While working on “The Alabama Solution,” directors and producers Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman began their research by observing inmates in Alabama’s prison system. “We miraculously got access to an Alabama state prison, which never happens. They don’t let journalists in and they’re very strict about it,” revealed Jarecki. “We found ourselves there with the ability to shoot what was essentially a religious meeting in the courtyard. When we were there we were told, ‘Don’t talk to the men. They’re very dangerous. Don’t do this. Don’t go over there.’ As we started to talk to the men, they were very eager to talk to us and we were very happy to talk to them.”
By focusing on the incarcerated men, Kaufman revealed that the subjects were interested in offering an inside look into being in prison rather than using or speaking with analysts. “Particularly with Melvin Ray, we asked him what people usually get wrong. He said, ‘We’re usually talked about as facts and statistics and victims of our circumstances, but we’re not presented as full human beings with full lives even though we’re incarcerated,’” said Kaufman. “They often will turn to lawyers or politicians as the highest authority on what’s happening in the prison system, but we are living it every day and we can report directly.”
As the campaigning for “The Alabama Solution” continues, both Jarecki and Kaufman are continuing to take the film around regional cities to help bring to light the conditions inside Alabama’s prison system, and to open a conversation about the way America’s prison systems are operated on a daily basis.
“We’re educating people on what it means to be incarcerated in America, because what’s happening inside Alabama’s prisons is not unique to Alabama. The secrecy, the authoritarian power, the focus on punishment versus rehabilitation that exists in all prisons across America,” said Kaufman. “The only difference is that in Alabama, we were able to actually see inside, and I think we’re starting conversations in states across the country about what we are actually investing 80 billion a year into. We call this corrections, but are they actually corrections? Maybe we should in our own state be interrogating what’s actually happening behind these walls.”
