Rapper Jay Z’s documentary series, “TIME: The Kalief Browder Story,” on the tragic arrest, imprisonment and eventual suicide of New Yorker Kalief Browder got its first trailer.
In May 2010, Browder, then 16 years old, was arrested and sent to prison for robbery, though he was never actually convicted. He spent three years in notorious Rikers Island, two of those years in solitary confinement, before the charges were finally dropped and he was released in 2013. Unable to mentally or emotionally recover from the trauma,
Browder committed suicide in June 2015 at age 22.
The awful physical and mental abuse Browder suffered — from guards and inmates alike — gave a horrified public a glimpse into the cruel and inhumane conditions inmates faced in Rikers and ultimately became the catalyst for the push to reform New York’s prison system.
The official 2017 Sundance film festival documentary will explore Browder’s attempts to reclaim his life after enduring 31 hearings with no conviction.
“Time: The Kalief Browder Story,” is a six-part documentary that will air on Spike at 10 p.m. March 1.
