Time: The Kalief Browder Story Part 4 (Netflix, 2017)
What happens when a criminal justice system fails at every level? In part four of the Kalief Browder story entitled The Witness, the hosts examine the police investigation, courtroom delays, plea bargaining, eyewitness identification, solitary confinement, and mental health care that shaped Kalief Browder’s experience of incarceration.
Ashley and Carolyn break down how the case moved from an investigation into a stolen backpack to years of incarceration without a conviction. The episode explores troubling questions about missing surveillance footage, delayed police reports, eyewitness memory, identification procedures, prosecutorial delays, and the enormous pressure defendants can face to accept plea deals. The hosts also discuss the dehumanization that can occur within courtrooms and correctional institutions, including the language used to describe incarcerated people and the ways institutional practices can distance decision-makers from the human beings affected by their choices.
The conversation then turns to plea bargaining and implicit bias, including the trial penalty and the pressure defendants may experience when the potential consequences of going to trial are dramatically greater than accepting a plea. Carolyn shares her own perspective on why people facing incarceration may choose a plea deal, while Ashley discusses research surrounding plea bargaining and implicit bias. Finally, the hosts examine the devastating impact of solitary confinement and inadequate mental health care, including suicide attempts, the treatment of people experiencing mental health crises, family notification, and the potential consequences of correctional staff becoming desensitized to suffering.
This episode asks a difficult question: What happens when an entire system stops seeing a person as a human being?
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