"The Alabama Solution" Prison Documentary Now Showing On HBO Max

As the saying goes, "If you do the crime, do the time" and in Alabama that time is described by inmates as "Hell". With the United States Department of Justice having even sued the Alabama Department of Corrections in 2020 over the "systematic" violence and abuse present in Alabama prisons. Facilities which are rife with overcrowding, sexual abuse, violence, and reports of murder. After the USDOJ's lawsuit, Governor Kay Ivey, issued a statement that "An Alabama problem deserves an Alabama solution." A solution which has yet to effectively manifest itself and from which the title of the newly released original HBO Max documentary derives.

While students of Alabama history will recall learning about Julia Tutwiler and her advocacy for prison reform in Alabama during the 19th century as she championed teaching literacy through Bible reading to help inmates avoid repeating their mistakes and convincing the state legislature to remedy the lack of heat and sanitation in Alabama prisons, in the 21st century her spirit needs to be brought back to life. As between 2015 – 2017 the average homicide rate in Alabama prisons was 32.8 per 100,000 inmates, over thirteen times higher than the larger state of Texas at the time. With inmates alleging that the actual homicide rate in Alabama prisons is much higher and Caucasian inmates alleging that February is a particularly dangerous time to be in an Alabama prison.

Infamous for their overcrowding since Alabama prisons typically are filled to between 169% to 319.8% capacity, the conditions of Alabama prisons are the focus of "The Alabama Solution" documentary which was released on HBO Max on Friday, October 10th. It took six years to make and relies heavily upon contraband footage inmates have filmed from inside the prison system on their cellphones. The documentary is directed by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman and the preview for the documentary focuses heavily on the case of Steven Edward Davis, whom family members allege was killed in prison by a corrections officer. While the state denies any wrongdoing occurred in that matter, it did settle the case at the price of $250,000 in August of 2024.

"The Alabama Solution" documentary premiered at the Sundance festival in January of this year and is described by film critics as "riveting". Some of the latest statistics regarding the Alabama prison system reveal that Alabama has an incarceration rate of 898 per 100,000 people. Which means that it incarcerates a higher percentage of its people than any independent democratic country on earth. It should be noted, however, that at the same time Alabama has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation with the Alabama poverty rate typically hovering between 14.8% to 15.6%. And while at present, the only "Alabama Solution" to its prison crisis is to build two new men's prisons in Elmore and Escambia counties and a new women's prison in Elmore County with Covid-19 relief funds; it is clear that the prison situation reflects a more deep-rooted social issue for the state. As poverty and crime rates correlate, the state needs to find effective solutions to dramatically improve its poverty rate and thereby curb the population's entry into the criminal justice system. For as one prison guard in Bibb County stated, "They aren't in here for skipping Sunday School."

"The Alabama Solution" is currently showing on HBO Max and the trailer for the documentary can be seen here: The Alabama Solution | Official Trailer | HBO