THE ALABAMA SOLUTION Named 2026 Represent Justice Open Call Impact Campaign Award Recipient
Alongside the film team and key partners, our campaign will use the film’s powerful storytelling to mobilize nationwide action—Starting NOW.
Represent Justice is proud to announce that the 2026 Open Call Impact Campaign will be awarded to 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.
Melvin, Kinetik Justice, and Raoul are now facing retaliation.
Two weeks ago, in the wake of an announcement of an upcoming labor strike in Alabama prisons to protest corruption and brutality, beginning February 8, these three men were abruptly moved across the state to the Kilby Detention Facility and are being held in solitary confinement. In anticipation of the strike, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has also reduced access to food in its prisons. This is a dangerous violation of rights.
Since the film’s release, thousands of Alabamians have signed an open letter to the governor, families have marched on the Capitol, parole rates have increased, and at least one violent guard has reportedly been reassigned. In addition, outraged by their lived experiences and what the film surfaced, hundreds of community members were in attendance for the Alabama Legislature’s January 28th Prison Oversight Committee Meeting. Four rooms were filled, including the committee room and three additional overflow rooms. Each of these outcomes has built upon the years-long, deep, and ongoing work of on-the-ground advocates, organizations, and system-impacted loved ones that continue to call for greater ADOC oversight, accountability, and protections for people in ADOC’s custody.
This mobilization to demand accountability must continue.
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. As such, the Represent Justice impact campaign is launching immediately, in partnership with the “No More Alabama” campaign.
Over the next six months, our campaign will work with screening hosts all across the country who stand in support of the incarcerated 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. Stay tuned for more details on the many ways you can take part in this campaign.
For now, stand in solidarity with Melvin, Kinetik and Raoul, and the Alabama prison work strike beginning February 8, 2026. Let the Alabama Department of Corrections know that, nationwide, we are watching.
Call Kilby now – (334) 215-6600 – and demand that Melvin, Kinetik and Raoul are kept safe, and all people incarcerated in Alabama are safe.
The Represent Justice Open Call Impact Campaigns are centered on building capacity and narrative power for currently and formerly incarcerated film participants—who play a leading role in each campaign—elevating their voices, their work, and their movements for change.
