Time: The Kalief Browder Story Part 3 (Netflix, 2017)

Welcome to Reality Behind Bars, a podcast where a college professor who studies the criminal justice system and an elementary school teacher with lived experience of incarceration take a closer look at reality television, documentaries, and the media stories that shape how we understand incarceration.

I'm Ashley, I'm a cognitive neuroscientist, and I've been a college professor for a I teach a variety of courses in psychology, including the intersection of psychology and the legal system.

And today I'm not joined by my co-host, Carolyn.

She was recently promoted, so send her all your well wishes and is busy with some work-related training this week.

So hopefully she'll be back with us next week.

But for this week, I'm flying solo.

And we are going to talk about time, the Kalief Browder story, part three, entitled The Bing.

So this particular episode is going to focus on solitary confinement.

As we've seen with the series, there's other things that come up as well, but solitary confinement will be a major focus of this episode.

So as we've said each week, there's a lot of content and trigger warnings to be aware of because there's going to be a lot of discussion of mental health and including suicidal ideation and self-harm, as well as issues related to violence and sexual assault.

So if those topics are not safe for you to encounter this week, you might want to skip this episode.

But otherwise, stick with us through this one, and we'll talk about what we've got related to solitary confinement today.

as well as more updates and kind of information about Khalif's case.

So the way that we're going to have this episode structured, I'm going to start by just really talking through Khalif's time in solitary confinement.

So to kind of walk through what he experienced individually, including descriptions of solitary confinement at Rikers Island and one particular case of the documentary highlights of someone who died as a result of their treatment in solitary confinement.

We'll also talk about the effects of solitary confinement.

So there's a couple experts that are in this particular episode, and I'll go through a couple of their findings.

I'm also going to link in the show notes a couple episodes that I did that go over some of the other effects of solitary confinement, and you can go back and listen to those if you're interested.

So those will be linked in the show notes.

Then we're going to talk about kind of alternatives to solitary confinement.

So what could we do instead? That is kind of vaguely mentioned in this episode of time, but we're going to walk through a couple of those because that's a question I often get, whether I'm teaching or talking to people about criminal justice reform and solitary confinement.

It's often, well, what else would you do? And so I'll kind of walk through what some of those options could be.

We'll also talk about why Khalif might have had a lengthier time in solitary confinement.

So the documentary has some theories as to why Khalif might have gotten harsher treatment than other incarcerated persons may have.

And this is more than just him being somewhat defiant, I guess, as we've seen in previous episodes.

So specifically, it's tied to his brother Akeem, and so we'll talk through that.

And then we're going to end on the ready rules.

And my reason for picking that as our ending point is there are specific type of rules that have to do with a speedy trial, which Khalif had filed the civil rights lawsuit, right, And the Ready Rules have undergone some changes since this documentary was made, but it's a nice kind of way for us to segue into what we'll be talking about next week and the following week, which are parts that kind of have to do with the flawed police work and kind of struggles that Khalif deals with getting out.

So it'll be a good kind of segue for us leaving.

So let's start then with Khalif's time in solitary confinement.

Welcome to Reality Behind Bars, a podcast where a college professor who studies the criminal justice system and an elementary school teacher with lived experience of incarceration take a closer look at reality television, documentaries, and the media stories that shape how we understand incarceration.

I'm Ashley, I'm a cognitive neuroscientist, and I've been a college professor for a I teach a variety of courses in psychology, including the intersection of psychology and the legal system.

And today I'm not joined by my co-host, Carolyn.

She was recently promoted, so send her all your well wishes and is busy with some work-related training this week.

So hopefully she'll be back with us next week.

But for this week, I'm flying solo.

And we are going to talk about time, the Kalief Browder story, part three, entitled The Bing.

So this particular episode is going to focus on solitary confinement.

As we've seen with the series, there's other things that come up as well, but solitary confinement will be a major focus of this episode.

So as we've said each week, there's a lot of content and trigger warnings to be aware of because there's going to be a lot of discussion of mental health and including suicidal ideation and self-harm, as well as issues related to violence and sexual assault.

So if those topics are not safe for you to encounter this week, you might want to skip this episode.

But otherwise, stick with us through this one, and we'll talk about what we've got related to solitary confinement today.

as well as more updates and kind of information about Khalif's case.

So the way that we're going to have this episode structured, I'm going to start by just really talking through Khalif's time in solitary confinement.

So to kind of walk through what he experienced individually, including descriptions of solitary confinement at Rikers Island and one particular case of the documentary highlights of someone who died as a result of their treatment in solitary confinement.

We'll also talk about the effects of solitary confinement.

So there's a couple experts that are in this particular episode, and I'll go through a couple of their findings.

I'm also going to link in the show notes a couple episodes that I did that go over some of the other effects of solitary confinement, and you can go back and listen to those if you're interested.

So those will be linked in the show notes.

Then we're going to talk about kind of alternatives to solitary confinement.

So what could we do instead? That is kind of vaguely mentioned in this episode of time, but we're going to walk through a couple of those because that's a question I often get, whether I'm teaching or talking to people about criminal justice reform and solitary confinement.

It's often, well, what else would you do? And so I'll kind of walk through what some of those options could be.

We'll also talk about why Khalif might have had a lengthier time in solitary confinement.

So the documentary has some theories as to why Khalif might have gotten harsher treatment than other incarcerated persons may have.

And this is more than just him being somewhat defiant, I guess, as we've seen in previous episodes.

So specifically, it's tied to his brother Akeem, and so we'll talk through that.

And then we're going to end on the ready rules.

And my reason for picking that as our ending point is there are specific type of rules that have to do with a speedy trial, which Khalif had filed the civil rights lawsuit, right, And the Ready Rules have undergone some changes since this documentary was made, but it's a nice kind of way for us to segue into what we'll be talking about next week and the following week, which are parts that kind of have to do with the flawed police work and kind of struggles that Khalif deals with getting out.

So it'll be a good kind of segue for us leaving.

So let's start then with Khalif's time in solitary confinement.