Alabama’s prisons operate at double the designed capacity, yet with only one-third of the required staff. These prisons have the nation’s highest rates of murder, drug-addiction, and deaths. For six years incarcerated men in Alabama’s prison system risked their personal safety to smuggle out grainy, cellphone videos of bloodstained floors, routine beatings by guards, rat-infested cells, forced labor, degrading conditions, and unexplained prisoner deaths. These video clips may not be studio quality, but they are the foundation of a two-hour documentary called “The Alabama Solution,” directed by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, which was released at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 28. The film may focus on Alabama, and many scenes are difficult to watch, but the producers and directors make clear that these conditions can be found across the country.
Forced labor is a $450 million-per-year industry in Alabama, coerced by prison management, who have much leverage over the prisoners. It is ironic that prisoners, who are denied parole on the grounds that they are a danger to society, are sent into that same society every day to work at McDonald’s or Burger King.