The Alabama Solution

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and now streaming on HBO, The Alabama Solution is an investigative documentary directed by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman that exposes the brutal realities of abuse inside Alabama’s prison system through six years' worth of cell-phone footage captured inside prison facilities by incarcerated individuals.

Through the leadership and courage of incarcerated organizers and whistleblowers Melvin Ray, Robert Earl Council (Kinetik Justice), and Ricardo “Raoul” Poole, alongside the families of other incarcerated people, the film reveals systemic violence, forced labor, and official cover-ups, centering on one death that sparked statewide organizing and legal action.

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

Represent Justice is partnering with No More Alabama on an impact campaign for The Alabama Solution. The film’s message is clear: the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Alabama prisons is not an aberration, but a reflection of a punishment system that dehumanizes people across the country. The call for everyone to join in amplifying this message is urgent.

We will mobilize our network and work with local and national partners to drive national attention to the inhumane conditions, extreme sentencing, limited paths to release, and pervasive culture of violence in Alabama prisons.

Our immediate focus is supporting organizing inside Alabama prisons, and directing the public to speak out against the preemptive retaliation against the incarcerated organizers, who shot much of the film themselves, on their cell phones. We will also work to support on the ground advocates, organizers, and the loved ones of people incarcerated in Alabama, each of whom have been speaking out against Alabama’s deadly and inhumane prison system for years.

Over six months, we will work with screening hosts all across the country who stand in support of the incarcerated whistleblowers and leaders organizing for change in Alabama, and who demand an end to entrenched cultures of harm and rights violations across our jails, prisons, and detention facilities.

1,300

More than 1,300 people have died in Alabama prisons since 2019, and annual deaths doubled between 2019 and 2024.

25%

Alabama prisons consume nearly a quarter of the state's general fund - more than the state spends on public health and mental health services combined.

$450,000,000

More than $450M per year is extracted in forced prison labor – either unpaid or severely underpaid (as little as $2 per day) – while basic rehabilitation programs collapse.

Take Action

  • Write a Letter to ADOC and the Prison Oversight Committee

    Alabamians – demand an end to the retaliation against whistleblowers by sending a letter to the leaders of the Alabama Department of Corrections and the legislators on the Joint Prison Oversight Committee, urging them to protect the whistleblowers and release them from solitary confinement.

    Write the ADOC

  • Call Kilby Correctional Facility and demand the safety of Robert Earl, Melvin, and Raoul

    We urge the public, media, and officials to contact Kilby to demand that they confirm their intention to keep Kinetik Justice and Raoul safe, and to ensure that they and others are not retaliated against.

    Call Kilby

Watch Options

The Alabama Solution is streaming on HBO MAX.

Screenings

[screenings:ALSolution]