Jay Z & Weinstein Television Team with Spike

NEW YORK: Weinstein Television and Shawn “Jay Z” Carter have aligned with Spike TV for an event series that tells the story of Kalief Browder, a young African-American student who spent three years on Rikers Island without ever being convicted of a crime.

The six-part documentary event series is titled TIME: The Kalief Browder Story. It will feature exclusive interviews from a wide range of those connected to the story, from politicians to close friends and family members to social reformers, as well as first-person accounts, archival footage and cinematic recreations of key scenes from Browder’s life.

TIME: The Kalief Browder Story will debut on Spike in January 2017.

“Kalief Browder is a modern day prophet; his story a failure of the judicial process,” said Carter. “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.”

TWC co-chairman Harvey Weinstein said: “Jay Z, Kevin Kay, Sharon Levy and the entire team at Spike have been incredible partners on this project. What happened to Kalief is heartbreaking, but sadly, in reality, not the first of its kind. This series will take an important look at why Kalief’s life was cut so short, the flaws in our justice system and hopefully will continue some powerful conversations and movements for some much-needed reform.”

“Kalief’s story should endure and inspire much-needed change in the criminal justice system,” said Sharon Levy, Spike’s executive VP of original series. “When Weinstein Television brought us this project, we immediately knew it was a story that had to be told.”

Jenner Furst, the director of this six-part series, from his Brooklyn-based company The Cinemart, added, “The story on the evening news created a lot of attention and action around Kalief Browder, but it wasn’t the whole story. If Kalief Browder’s life matters then his whole life matters, and that’s how we have been approaching this project.”