'The Alabama Solution' Prison Doc Up For An Oscar

The prison industrial complex in the United States is one that has a murky place in the nation’s conscious. A look inside the nation’s fifth-largest prison system in the state of Alabama and the alleged abuses that have been documented by incarcerated activists is the core of a striking documentary, The Alabama Solution. 

The film is nominated for Best Documentary at the upcoming Academy Awards, and is co-directed by Andrew Jarecki and investigative journalist Charlotte Kaufman. The Alabama Solution first begins in 2019, when Jarecki and Kaufman were invited by a Black chaplain to film a revival inside one of the prisons. That was cut short after guards caught wind of prison activists alerting the filmmakers of terrible things taking place.

The majority of footage from inside the prison during the six-year investigation is due to three men – Robert Earl Council, Melvin Ray and Raoul Poole. Their footage, along with the work of Council’s friend and attorney, Tiffany Johnson Cole, uncovers years of hidden abuses as we follow the death of an inmate Steven Davis. The film captures an apparent cover-up by prison officials concerning his death, prompting his mother, Sandy Ray, to vocally demand justice for him.

That pressure was intensely applied to Council, Ray, and Poole as all three were placed in solitary confinement in January, presumably as punishment for their roles in using contraband cellphones to film. The activists are part of the Free Alabama Movement, with Council (also known as Kinetic Justice) being one of its founders. The movement fights to publicize the inhumane treatment of prisoners in Alabama, and the unwillingness of the state to make changes.

“Any authoritarian administration does not want you to see what’s going on inside,” said Jarecki in an interview with Democracy Now. “They can’t really continue to do what they’re doing if there’s enough public pressure, which is one of the reasons why Alabama is so anxious about this film.” 

Kaufman said that “we made this film over seven years, but the issue in Alabama’s prison is still very urgent and very current. Since 2019, 1,500 people have died. And as you can see, they are threatened by voices that speak up.”

The Alabama Solution is now available to watch on HBO Max. Check out the website for the film here, and the trailer above.