Kalief Browder and the right to bail

It’s Trump who should be jailed

Donald Trump signed an Aug. 25 executive order abolishing cash-free bail in Washington, D.C. The wannabe dictator also wants to cut off federal aid to local governments — including the entire state of Illinois — that have enacted this human rights legislation.

The U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, says “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Bail is excessive for anyone who can’t afford to pay it. 

That was the tragic story of Kalief Browder, a Black youth in New York City. Arrested in 2010 when he was 16 years old for allegedly stealing a backpack, Browder’s family couldn’t afford $900 to pay for a bail bond.

Fifteen years later, in 2025, 59% of U.S. families — living paycheck to paycheck — can’t come up with $1,000 in an emergency. (Even though the dollar’s value had plunged over 30% in the meantime.)

So, because his family was poor, Kalief Browder was locked up for three years in the notorious Riker’s Island jail complex without ever being brought to trial. Prosecutors kept delaying his case.

For two of those years, Browder was kept in solitary confinement, a torment that’s been denounced by the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

Prosecutors finally dropped the charges against Kalief Browder. Two years later, he hanged himself on June 6, 2015.

Whenever you hear bail being discussed, always remember Kalief Browder.

Prisons are concentration camps for the poor

It’s a big lie that everyone in the United States is considered innocent until proven guilty. Trump and most cops think that anyone arrested is automatically guilty.

Not being able to afford bail means you can’t contact witnesses who could confirm your innocence. Any effective legal defense is largely denied.

On an average day, 457,000 people are being held in local, state and federal dungeons without being convicted.

Being kept in hellholes like Riker’s Island causes many innocent people to confess to lesser charges just to get out of jail. These forced confessions often prevent poor people from voting.

In 2024, 4 million people were kept off the voting rolls because of a previous conviction. That can make the difference in many elections.

Just cashing a check with insufficient funds can be enough to block somebody from voting. The real crime was being poor.

Any jail or prison is dangerous. Transgender prisoners are especially endangered.

In 2019, 1,200 prisoners died in local jails. Three thousand prisoners died from COVID-19.

The political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal’s eyesight is endangered because Pennsylvania prison officials are denying necessary medical care. Please make phone calls to demand treatment for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been incarcerated for nearly 44 years. Details are listed here: https://www.thejerichomovement.com/news/mumia%E2%80%99s-eyesight-endangered-take-action

Pennsylvania and many other states call their prison systems “departments of correction.” Correction was the polite, lying term slave owners used to describe their torture of enslaved Africans.

Riker’s Island is named for the wealthy slave trading Riker family. In “Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad,” the historian Eric Foner describes how Richard Riker was part of a gang that kidnapped Black people in New York City and sold them into slavery. 

U.S. prisons are concentration camps for the poor. Gaza — where tens of thousands of children have been killed by Zionist war criminals using U.S. weapons — is a concentration camp.

Rich criminals like Trump need to be jailed instead. The labor movement should demand jobs, not jails!

Poor people in Paris started the French Revolution by attacking a notorious prison called the Bastille. In our struggles against Trump and the billionaire class, don’t forget the 2 million people incarcerated across the United States.

They’re members of the working class, too. Always remember Kalief Browder.