![onstage during the 2015 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 17, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/john-legend.jpeg?quality=85&w=2400)
By Sarah Begley
Singer-songwriter John Legend has weighed in on the death of Kalief Browder in an essay saying that the system failed the young man at every turn.
Browder, who spent three years in Rikers Island jail, nearly two of them in solitary confinement, was accused of stealing a backpack at age 16—a crime he was never tried for. He committed suicide two years after his release, apparently deeply scarred by the experience. Legend says this sequence of events was unacceptable.
“The idea that being accused of stealing a backpack would lead to his arrest and detention would be absurd if it weren’t actually tragic,” Legend wrote on Vulture, adding, “Kalief died because our system is broken.”
Read the full essay on Vulture.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
- Melinda French Gates Is Going It Alone
- What to Do if You Can’t Afford Your Medications
- How to Buy Groceries Without Breaking the Bank
- Sienna Miller Is the Reason to Watch Horizon
- Why So Many Bitcoin Mining Companies Are Pivoting to AI
- The 15 Best Movies to Watch on a Plane
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Contact us at [email protected]