Kalief Browder was originally from The Bronx, New York. He was the youngest of seven siblings, and one of the five who were given up for adoption. 

 

Browder's adoptive mother, Venida Browder, had raised thirty-four children by 2015, including fostered children, adopted children, and her biological children. The family lived in a two-story brick house on Prospect Avenue near the Bronx Zoo.

​

Browder attended New Day Academy, whose staff described him as very smart and a "fun guy".

“Maybe another form of punishment or segregation should be implemented to deal with inmates who break jail rules as opposed to inmates who cause severe harm to other inmates and correction officers because the mental health risk it poses are too great."

- Kalief Browder, in a college essay entitled

A Closer Look at Solitary Confinement in the US. He received an 'A' .

In 2010, Browder was arrested for a crime he did not commit - stealing a backpack. He was held at the Rikers Island jail complex for three years. His family was not allowed to post his bail. He was in solitary confinement for two years. 

​

After three years at Rikers, charges against Kalief were summarily dismissed - after Kalief refused a plea deal in which he would plead guilty in exchange for time served. 

​

After his release, Kalief earned his GED, and attended community college. He worked as a math tutor for others attempting to receive their GED. He held other jobs, but his time in prison, particularly solitary confinement and abuse from correctional officers and inmates, caused him severe psychological trauma from which he did not recover. 

​

Kalief took his own life in 2015.

​