Written by Jonuel Martinez. Header illustration courtesy of Maggie Neill.
“From the minute we got in the prison, we felt safer with the men who were incarcerated than any of the guards.”
On October 28, directors and producers Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman arrived at SCAD’s 2025 Savannah Film Festival to showcase their new HBO documentary film “The Alabama Solution.” Located in the newly refurbished Lucas Theatre, a mixed audience ranging between students and the elderly were seated to watch an eye-opening film that reveals what goes on behind the walls of one of the nation’s deadliest prison systems. This is a true story that was the result of a six-year investigation into Alabama’s prisons, composed of many secret video recordings by incarcerated men using contraband cell phones. What followed was devastating footage revealing brutal and bloody beatings by officers, overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions, drug addiction and overdoses, and the State successfully fighting multiple complaints and lawsuits.
“I think our whole country, in many ways, is complicit with this system of justice,” said Kaufman. “Perhaps the reason we’re all complicit with it is because we actually don’t get to see the full contours of it.” Many of the inmates featured were given long prison sentences with some even being sentenced to life without parole. While some are aware that they’re deserving of such punishment due to horrific acts they’ve committed, is it still considered just when someone is given 15 years behind bars for robbing an unoccupied building? No matter the sentence or crime committed, each inmate is capable of being subjected to the same inhumane treatment. As evident with the footage provided, some inmates are forced to live in rat-infested cells, walk through sewage puddles that span almost entire hallways, and fear for their safety from guards who can deliberately frame any unnecessary attack as “self-defense.”
After the screening, Jarecki and Kaufman talk even further about the complications that arise from the state’s prison system. The reason that the public isn’t aware of such issues is because the press is not allowed in those institutions.
“It’s not just that they can’t communicate freely or that they can only be on a 15-minute phone call,” said Jarecki, “they can’t even privately communicate with their lawyers.” Featured in this film was Hank Sherrod, a lawyer who was representing the family of an inmate who was beaten to death by the prison guards. His goal was to find out the truth of what exactly happened during the altercation between the inmate and guards due to only hearing the fabricated version from officers. The plan was to use attorney-client privilege to privately talk with inmates through phone calls. But what ended up happening was that some inmates refused to answer truthfully, with one even regurgitating the officers’ version, because of one problem: a guard was present in the room with them.
“The Alabama Solution” masterfully sections off each individual story which helps instill a connecting narrative overall. The documentary knows when to deliver gut-wrenching reveals and doesn’t hold back on the brutality and ruthlessness brought on by certain violent individuals. Viewer discretion is advised as the film even went as far as showing pools or streaks of blood and severely damaged faces as the aftermath of brutal beatings which really drives home just how disturbing the treatment of inmates in Alabama’s state prisons are. While focus is spread across many different individuals and their stories, the film surely does not fall short of a coherent structure as the message is very clear throughout. The amount of research and effort that went into the film is apparent and is sure to convince just about anyone to look further into the subject.
As astounding as the film is, this is an issue that’s not just prevalent within the state of Alabama, it’s seen within states across the nation, such as Georgia, Florida, California, and others. This film was the needed introduction for the public to familiarize themselves with a problem that the people behind this film and beyond continue to fight till this day. “It does matter when lawmakers hear from their constituents, that they care about what’s happening in the prisons,” said Kaufman. “And I think that’s true in every state.”
