don't want his story to die.

♪♪ Rikers is an all-day trip.

Normally, I would take the 5 train to 59th Street, catch the N train to Queensboro Plaza, then you get off, walk two and a half blocks, and catch the number 100 bus to Rikers.

That's on a good day.

Sometimes the 5 wasn't running, So you take the 2 to 149th Street Grand concourse, go up and catch the 4 down to 42nd Street.

Then you catch the 7 train.

And sometimes the 7 wasn't running, so what do I do now?

Then once you get to Queensboro Plaza and you get on the Rikers bus, then you have that horrible gut feeling.

As it goes over the bridge, you know, right away the tears start coming.

'Cause I know I'm going to see him, and I don't want to see him there, but I have no choice.

Once you get off the bus, you get on this long line, and you make it to the stairs of the main building where you do registration, and you go through the scanner.

Then you have to wait until your name is called or your son's name, or the person you, you've come to see.

And that can take anywhere from one to four hours.

When you visit him in solitary, you actually get locked in a cell.

It's bars, and it's like you're in prison, also.

The tears would start coming, and he would say, "Mom, stop you making a movie, stop, stop."

Because if they see me showing emotion, then they know he said something, and he'll suffer for it later.

So I had to be stone-faced, but inside, it's killing me.

And you're just so glad to see him.

And when it is time to leave, it's like somebody stabbing you in the heart, because you can't take your child home with you.

Rikers should be demolished.

♪♪ ♪♪ -You talking about muggers?

You sent an old lady down in lower Manhattan from the Bronx or from Brooklyn or from Long Island, and you tell her be there at 6:00, 7:00, 8:00 night.

Now she has to go all the way back home.

By the time she gets home, it's 11:00 at night.

That's not harassment.

Does that not discourage her from come seeing her son?

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -New York City's prisons are stuffed to almost three times their planned capacity.

Most of the inmates aren't even serving sentences.

They're merely waiting for trial.

Waiting because of overcrowded court dockets.

They can't get out because of high bails.

In recent days, inmates in five of the six New York City jails have mutinied and taken hostages to dramatize their grievances.

-And the men said they'd continue to be held until their demands are met.

They've been complaining about bad food, brutal treatment, and being held for long periods without bail.

-They said they won't release the hostages till their demands are met.

No more overcrowding, speedy trials, freedom for Afeni Shakur, and an end to the Panther 21 trial.

They said the trials are shut.

-We are guilty until proven innocent.

That's the way it is.

Giving us these bails that we can't -- we can't possibly make.

I've been arrested several times.

Why?

Because I can't live no other type of way.

Laying in the jails for a period of time, up to year or more without having to see a judge or go to trial.

They would go to court for four, five, six times and come back without any results.

86% of those men are there just for one reason, because they were poor, Black, and Puerto Rican and did not have any defense., And they were compelled to spend month after month after month in these institutions.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Siren wailing ] ♪♪ -When the sky cries, its tears of raindrops hide the tears that are raining on my face.

Making puddles in my eyes, dripping down my lips.

I can taste the salt of sadness.

No one notices me.

I'm just another being walking in the rain.

But when the rain stops... ...my sadness must... must find another mask.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Cheering ] -What do we want?

-Decarceration!

-What do we want it?

-Now!

-This crisis on Rikers Island is uniquely terrible, but it is not unique.

-Don't you think it, it could be dangerous for society to not incarcerate people who commit violent crimes?

Supervised release and other non-incarceratory pre-trial means are as effective as locking somebody up and preventing reincarceration and recidivism.

-So violence is an artificial construction.

What violent crime is, is defined by the State.

When people hear the word "violence," they have an assumption that that crime must have meant that there were two individuals involved.

But oftentimes we've even found, as legislators, when we go into these courts, the term "violent crime" is even used when people are stealing packages.

-Because DAs are requesting bails that people can't afford, and judges are setting bails that people can't afford, it's no longer considered a bail, it's a ransom.

[ Cheering ] Kalief Browder was definitely a major spark for me getting engaged in his work.

Him sharing his story, and then his untimely death.

My name is Darren Mack.

I'm the co-director at Freedom Agenda.

Freedom Agenda is dedicated to organizing communities directly impacted by incarceration to achieve decarceration and system transformation.

People speak about Rikers Island as if it's a prison where people have been convicted, and the majority of people on Rikers Island haven't had their day in court.

They're detained pre-trial.

Most people, especially in New York City, just don't have the wealth, the money to get bailed out.

A jail is an institution where someone is incarcerated at because they were accused of an offense.

And a prison is a place when someone has been either convicted or pled guilty to an offense and is serving their time in a prison.

And the prison is basically controlled by the State, and the jail system is basically controlled here in New York by the city.

-I felt like Kalief was brave, because he was the person who wanted to fight for truth, fight for justice.

He's not going to plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit.

So why plead guilty to something you didn't do?

When he came home, he was like a totally different person.

It's like physically, he was there, but mentally, he wasn't.

He felt like the whole world was out to get him.

We're at 181st and Prospect, also known as Kalief Browder Way.

It was renamed after him when he passed.

And I come by every here and there to remind myself where I came from.

And every now and then, it's good to come back and reminisce.

-Kamal!

-It's kind of messed up.

Down... The Kalief Browder Foundation is a mental health and crisis intervention organization.

We work with youth and young adults that are in all five boroughs.

We are on Rikers with our youth in RNDC.

What we're looking to do is invite everyone together so that we can work together, so that we can help our communities.

-I spent 1,168 days on Rikers, and out of those 1,168 days, I spent 1,122 of them in solitary confinement consecutively.

And I thank I Akeem for fighting to end solitary and everything that he does.

And he gives me strength.

I think about committing suicide every day.

But I think about Kalief, Akeem, and their mother, and they wouldn't want me to do that.

♪♪ ♪♪ -My son has been immortalized in pictures, in video, and in print.

His story has been touched by millions, yet the city denies what's evident.

I can't express the hatred I feel, that the looms over my grief.

As the city offers condolences behind their masks of deceit.

They took a normal child, my child.

Tortured his body and his soul.

Then used solitary confinement as a form of mind control.

Aware of the dangers and the damages it can do, the city supported these actions, ignoring the documented truths.

Visions of a tortured soul, especially that of a child, has a limit to what he can see before the visions run wild.

Kalief won the battle for his freedom, but lost himself in the war.

A POW of the system.

Now at peace, he'll suffer no more.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -In a lot of cultures, they talk about as long as someone's speaking your name, you'll live on and you never die.

With this piece, I want to continue the legacy of Kalief's name.

I don't know how you feel about any of this.

So... -Nah, he deserves all this.

He deserves all this.

- I wanted them to understand what it was like a little bit, even for two seconds.

Understand what it, what it would be like to be confined in something like this.

And then think about, you know, would they have the strength to do what Kalief did for so many years?

-This invention right here, gonna show what he went through.

And then like you said, especially with the quote, the way I look at it, "if I got to stay here just to prove that I'm innocent, then so be it."

A lot of people would've never did that.

-Yeah, -They would've heard all that.

They would've heard the time.

They would've been like, "No, I want to cop a plea.

Do some jail time.

Get out.

But he didn't look at it like that.

You not gonna put me inside for something that I didn't do.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -This is really nice.

I think she'll really like this.

-I think she would.

-Hey hey, ho ho!

Solitary has got to go!

Hey hey, ho ho!

Solitary has got to go!

Hey hey, ho ho!

Solitary has got to go!

Hey hey, ho ho!

Solitary has got to go!

Hey hey, ho ho!

Solitary has got to go!

-The second thing I wanna do -- The second thing I wanna do is speak some truth.

I want every single person here to know that the tactics we saw earlier this morning are the same tactics we see behind those walls.

They're trying to hide, to scare, to silence, to disappear our voices, our experiences, and our truth.

And no more.

[ Cheers and applause ] These steps, this city, these communities, they're ours.

-That's right!

-And I wanna name something.

Because, in a little while, we're gonna have a hearing and you're gonna hear the admin, you're gonna hear COBA, you're gonna hear Benny Boscio, you're gonna hear the Commissioner ask the question.

They're gonna ask... And I'm here to tell you that that question is lazy, it's irresponsible, it's negligent, and it is deadly.

-They wanna keep their jobs, they want to keep their rights to do what they do, but realistically it's torture.

How do we justify torturing people?

These are human beings that's accused of a crime.

Again, even when they are guilty, does it mean we take away their humanity?

Does it mean that we torture them?

-Intro 549 would make it impossible for the department to impose any sanction or measure of accountability on an incarcerated individual who has committed a violent act against another incarcerated individual or against our staff.

It would not be possible to manage a jail under such constraints.

-They're not there, because they stole a car or robbed a piece of bread to feed their families.

They are there because they murdered or did worse.

Have you ever visited Rikers Island yourselves?

I suggest you -- -We have!

-Good for you!

That's great.

[ Indistinct shouting ] -Quiet down, please!

Respect the floor, please.

-I want you to ask questions of the administration so we can get to the point at hand.

-Okay, fine.

Ready?

Okay.

Councilmember's time is up.

Next.

Good.

Hello, my name is Tamara Carter.

I'm the mother of Brandon Rodriguez.

And as I'm reading this in the front, it's a picture of my son.

I'm holding all of you accountable for my son's death.

He was beat up by other detainees.

Then they violently extracted him from a cell, and they took him to a shower cell.

Other detainees heard Brandon screaming.

8 hours and 43 minutes, "I'm going to kill myself."

How many times does a mother have to testify and be in pain until you do something?

I'm begging you to please stop solitary confinement.

I'm sick of hearing "Sorry for your loss."

If you're so sorry, do something to help.

I'm getting emotional.

We called each other -- Well, I called him my twin.

And as he grew up, you know, he was like, "My mom's my twin."

He was proud of it.

So yeah, that was my twin.

Absolutely.

And he was definitely extra.

I got a phone call from my best friend, and she was like, "Somebody's trying to reach you on Facebook about Brandon.

And I'm like, "Ugh."

It happened to be Brandon's best friend, Crystal.

And I asked her, I said, "Is he alive?"

And she immediately started to cry.

Then she told me the chaplain called her.

And I-II spoke to him and it was kind of like, "Okay, I'm sorry your loss.

That's it.

And I'm like, "Okay, um... can you say his name, so I know who you're talking about?""

Because I didn't say his name.

And he said, Brandon Rodriguez.

And... I just started to cry.

My son got caught up.

His first, what they would call "offense" was him being with friends, peer pressure.

And me as his mom, he had a laptop.

And I said, "Where you get that from, 'cause I didn't buy it?

You know, the police came to my house and I made my son go to the precinct, "You're gonna do the right thing."

And honestly... I sort of feel like I (no audio) up his life with that.

Excuse my French, but I made him take it in, and he spent years going to court for that.

And it's like everything went downhill from there.

Me showing him to do the right thing.

I messed my son's life up.

I do identify with her, with Venida.

Facebook yesterday had a Facebook memory of a -- a video that I put up of Brandon singing that he recorded when he was in the Phoenix house.

And yeah, that's it.

-[ Singing indistinctly ] ♪♪ There was no police contact until 25 years old.

August 2021.

I never got that chance to ask him what's going on.

And unfortunately, because he knows how strict I am, I feel that he was maybe ashamed, maybe scared to call me.

So that's why he didn't call me when he was there.

I was cooking and I felt, like, this heaviness, you know, I was like, and I just knew it was him.

One, the kitchen is his favorite.

And I just really felt like it was him.

It -- It was definitely him.

♪♪ ♪♪ -I think eight.

Five of them in The Tombs.

-Roldan was put on bail of $1,500.

Friends of Roldan had sent him a telegram saying that bail was being put together and that release was on the way.

Someone thought that Roldan was being kept on the sixth floor, and the telegram was sent to that floor.

He then checked and saw that Roldan was on the eighth floor, and he put it aside for the elevator person to take to the eighth floor, which would've been done undoubtedly in the course of that morning.

But unfortunately, Roldan was dead an hour and a half later.

-The August insurrection in The Tombs was investigated by the State Senate Committee on Crime and Corrections.

Several suicides in The Tombs have been investigated by the newly appointed New York City Board of Corrections, chaired by William vanden Heuvel.

This is Mr.

vanden Heuvel.

-I have some pictures here that are available to you of what a cell looks like.

We've described it as a 6 by 8 by 8.

That's perhaps too generous in describing its dimensions.

Each cell has three solid walls.

The front wall, the fourth wall is a wall of bars.

-Yeah, I'm in the solitary confinement, which they call "segregation."

They've changed the names, now.

All I have in my cell are just law books, which I have on the floor, because there's no furniture in the cell.

Just the bed.

No table, no desk, no nothing.

-Spofford's top administrators are guilty of criminal neglect.

When I asked John Wallace, the Director of Probation, why Spofford had only one social worker to deal with more than 8,000 children a year, he said, What difference would it make?"

And when I disclosed two weeks ago that more than 10 children had attempted suicide at Spofford, he said, "They're mere gestures, I doubt their sincerity.

What kind of inhumanity to children are we suffering in this city?

The Mayor of the City of New York has never said a public word about this.

-Rafael Vieira, of the Inmates Liberation front.

-There are men, hundreds and hundreds of brothers who are being killed.

And that's one of the reasons why all these clergy are taking all this interest into it.

Because, you know, you don't have to specifically mean physically killed, but like their spirits and their minds are being killed.

The prisoners now saying, "Hey, look at me in here.

Look at...I'm dead.

-Oh.

-So again, I would say that the purpose of the prison system is to kill our people, kill our brothers and our sisters in these jails, genocide.

-Hold up here.

-The title of this composition, is "The Danger of Indifference."

♪♪ -Riz!

♪♪ -At one point in our lives, we say we're tired and can't take it anymore.

We just want it all to end.

To give up on everything.

To give up on life.

But are they just automatic words of frustration?

Symbolic to our cause, or do we really mean them?

And though we profess our weariness of this life, do we really want to leave it?

To terminate our existence?

Would it be selfish of us to leave behind grieving loved ones?

Altering their lives, not giving them any option to decline?

I myself am a grieving loved one who was left behind, and since the death of my son Kalief, my life has become a black hole of grief.

There's no light at the end of the tunnel for reprieve.

I don't want to put my family through the misery and the pain that consumes my life.

And while most of us would fear the thought of dying, Kalief embraced it.

Because it was the only way he could be free and stop the memories that haunted and controlled him.

Everyone has their own limit, their breaking point.

Kalief had his and I have mine.

See you soon, Kalief.

♪♪ -The Harlem Youth Court is a restorative justice program where teenagers work with other teenagers who've committed minor offenses.

The work that we do is purely restorative, so we're not there to find anyone innocent or guilty.

We are there to offer a young person to tell their side of the story.

The Kalief Browder case impacted a lot of our youth court members and they were extra intentional with interacting with the 16 to 18 year olds who were referred to Project Reset.

And so we created our own peacemaking curriculum, which allowed the respondents to not only come through the Youth Court, but have it be restorative through and through.

Their records were essentially expunged, so they had no familiarity with court procedures.

It was to keep them out altogether.

-Um, so can you tell us in your own words, like, what happened?

-Why I get arrested?

-Mm-hmm.

Actually, uh, every day after school I go to a building, it's a project.

I want to chill there and listen to music like for hour or 30 minutes.

But I didn't know that going to a top of buildings is breaking of law.

It's, like, it's a criminal issue.

So, the building is next to Central Park.

There is nice view there.

And the police came.

-What was your interaction with the police?

-He was kind of checked my whole body, like if I have something.

And he told me, "You know what you did right now?

I tell him no.

He told me "You trespassing.

And he asked me if I read the sign.

I told him that my English is so weak, so I sometime I didn't understand the signs.

-So, um, you're like, you... How long have you been, like, in like New York?

-A year and like three months.

-Can you tell all the kids where you're from?

-I'm from Yemen.

I sit in the... in the, like, a jail.

I get arrested for one hour, and actually it was very bad feeling.

I felt that I'm not going out from that place, so it really hurt.

And then that's like... it's something like, it's giving me like, um...like I try something and you know what going to be happening if you did this again, so.

-So here we do a thing called a sanction, which isn't like a punishment, it's just like to help you, like, reflect on everything.

What do you think, like you wanna do?

-Mm-hmm, so I think like the idea about that I'm going to -- I'm really interested to hear about another person experience.

So I agree to... -To jury duty?

-To join another circle.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -My name is Elizabeth Payamps.

I'm the Director of Future Now over here at Bronx Community College.

We began in 1998 to assist young men and women who were incarcerated with transitioning into college.

I met Kalief here.

He joined College Prep and then we enrolled him at BCC.

The Interim President at the time, Dr.

Marty he told Kalief that Kalief was a powerful person.

And that his voice and his courage would change the world.

And I remember leaving that meeting and Kalief telling me, "I don't feel that.

I don't feel powerful, miss."

I hear what they telling me and I understand, but I don't think what I'm doing is going to change anything."

We have a graduation every year for the GED students, so he was part of the rehearsal.

And we have pictures of him at rehearsal, you know, he was trying to help with whatever he could.

And the following day he committed suicide.

It was really hard to -- hard to process and accept, because the day before... you know, we were together and things didn't seem off, you know?

Um... Yeah.

It was sense of failure, you know, like we failed at something.

And Venida...told us "You have to keep going for the other students."

One way to bring awareness to Kalief was to create these buttons for graduation so people know his name and they never forget him.

-My name is José López.

I started as a Future Now student here at BCC, and now I'm the College Enrollment Manager for the Future Now program.

You ask the next generation who's Kalief, and a lot of them don't know.

You know, even when we'll have classes here and they're like, "Oh, who is he?"

He has to be remembered.

So Neema, I'm giving all Future Now graduates a button to remember, you know, Kalief Browder.

All Future Now graduates we're giving you guys, like a button to remember Kalief Browder.

-Yeah.

Of course.

-Okay?

And you know, just keeping his name alive, keeping his memory alive.

So is it okay if I put this on you?

When I first met Kalief, he was a mentor here at the Future Now program.

And he was so humble, so, so humble.

He was going to BCC as well.

And I'll see him just studying, studying, studying.

And you know, there'll be times I'll ask Kalief for some help.

You know, "Hhey, can you just check this for me real quick?"

So I thank God that I was able to meet him.

I was able to work with him, because I was also a mentor.

-Congratulations, bro.

Congratulations man!

Kalief Browder, he gave me inspiration, will.

The way he handled himself, he had a lot of composure.

And without him, I wouldn't be here.

And without you guys, I wouldn't be here.

And I hope I learned that I want to teach the other students that it is never too late to go back to school and get your education.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Systems of oppression, they morph.

We had slavery, people fought against that system and then it morphed to Jim Crow system.

And then that morphed into what people call a legal slavery.

You know, with mass incarceration.

Kalief Browder was just one of the many, but he had the courage to speak about it, and tell his story and the impact that was a driving force for like a lot of people like myself to advocate, you know, for closing Rikers Island.

-Peace, everybody.

My name is Edwin Santana.

I'm a community organizer for Freedom Agenda and I'm here in Manhattan.

-We are at 125th Street, right across the street from the famous world -- Apollo Theater.

-We're out here tonight near Penn Station and we have a message to Mayor Adams.

Mayor Adams, you need to close Rikers now.

-And let the mayor know that Rikers cannot be fixed, Rikers cannot be reformed.

The only solution is immediate decarceration and ultimately, closure of the last penal colony in the United States, Rikers Island.

-So yeah, Mayor Adams, get off your ass and let's do this.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Not one more!

-Not one more!

-Not one more!

-Not one more!

-The blood is on their hands!

-The blood is on their hands!

-The blood is on your hands!

-The blood is on your hands!

-Let our people go!

-Let our people go!

-Let our people go!

-Let our people go!

-Esias Johnson died on Rikers Island in September of this year.

After the Department of Correction failed to bring him to three video court dates that could have led to his release.

-Issa Abdul Kareem died on Rikers Island in September this year.

Issa used a wheelchair and was in poor health.

-Victor Mercado died in October of this year after being held on Rikers Island for three months.

His lawyer tried to argue for his release, noting that he was in poor health, but a judge refused to reduce his bail amount.

-Malcolm Boatright died today.

He was 28 years old and he died in the Department of Corrections custody.

-Rest in power.

-Rest in power.

-Rest in power.

-Rest in power.

-Rest in power.

[ Indistinct chanting ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ...power to the people!

-The Tombs must go!

-The Tombs must go!

-The Tombs must go!

-The Tombs must go!

-The Tombs must go!

-The men of this institution demanded their rights.

Basic rights of dignity, respect, and justice.

And the men there now -- There are 300 men there now -- Ready to die!

Unless you Yankee pigs!

Unless you pigs!

Restore back our rights!

-17 hostages were being held at The Tombs last night when police began preparations for a mass assault to free them.

Rebellious prisoners demanded to meet with Mayor Lindsay.

Lindsay refused, delivering an ultimatum -- free the hostages or face the consequences.

The prisoners relented.

The hostages were set loose.

-At dawn today, all of the hostages were finally released.

None injured.

-Most of the prisoners gave up quietly, dropped their improvised weapons, which included clubs and sharpened spoons, and walked out into the courtyard of the prison.

-However, there were reports of bloody reprisals by prison guards against the inmates witnessed from a nearby building by two reporters and a photographer.

-Department of Correction officers were beating them with clubs, ax handles, fists, kicking them in the groin, smashing 'em in the head.

There were a lot of people dressed in business suits just standing around watching.

-After hours of negotiations, the best idea authorities could come up with was a cherry picker.

9 of the 39 men taken out on the cherry picker this morning are Black Panthers currently on trial.

-Rafael Vieira of the Inmates Liberation Front.

-Promises of amnesty to the brothers who were the leaders or the so-called leaders of that rebellion, it was a lie.

It was just cold lie.

-Well, I've been advised that there have been some injuries on both sides.

Respect to some of the guards, some of the inmates.

-We moved 93 men who would ordinarily be Tombs prisoners to Rikers last night.

We're moving another at least 80 today to Rikers Island.

And I hope that we'll have even say a couple of hundred more on Rikers before the weekend is out.

So we are reducing the population of The Tombs.

-Prison was badly damaged and all the inmates were carted off to still another badly overcrowded institution.

-It's all a game.

They're all phony.

All these phony promises.

They should tear the whole place apart.

That's what they should do.

-The riots then have been squelched as everyone knew they would be.

But the cause hasn't been cured.

And it is of course prison reform and rehabilitation that lies on the other side of the question of law and order.

A side all too rarely heard from, it seems, without the sounds of a prison riot in the background.

♪♪ -That's the story of all major changes in this country.

What's right, what's good policy, andlalso viable to our political leaders.

That's the way the system works.

But certainly it was no secret that Rikers Island was a miserable, horrible place.

An affront to humanity.

But while there had been some efforts over the years to get rid of it, they had never really gotten any traction.

In early 2016, Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito both talked to me independently about heading a commission on what to do with Rikers Island.

The Browder case, everything that was going on, led them to realize that they had to do something.

De Blasio couldn't go to an event without having people protesting.

You know, close Rikers now, stop the atrocities.

They were feeling the heat.

-We say... -We say... -that Rikers... -that Rikers... -has to close!

-has to close!

-We arranged a trip for the commission to Rikers.

It was an eye-opener.

Just the physical structure itself is dilapidated and antiquated.

And after that visit, I didn't have to say one word to the commission about what we were gonna recommend.

It was so clear to all of us that this accelerator of human misery had to end.

To have a mass incarceration model in a jail is ridiculous.

Jails are for people who haven't been convicted of anything yet.

They're awaiting trial.

If we honor Kalief Browder's memory and all the people who have been victimized by Rikers Island, we could only honor it by closing it.

-New York City will close the Rikers Island jail facility.

It will take many years, it will take many tough decisions along the way, but it will happen.

-We recommended that close Rikers forever and build locally-based, more humane, smaller jails in the communities where people could be close to their families for visits.

Rikers Island is an example and an expression of a major national problem.

The mass incarceration crisis did not begin in New York City, but it will end here.

-I think it's fair to say that while they did think it was good policy, they weren't convinced that it was good politics, because the mayor didn't wanna be remembered as the person who built local jails in the community.

♪♪ -One's mental capacity depends on one's strength.

Whether to be weak and give in or be strong and overcome, you choose.

But when outside forces intervene, it's easy to become undone.

Courage is an instinct born out of desperation.

Bravery comes from having heart.

If you're disappointed at what you see, break the cycle.

But if who you are now is better than who you were, enjoy the view.

Remember, only you can decide who you are.

♪♪ -The entire skyline will be gone once the new mega jail is up 300 feet up in the sky.

There'll be no -- There'll be practically no sunlight here.

Right along here.

It's all gonna be covered up.

How y'all doing?

-Good, how are you?

-Eh, hanging in there.

Just chilling.

Just chilling.

I've been here at the Manhattan Chinatown, Little Italy since the late 1960s.

I've been on Mulberry Street my entire life.

I've seen many changes.

During the '80s, it was still considered a very, very stronghold Toisan Cantonese Chinatown.

So, culturally we were one.

-You came here to show your unity is working for the entire city.

And where we found an employee, you proclaimed, "We are one!

-During 1980s, the International Ladies Garments Union we had a lot of factories, so all the ladies were out.

All the men that was working in the restaurants, all the seniors were out.

They all came out.

There was a lot of media coverage.

They pound the pavement, and they made the news.

This all here is the original MDC that was erected back in the '80s.

The one that we fought very hard and lost.

As you can see during the demolition -- How y'all doing?

-How you doing?

I just wanna ask you a question, because it bugs me out.

I haven't been down here in a long time.

-Sure.

-I know it's a jail right here, one time.

-It was and... -It was called The Tombs.

-The whole thing is The Tombs.

This right here was called the Manhattan Detention Center that was built back in the '80s.

-So is the jail here?

-So what they did was they're going to -- they knocked this one down.

-Okay.

-This was one of the original buildings that was here.

They're tearing this down.

-That's a jail too as well?

-Right.

So once they tear this down... -So what they're gonna put here now?

-A bigger jail.

-You serious?

-I am serious.

I'm about as serious as your face right now.

-How long?

When?

-Whenever they finish building it.

-Take care.

-You take care, brother.

-No new jails!

-No new jails!

-No new jails!

-No new jails!

-No new jails!

-No new jails!

-I think what happened in 1982 and what's happening right now has strong parallel.

Again, our city is looking to expand the prison system.

And they come up with all sorts of reasons why, but it's the same thing again, they want to expand.

My name is Siyan Wong.

I'm a painter and I am a workers' rights lawyer.

There's only one way to keep it from expanding any further is to take back that North Tower space and say that the community was never for it, And this is just going -- getting out of hand.

And the Lippman Commission has said smaller jails, right?

This is not smaller.

This is even bigger.

Kalief's story and his legacy is that he was a wake-up call.

I think it woke up anyone with a heart to see that we have a broken system.

Because we have a justice system that is not just and it needs to be reformed.

Building more jails is not reforming the system.

It's just making a broken system look prettier and newer.

♪♪ ♪♪ -If the people of America don't wake up to exactly what has happened, each and every one of us is in trouble, whether we in a concentration camp or whether we in the street.

Because like James Baldwin said, and Sister Angela Davis adopted, if they come in the morning for me, they'll come in the night for you.

And the complete explanation of this statement is that it is no longer Black or Puerto Rican, it is the whites too that's in trouble.

And as I said a thousand times, look at Kent State.

I said a thousand times, look at Attica.

You see...people who worked for the system was slaughtered in Attica.

Their lives was thrown away to prove a point of order.

After 11 weeks of testimony, the jury is now hearing closing arguments and will soon deliver a verdict on three of the seven men indicted as leaders of The Tombs protest of October, 1970.

Curtis Brown rejected legal counsel and he has been arguing his case himself.

Curtis Brown has been in jail for all but two years since 1946.

And he has spent much of that time teaching himself law and doing legal work for himself and for his fellow prisoners.

-They're playing games now, because the way things are now, it's a big business.

And they can't afford to allow the people to wake up to what's going on in this country.

You understand?

Because it will take the money out of the capitalist's hand and give it back where it belongs to the people.

When I talk to the brothers in jail, this is what I tell 'em.

You know, some people frown and say revolution, but the constitution of the United States guarantees each and every individual the right to revolt.

♪♪ -We're in a time of revolution.

Educating the people to a revolution, and some people have even taken it to the level of getting out there and starting the revolution.

But now that the education process is so much in strength and so strong with the Young Lord's party, the Black Panther Party, the U-AKUN, the RU and all these other different organizations and parties who are out there educating the people, the system sees itself threatened to such an extent that they have to start moving all these people out of the streets trying to get as many of 'em as they can outta the streets and killing them in jail in order to stop this whole type of process of education.

-What do you think it's gonna take to reform the prison system to the point where they're really performing the function you think they should perform?

-A revolution.

♪♪ ♪♪ -I just -- I was just writing!

-Shut up!

♪♪ ♪♪ -Once the jail is torn down to the last splintering piece of wood, leveled completely, what better way to honor Kalief than to destroy the institution that destroyed his life?

This would be a glorious end to the war I've been fighting, to get the system to admit that they are the reason my son Kalief is dead.

Kalief would finally get the justice he deserves.

-Just like some people were impacted by the destruction of the World Trade Center more than others, family members of people who died on 9/11,.

other people are also more impacted by the history of Rikers Island than others.

And I think it's doubly important to do what we did with the World Trade Center.

We engaged the entire city but we also recognized that it was a place of incredible trauma for a lot of people.

And the process respected that and the results respected that.

I'm an urban planner.

I try to do what I can in my profession to improve the city.

Rikers has completely failed as any type of place to keep people in any fashion really and should be kind of moving forward with a different vision by now.

What we are proposing is a battery storage and solar generation here.

We're proposing more solar fields on this island than exist in all of New York City combined right now.

We have to build more infrastructure.

We have to update our infrastructure.

Without it, we're not gonna survive climate change.

We're not gonna survive our energy needs.

And the fact that we have an island in the sound that we're able to locate these things in, that's a lot less neighbors complaining because the neighbors are fish.

Administrations change every four years, every eight years.

And this is longer than four or eight years of a project.

So you always have to be advocating.

And I think it's safe to say that we're always gonna be advocating for this until it gets done.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -If I could be other than me, I'd be a butterfly having the chance to shed my past and start my life anew.

No longer held down and -- and bound to branches of misfortune.

Oh, I would be free to be lifted to new heights, fluttering my wings into my new destiny.

Yes.

If I could be anything other than me, oh, I'd be a butterfly.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ So it's toxic for so many reasons, and it's so many reasons why, you know, in 2019, you know we pushed the City, to pass a law to close Rikers Island by 2027.

A detailed plan to not only close Rikers Island but reinvest in our communities.

We united with climate and justice advocacy organizations and said, "You know what, what about a Renewable Rikers?"

Which we are going to talk a little bit more about today.

-I only came here to get extra credit.

But, like, after -- after listening to -- after listening to all of your guys', like, what all you guys have been saying and just like being here, like I actually want to contribute a lot more.

-Like, we should remake Rikers Island into like a place where we can feel good about our society, our community.

We could be able to breathe correctly.

-We were literally fighting by ourselves for years.

Like the Bronx was going through fires, decades of fires actually, within kids being exploited, families being destroyed, urban renewal, redlining.

I feel like we don't really give ourselves enough credit for the amount of work we do for our borough.

And I feel like we should take that into consideration that not only are we young, we are fighting and we're doing something for the community that is amazing.

-Very also, like, empowering for people to see that yeah, a messed-up thing happened in our community, but we can turn it around and make something greater than what it is.

-What's going on, sir?

-Hey, Kamal.

-I bought flowers for Mommy's... -Yeah, I tried to... remember how Mommy liked to put her -- her rocks down and plant outside and set it up nice.

I'll try to make it look nice for her.

-You bought these for Mommy?

-Yes sir.

-These are nice.

Let's try to fit them into the vases to make them look nice.

-If Kalief was here, he probably have his own business by now.

because he was going to school for business management.

My mother would probably have her own bakery 'cause she used to bake cupcakes and make me be the test subject.

No matter how much crying I do, it's not gonna bring the person back.

-We did good with adding some stone, some color.

This is really nice.

I think she'd really liked this.

-I think she would.

-I'll snap a picture.

-Now it ain't doing it... -That's okay.

That was nice.

-It's spinning.

-You happy?

-Yeah.

♪♪ ♪♪ -See, she didn't know.

I kept the secret.

-I didn't know.

-Yeah, it would've been better if he didn't know.

-Because Raphael turned over the picture, the sonogram thing, and it said "It's a girl."

And I grabbed up and I went, "Oh, my God, I'm having a daughter!"

-And the gender reveal was like a month later.

-...and then it fell.

-Everyone smiling, 3, 2, 1.

-We wanted to thank you all for joining us.

Some of you know each other.

I hope y'all got to know each other like, a little more today.

And we are only here til 5:00 so, like, get to know each other quick.

[ Laughter ] But I brought her all the way out here so that she can have experience with all of you.

-He moved in December in California.

So my family and friends have made him feel comfortable, but it's nothing like having your own family and friends.

So I'm glad you guys can come out.

I'm glad I could be here and it will continue.

We will -- We will be bicoastal.

-Word.

-More and more.

-BX for life.

-Oh, God.

So proud.

[ Indistinct conversations ] That's good.

-I love you.

-I love you too.

Feel like you're -- you're calm now.

-I haven't -- I just started eating.

-Okay.

-I haven't eaten since... -That's story of your life.

Yeah, we got to work on that.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -We as Black mothers have to take charge of the front lines of this war to defend our Black youth.

Stop-and-Frisk has been upgraded to Stop-and-Snatch, and in some cases, it's just point and shoot.

♪♪ It takes a village to raise a child.

And from 50 shades of black and brown, we are all in this together.

But it will take a nation to stop the slaughter of our sons.

The laws must be changed.

We've advanced in technology, overcame segregation and we've risen as a people.

We -- We even have a Black president, President Barack Obama.

Yet internally, our people are still suffering.

Black males are being eliminated, cut down in their youth.

Their death viewed via airways by millions as if it were a television series.

Tune in next week to see the continuing saga "Black Youth's Killing Game."

How many more Black youths have to be killed?

And their families destroyed?

Before something is done?

Before this television series is canceled?

♪♪ -[ Singing in world language ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -The chant is "Override"!

-Override!

Override!

Override!

Override!

Override!

Override!

-We have to today honor the memory of Kalief Browder and others who died in solitary confinement in Rikers!

We have to close Rikers!

But first, we gotta end solitary confinement.

-Your job is not good enough.

But today we're going to force that you enforce the law.

We are going to show you what the law means.

And it does not stop here, because we have to implement these bills.

-So we gonna do what?

-Override!

-We gonna do what?

-Override!

-We gonna do what?

-Override!

-Together!

Peace and blessings.

[ Cheers and applause ] Today, the Council will be voting to override the mayor's vetoes of Introduction 549-A, to ban solitary confinement in city jails.

-It's not called solitary confinement.

We haven't had that in the City of New York for 10 years.

But everybody says that, but nobody listens.

It's -- it's -- If it's Punitive Seg, it's a reason.

We need it as a tool to keep our correction officers safe.

-If solitary confinement doesn't exist then we should have no problem overriding the veto and setting it into law.

-The record of the harm caused by solitary confinement is volumous.

Even after a person is released, spending time in solitary is correlated with an increased risk of suicide.

A fact sadly illustrated by the death of Kalief Browder in 2015.

It is past time we take a different approach.

-Intro 549 will remove one of the last remaining tools that our corrections officers have to enforce rules within their facilities.

-Having punitive segregation is an important disciplinary tool to ensure that we have order in our city jails.

-A system that will more readily invest in the carceral system than housing, than food access, than mental health is a broken system, is a broken institution and is breaking our communities apart.

-Please don't make this a racial issue.

It's not.

I'm sorry you feel that, I hear you in the background, and that's okay.

But I just want you to know I never judge a person by their color.

I never judge a person by their religion.

-Councilmember, please wrap up the point and cast your vote.

-Okay, and then I just wanna say, it's just about color... -Councilmember, please cast your vote.

-And it should not be, so I vote no.

-The people who show up at work every day to Rikers Island also deserve to be safe.

But this bill is not about making them less safe, because if torturing someone is the only way you could feel safe, then we're not doing something right.

-All items on today's general order calendar are adopted by a vote of 42 in the affirmative, 9 in the negative, and zero abstentions.

So the ayes do have it this time.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -My poems are an extension of me.

My thoughts moving, intertwining, coming together as an idea.

Words of rhyme or free verse linked, forming sentences.

Whether by pen and paper or keys of ink, I can express what I feel and not be intimidated or inhibited.

-Rest in power!

-I am free to write the template for my voice.

Each word contemplated and tested designed to leave an indelible impression upon the scrolls of your mind.

♪♪ And hopefully, through my poems you will remember me.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪