Kalief Browder Protest At Rikers Draws Dozens Of Police Officers, Prison Reform Advocates

Protesters on Rikers Island, New York, reportedly were met by officers and police dogs Saturday as they gathered in the rain to demand justice for the late Kalief Browder. Twitter users posted pictures of corrections staff and the New York Police Department trying to corral a crowd of people with signs declaring "Black lives matter" and paintings of Browder.

About 500 people had joined the Facebook event "March to shut down Rikers -- Justice for Kalief Browder! No to criminalization!" for a protest starting at 3 p.m. Saturday. They were inspired by Browder, 22, who killed himself June 6 after spending three years -- much of it in solitary confinement -- at the Rikers Island jail. He'd been arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack but was never convicted. Browder was released in 2013.

Rikers, though, has been investigated several times in recent years for allegations its staff abused inmates. Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in an August news release Rikers "is a place where brute force is the first impulse rather than the last resort; where verbal insults are repaid with physical injuries; where beatings are routine while accountability is rare, and where a culture of violence endures even while a code of silence prevails."

To remedy this, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in December he had ended the practice of putting 16- and 17-year-olds in solitary confinement and allocated about $32 million to increase mental health support for prisoners.

Earlier this month, the New York Times reported authorities "tentatively agreed" to test out body cameras for guards, install 8,000 extra surveillance cameras and implement rules to limit the use of force against inmates.

The protesters argued those actions are not enough. "We demand the city immediately stop jailing mentally ill people and fund mental health services instead," they wrote on Facebook. "We demand quality mental health services and healthcare to those currently incarcerated. ... An end to the racist prison system and in memory of the fallen."

The activists turned out in force on Saturday. See photos below: