The Alabama Solution

I am writing emails to everyone I can think of bc this is insane that this is going on. Thank you for bringing awareness! I am all for victims rights and justice but we CANNOT treat these prisoners like slaves or they are not human beings. This is outrageous and this is shameful and embarrassing. Praying for all those who risked their lives to bring awareness.

This film is the result of a unique series of communications over years with several prisoners in the Alabama prison system. Through contraband audio and video dispatches, among other recordings, we learn of conditions and events that filmmakers and journalists would otherwise be prevented from investigating and reporting. The harrowing story reveals corruption endemic to Alabama prisons, and prisons all over the United States. "The Alabama Solution" shows what so many states work hard to conceal.

Ultimately, the filmmakers, and especially the prisoners who appear in the film, may not be rewarded for the courage it took to tell this story. Perhaps what really matters is that Americans see what happens behind the prison walls and in the corridors of state government, at all costs. Maybe by seeing it, we can move closer to accountability for it.

It's hard to put into words what I've just seen. I believe this is a once-in-a-decade exposé with the potential to make a lasting difference. The conditions in these prisons should deeply trouble every human being.

I worry, however, that some-like the attorney general and other Alabama representatives-may respond with indifference, because after all, we are talking about inmates. Sadly, this film exposes a problem not only within institutions but also within the hearts of many Americans: a callous indifference, even hatred, toward inmates; a mentality that says they deserve what they get; and an unwillingness to recognize their humanity.

This is a film that demands attention. It is shocking, necessary, and absolutely worth watching.

This documentary shows the perspectives of people imprisoned in the violently corrupt American prison system in Alabama. It is so important to amplify the voices of those who have been disappeared and deemed worthless and expendable by society. If being labeled a "criminal" justifies any and all violence against you, what rights do any of us have? Are prisons really something beneficial in any way to anyone other than the abusive people running them and profiting off them? Do they help protect us? Or do they just allow truly violent people the ability to murder and harm with impunity?

Well I was expecting a generic behind the scenes look at the prisoner system, this documentary was not that.

Honestly it's been a minute since I had a documentary mentally and emotionally disturb me. This piece of filmmaking, harsh and honest shares a unfiltered look at the disgusting scene's the world doesn't want you to see behind prison walls.

Politically, whatever side of the fence you are on if this documentary doesn't touch your heart then systemically theirs something wrong with all of us. I'm British, and arguably, and I hope I'm not being aloof but our prison systems are nothing like this. Sure as hell they ain't perfect. I've actually always felt in a way that prisons got it easy. I've wondered how criminals can go in, and come out worse, I thought well maybe it's not strict enough. I've heard of men and women going in jails and coming out drug addicted. I never understood how with all the technology we got, people still get hold of phones in prisons.

I have had somewhat right wing ideas about prison, I don't think violent prisoners should just allowed to form friendships with other ultra violent offenders. It's ment to be a punishment.

But I do also understand a lot of these men and women will one day be released, and I for one respect any man who can get released and make a better life for himself. So rehabilitation is ultimately important, but clearly wether it's America or great Britain prisons, rehabilitation is the last thing the government truly care about. It's always been about making money.

Just as a human, and hopefully a good man, I don't want to see prison officers beating to death unarmed men. If six of these guys can't control one man, then what the hell are they trained to do? In what world should a prison officer who has beaten a man to death have the opportunity to get promoted, twice?

The prisoners, and let me honest here, I don't believe for a second that every prisoner went on strike peacefully, but hell of a lot did, and they wanted answers to questions that needed to be asked, and the governments response? Starve them out.

And we wonder why people come out worse?

I've always had my doubts about how prisons are run, and I've always had doubts that the punishment fits the crime, and honestly I've had doubts that sometimes the prison systems can be to lenient to certain criminals. But as a man, if we can justify beating men to death or starving them to death, then as a society we are broken.

Im not a religious guy so I ain't going to lie and say I'll pray something changes, but I hope there's enough good people out there that can work together and fix this broken system. Surely we are better than this, id rather bring people up than kick them down.

Very touching documentary. Very important. At times unsettling and disturbing. Will play on my mind for a long time.