The Alabama Solution

Watched at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival

Stories about the corruption behind America's prison system isn't something grand nor has never been discussed. Having done research and worked for myself working and discussing the prison system, I do appreciate the filmmakers bringing this subject into light. Because stories like this deserved to be told.

The presentation and direction is the typical HBO documentary about politics. With good interviews, camerawork and purposeful direction it wants to explore. There are moments where some of the discussions were quite gut-wrenching and engaging, alongside some pretty interesting moments that discuss behind the scenes and the context. However because it's a subject that has been explored before, the information doesn't feel very grand nor compelling as it thinks. Which causes the movie to drag alongside and at times, with the musical score being a bit repetitive and at times, manipulative.

Otherwise, this is a decent documentary to discuss about which I thoroughly enjoyed, but it isn't something I would seek out right away again.

This film is the result of a unique series of communications over years with several prisoners in the Alabama prison system. Through contraband audio and video dispatches, among other recordings, we learn of conditions and events that filmmakers and journalists would otherwise be prevented from investigating and reporting. The harrowing story reveals corruption endemic to Alabama prisons, and prisons all over the United States. "The Alabama Solution" shows what so many states work hard to conceal.

Ultimately, the filmmakers, and especially the prisoners who appear in the film, may not be rewarded for the courage it took to tell this story. Perhaps what really matters is that Americans see what happens behind the prison walls and in the corridors of state government, at all costs. Maybe by seeing it, we can move closer to accountability for it.