The Alabama Solution - 1 Nomination

 

• Best Documentary Feature: Andrew Jarecki, Charlotte Kaufman

It’s one of the deadliest prison systems in the country, an inauspicious description to be sure, where violence, abuse, neglect, and death is ubiquitous. The film captures a number of stories of the worst kind of incidents, and while anyone would argue that prison is not meant to be summer camp, it is also not meant to be a death camp either. While we can’t know the full account, there are former prison guards who have corroborated some of the accusations, and in at least one case, a family’s pursuit of justice for their son is recounted. But the other fascinating part of this film is the sort of Norma Rae level organizing done from inside this prison where prisoner workers went on strike which spread throughout Alabama and beyond, where incarcerated people demanded better living conditions and better treatment.

Naturally, the Governor refused to accommodate any of the requests and moreover, also failed to investigate any of the accusations - despite the fact that illegal cell phones captured and smuggled out video evidence of the abysmal treatment.

Now here’s the challenge that lays before us, friends.

• It’s hard to find empathy for those who have committed evil acts, and yet should the state on behalf of the people of the state commit evil acts upon those who have committed evil acts to teach them not to commit evil acts?

• The law is the law, breaking the law is bad. Smuggling cell phones into prisons is illegal. Taking video evidence without consent is illegal in some states. What happens when illegal cell phones taking illegal video captures illegal behavior from the people who represent the law and not those breaking the law? Is it possible to keep from having one’s head explode with the conundrum of championing the breaking of the law against people who are jailed for breaking the law? (If that’s not an Ouroboros of a problem, I don’t know what is!)

The bottom line here is that this is an excellent documentary that you should watch. I don’t assume that documentaries always represent the full story nor the full truth, but this documentary does what the best of them do… it inspires us to at least want to learn more and to ask ourselves some hard questions that by any moral person would at least be thought provoking if not outright troubling. If you can live in a simple and happy land where this movie makes you shrug and say, “whatever, they broke the law, they deserved it,” then I hope no one in your orbit ever lands in an Alabama prison. (or any prison, for that matter.)