Jay Z is making his presence known on yet another platform. The budding media mogul is bringing the story of wrongly-incarcerated suicide victim Kalief Browder to SpikeTV.
Deadline reports:
Rapper Shawn “Jay Z” Carter and Weinstein Television are partnering with Spike TVfo r TIME: The Kalief Browder Story, a six-part docuseries set to premiere in January that will examine deep inequality in the criminal justice system through the life and tragic death of Kalief Browder.
Browder’s story is one of the more tragic ones in American history. In 2010, at age 16, Browder was arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. He was jailed at Rikers Island for three years, spending two of them in solitary confinement, while awaiting a trial. While he was jailed, he attempted suicide five times.
The charges against him were dropped in 2013 and he was let “free” without ever going to trial. He struggled to adjust to living on the outside and eventually succeeded in taking his own life in 2015, two years after he was released.
“Kalief Browder is a modern day prophet; his story a failure of the judicial process,” says Jay via statement to Deadline. “A young man, and I emphasize young man, who lost his life because of a broken system. His tragedy has brought atrocities to light and now we must confront the issues and events that occurred so other young men can have a chance at justice.”
The film comes from a recently formed partnership between Jay and Weinstein Television where they will develop and produce projects over the next two years.
The Kalief Browder Story will be coming months after Ava DuVernay’s criminal justice documentary The 13th which set to debut on Netflix this fall.
Photo: WENN.com
