Like many Americans, actor and film-maker Nick Sandow – who is best known as mustachioed assistant warden Joe Caputo in Orange is the New Black – said that for years he didn’t much think about the criminal justice system at all. “For a good part of my life the only interest I had in jail was not to get arrested,” says Sandow.

Kalief Browder, man held for three years in prison without trial, kills himself Read more

It is largely that role that Sandow credits for opening his eyes to some of the worst abuses and excesses of the US criminal justice system, an awakening process that led him to co-produce a six-part series on the life, arrest and detainment of Bronx teen Kalief Browder, along with Jay Z. Browder was arrested for allegedly having stolen a backpack, and was held in pretrial detention at Rikers Island for over 1,000 days, most of them in solitary confinement. His story became a sobering example of the way the criminal justice system can tear through the lives of especially poor and black and brown Americans.

“We say that the system is broken. I think that I’ve come to the realization that it’s doing exactly what it was designed to do and that is to take poor people and people of color and put them out of sight,” Sandow said.



Browder maintained his innocence throughout his ordeal, which included regular beatings from both fellow inmates and guards as well as, according to his account, starvation and torture. Browder had the option to plead guilty to the crime he was accused of on several occasions and be released, but was adamant about not admitting to something he did not do. In 2013, prosecutors dropped the charges and Browder was released without a trial or a conviction.

The system isn't broken, it’s doing exactly what it was designed to do Nick Sandow

But the damage had already been done. The series includes several interviews with Browder that offer raw insights into the trauma he faced after his release. “When they sent me to Rikers Island I was 16. It was like hell on earth,” Browder said to film-makers. “Sometimes I feel like I’m never going to be the same. I smile and I joke a lot but deep down I’m a mess. I’m 21 and on the inside I feel like I’m 40.”

Browder committed suicide in 2015 after long bouts of depression and paranoia, which family members and Browder himself directly attributed to his time at Rikers, specifically in solitary confinement. At the time of his death, Browder was a promising young student at Bronx Community College, who classmates said wanted to be defined by more than the time he spent unjustly held in jail.

Deion Browder, Kalief’s brother, said when the series started to film and come together it was bittersweet because “it was like reliving everything over again”. Now that it’s complete, Deion said he’s really proud. “To get to see how all of that came together is moving for me and it’s something that makes me even more passionate.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jay Z speaks during a Q&A following the film’s world premiere. Photograph: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Spike TV

Even viewers well acquainted with Browder’s story will find new layers of nuance and detail in the series. Time discusses how Browder, an adopted foster child, was essentially born into the custody of child welfare, and how that shaped his life. (“Kalief is somebody who has been under essentially state surveillance their entire life,” CNN host Van Jones says in the series.)

6×9: A virtual experience of solitary confinement Read more

By drawing Browder’s story out into a multi-part series, the film-makers are able to zoom in and out on the interweaving institutions that conspired to author his fate. His growing up under the reign of NYPD’s racist stop and frisk policy is one. The inherent inequity in a money bail system, which often leaves poor people who do not present a risk to society behind bars, is another. In the second installment, Time takes an extended delve into Rikers Island, the notorious New York City jail where Browder was held. “This was the challenge,” Sandow said, from a film-making standpoint. “The idea of taking this one young man’s very heroic journey and really tell all aspects from policing to bail to jail and still keep ahold of his story.”



Sandow said the film-makers had enthusiastic help from Browder’s family, including his mother, Venida, who died in October 2016 and is featured heavily in the film. “They were great partners and they opened their hearts and their house and their time ... and then we had something,” says Sandow.

Browder’s case reached the heights of US government with both the supreme court and then Barack Obama citing the case in decisions regarding the use of solitary confinement. His family hopes that the series will continue to add to his legacy as someone who’s story helped change the system that affects so many. “I’m glad that Kalief is this voice of reform and change,” Deion Browder said. “I hope it can be that beacon of hope for people who feel like they have no way out. I just wish he were here to see it.”

Time: The Kalief Browder Story starts 1 March on Spike TV