The Alabama Solution

When it comes to questions of crime and punishment, opinions vary widely, depending on one’s sensibilities and personal point of view, and we’re all entitled to our respective opinions. And most would probably agree that wrongdoers should indeed pay the price for their transgressions. But does that give authorities charged with the responsibility of meting out justice the right to essentially do whatever they want in handling the treatment of these perpetrators? What’s worse, is it at all acceptable to approach the management of inmates as a de facto form of often-lifelong, legally sanctioned enslavement, one characterized by inhumane treatment, deplorable living conditions, endless personal indignities, and mechanisms for producing lucrative windfalls for the state and/or a privileged few? And what about the promises of rehabilitation – do they have any realistic chance of being acted upon, or are they mere lip service? Those are among the disturbing questions raised in this alarming, revelatory HBO documentary about life in the 14 statewide facilities operated by the Alabama Department of Corrections, an agency whose name falls far short of living up to its allegedly stated intent. This superb but troubling offering from writer-directors Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman tells the stories of a number of Alabama prisoners (zealously backed by their families) who courageously undertook a project to record the appalling way of life inside their facilities using contraband cell phones (devices that, in most cases, were, ironically, clandestinely smuggled into these institutions and sold to inmates by prison guards seeking to line their own pockets). The findings of these intrepid videographers reveal an ongoing program of unspeakable beatings by overworked, rage-filled, out-of-control staff members, often relentlessly conducted under filthy, hellish circumstances and prompted by assorted personal vendettas or the fulfillment of official policy aims. This is particu...