Family and advocates of people incarcerated in Alabama prisons said they want to keep a public spotlight on problems in state lockups and said inmates are planning another work stoppage to protest conditions. Conditions in Alabama’s prisons inspired a documentary called “The Alabama Solution” whose directors talked with APR news about their groundbreaking film featuring cell phone footage taken by inmates.
“It's been very traditionally, has been very difficult to tell, to make films about prisons,” co-director and producer Charlotte Kaufman told APR newsroom intern Emily Ahearn. “But the but in Alabama, you have this phenomena of contraband cell phones and very brave men who have been using them for over a decade to be able to capture their realities and get past that secrecy and expose the truth about what's happening inside these taxpayer funded facilities.”
Conditions like the ones described by Kaufman appears to be what’s prompting a possible upcoming work stoppage in Alabama prisons.
“For decades, incarcerated men and women in Alabama have lived in conditions that violate human rights, constitutional protection and basic dignity,” Clara Brooks, who serves as press secretary for the Free Alabama Movement, said Thursday. Her brother is incarcerated.
The families held a press conference near the construction site of Alabama’s new $1.2 billion prison in Elmore County. They said a humanitarian crisis is continuing in prisons despite years of federal investigations and attention. They are hoping to build on momentum from a recent documentary about the Alabama prison system, they said.
The documentary film “The Alabama Project” focuses, in part, on forced labor among prison inmates. Published reports of work release inmate being used by suppliers of Alabama’s Hyundai factories have also shined the limelight on what critics say are legal, but questionable practices involving state prisoners.
“But you know, the system has been so valuable economically,” Co-director and producer of “The Alabama Project” Andrew Jarecki told APR News. “Because, as you can see in the film, the amount of free labor that is taken from these prisoners and benefits private businesses corporations is enormous. You know, there's, there's $450 million in in unpaid labor. And you know, anybody who runs a business could think, Oh, well, that's really great.”
The state prison system for years has faced criticism for high rates of violence, low staffing, its parole system, the use of pandemic funds to build a new supersized prison and the prison work-release system. The Department of Justice has an ongoing lawsuit accusing Alabama of housing male inmates in unconstitutional conditions.
They said inmates are planning another work stoppage similar to one three years ago in which they refused to labor in prison kitchens, laundries and janitorial duties, leaving staff scrambling to keep the facilities running.
The group is seeking a number of changes, including a repeal of the state's habitual offender act, sentencing reform, the creation of a conviction review unit and changes to the prison labor system. They also criticized the construction of the new prison, which they said would not solve the problems.
“These people need some dignity and to be treated like human beings and not animals,” said Rachel Turner, who held a sign reading “Welcome to Shawshankabama,” a reference to the movie about a man incarcerated at a prison run by a corrupt warden. Turner said she does not have personal contacts in the prison system but became involved after learning about conditions.
The state's new 4,000-bed prison is expected to open next year. The facility is named for Gov. Kay Ivey, who made its construction a priority.
Corrections Commissioner John Hamm last month told lawmakers that the state is making progress on staffing as well as the construction of the new prison. He said both are important steps to improving conditions.
Rufus Ricks, Jr., who was released from prison in 2016, said people have misconceptions about prison and the people incarcerated there. “The person that introduced me to Christ is still behind the wall,” Ricks said.
But he said the conditions are shocking when you see them.
“You could have guys that will come to prison for a simple theft, but once you get there, it’s kill or be killed. That’s the way you have to live in there, and it’s messed up,” Ricks said.
