On a cold night in 2010, a boy is stopped by police while walking home from a party in the Bronx.

He's only 16. He's been stopped by police before, but this time is different.

In a special four-part series, the Generation Y podcast unravels the story of Calif Browder,

a young boy who was falsely accused of stealing a backpack and held without bail on Reikers Island

for three years. During that time, he endured regular abuse by prison staff and inmates

and was held in solitary confinement for more than 700 consecutive days.

Three years later, Calif was released, never once having stood trial.

Calif's case ended up being a catalyst for change in the use of solitary confinement against

minors and federal prisons, but we still have a long way to go. We say innocent until proven guilty,

but where do we draw the line between due process and cruelty? I'm about to play a clip from

this four-part series on Generation Y, and while you're listening, follow Generation Y wherever

you get your podcasts. And hey, prime members, you can listen ad-free on Amazon Music, download the

Amazon Music app today. Most people, if they were to be jailed or incarcerated for 30 days,

they would lose their house, they would lose their job, they would lose everything. Just 30 days

behind bars. There are so many other punishments, there are so many other impacts that incarceration

have that no one weighs out because we just think time behind bars, we just think, did the

punishment fit the crime? And then on top of that, people want jailhouse justice, they want prisoners

to suffer more while they're behind bars, as if they're not suffering already. And I've spent time

in the military, I've been isolated from my family and friends, I can't imagine what it would

be like to be put in the solitary for even a few days, much less months or years.

So we've already talked about the harm that solitary confinement does, and then when you add in the

fact that Khalif Browder was just picked off the street, no proof of crime, of laws broken,

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