Floors streaked with blood, rat-infested cells, flooded hallways and routine beatings by officers – these are but some of the degrading conditions within Alabama state prisons revealed by leaked cellphone videos in a shocking, galvanizing new documentary that premiered at the Sundance film festival on Tuesday.
The Alabama Solution, directed by Andrew Jarecki (The Jinx) and Charlotte Kaufman, reports on the inhumane living conditions, forced labor and rampant officer violence against the state’s incarcerated population, as told by inmates who served as confidential, covert sources. The two-hour film, made over the course of six years, also documents prisoners’ longstanding efforts to improve conditions deemed “unconstitutional” by the US justice department in a 2020 report, under constant physical threat from prison management. Despite federal calls for prison reform, Alabama’s prisons currently operate at 200% capacity, the film notes, with only one-third of the required staff. The state’s prisons have the highest rates of murder, drug addiction and death in the country.
