Kalief Browder: three years at Rikers for a charge that was dropped
A sixteen-year-old was held at Rikers Island for about three years without a trial, about two of them in solitary confinement, on a charge the prosecution eventually dropped. He died by suicide in 2015. In January 2019 the City of New York paid his family $3.3 million.
A public record, not a client of this firm. Everything on this page comes from the court file, the government announcement or the reporting cited at the end. Usher Law Group did not represent anyone in this matter, we publish no results of our own, and nothing here predicts the outcome of any other case.
Kalief Browder was sixteen when he went into Rikers Island. He was there for about three years. He was never tried. The charge against him was dropped. About two of those three years he spent in solitary confinement. He was released, and in 2015 he died by suicide.
Those are the facts the public record keeps, and they are the facts that turned a jail stay into a case. His family sued the City of New York. In January 2019 the City settled for $3.3 million. No court ruled on whether what happened to him was unconstitutional; a settlement ends the question rather than answering it.
What changed afterward is measurable. In 2021 New York passed the HALT Act, and from March 31, 2022, segregated confinement in the State has been capped at 15 consecutive days, or 20 in any 60, and barred outright for people 21 and under. The number that mattered in his case, two years, is now a number the statute does not allow for anyone, and the age at which it began is now an age at which the statute allows none.
Rikers itself has been under a federal consent judgment since 2015, in a case called Nunez. In November 2024 the court held the City in contempt on eighteen of its provisions, and in May 2025 it created an independent Remediation Manager who answers to the court. That case is still open.
What the law calls it
A person held in jail before trial has not been convicted of anything, so the Eighth Amendment does not apply; the claim is under the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause. In the Second Circuit, which covers New York, the standard for conditions and medical care is objective: the jail knew or should have known of the risk and failed to act reasonably (Darnell v. Pineiro, 849 F.3d 17 (2d Cir. 2017)). Force against a pretrial detainee is judged by objective unreasonableness alone (Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 576 U.S. 389 (2015)).
The City is liable only where a policy or custom caused the harm (Monell). Years of pretrial detention and long isolation are the kind of facts that make a policy-and-custom case, because they are not one officer's decision on one day. The prosecution that never went to trial raises a separate question: a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim needs only that the case ended without a conviction (Thompson v. Clark, 596 U.S. 36 (2022)).
What it cost
Family of Kalief Browder
Held about three years at Rikers Island from age 16, about two of them in solitary confinement, on a charge that was dropped. He died by suicide in 2015.
Source: Prison Legal News. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
What it means for you
If someone you love is at Rikers or in a county jail now, the claim is being built now, whether or not anyone is thinking about it. Medical requests, grievances, the dates of isolation, the names of the units: these are the record. Our page on abuse in jails and prisons explains what to write down, and solitary confinement explains the HALT Act limits that apply from the first day.
The Browder settlement came four years after his death and seven after he was first held. A claim for a person in custody does not wait for release; in New York the state-law claims against the City still need a notice of claim within 90 days of each injury, and the federal claim has three years. Denial of medical care and suicide and self-harm in custody cover the two claims that most often arise from a jail death.
The pages this story points to
Solitary confinement
The HALT Act limits, who may never be isolated, and the claim when a jail ignores them.
Read →Abuse in jails and prisons
The Fourteenth Amendment standard for detainees, and what to document.
Read →Rikers Island
The Nunez consent judgment, the contempt finding, and the Remediation Manager.
Read →Sources. Prison Legal News, "New York City settles Kalief Browder lawsuit for $3.3 million" (April 2, 2019); N.Y. Correction Law 137(6) (HALT Act); Nunez v. City of New York, No. 11-cv-5845 (S.D.N.Y.), Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse and The Legal Aid Society.
Common questions
Can a person still be held in solitary confinement for that long in New York?
Not lawfully. New York's HALT Act, Correction Law 137(6), in effect since March 31, 2022, caps segregated confinement at 15 consecutive days, or 20 in any 60, bars it entirely for people 21 and under, 55 and over, with disabilities, or pregnant or postpartum, and requires at least seven hours out of cell in any alternative unit.
Is Rikers under court supervision?
Yes. In Nunez v. City of New York, No. 11-cv-5845 (S.D.N.Y.), a 2015 consent judgment governs the use of force in the City jails. The City was held in contempt on 18 provisions in November 2024, and on May 13, 2025 the court created an independent Remediation Manager, formally appointed in February 2026. The case is ongoing.
Tell us what happened.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which claims the facts support, which deadline runs first for the agency involved, what evidence to preserve this week, and whether a pending criminal case changes the timing. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510If a criminal charge is still open, talk to your defense lawyer before you describe the arrest to anyone, including us. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language. Contingency fee, confirmed in writing before we begin.