In 2019, filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman (HBO’s The Jinx) visited an Alabama prison, where, off camera, incarcerated men whispered a message: terrible things are going on and being kept secret. This reveal sparked an immersive six-year investigation to discover the reality behind one of the nation’s deadliest prison systems. With unprecedented access and video shot on contraband cell phones, the directors learn of a suspicious and violent death, which wasn’t an isolated incident – and that the official version appears far from the truth. A shocking story of brutality, corruption, and a system in collapse, The Alabama Solution shines a light on the inmates fighting for their survival who, against all odds, embark on a powerful campaign of resistance.
Inside one of the nation’s deadliest prison systems, incarcerated men defy the odds to expose a cover-up.
Now Streaming on HBO MAX.
About The Film
PARTICIPANTS
Melvin Ray
Melvin Ray, also known as Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun, is an incarcerated writer, scholar and co-founder of the Free Alabama Movement. He has led many protests, online campaigns and several prison labor strikes, calling attention to the need for basic human rights inside prisons. His work as a whistleblower has been recognized by national and international media, and he continues to work for sentencing and parole reforms, labor rights, and to end brutality and oppression of incarcerated people across the United States.
Melvin has served over 26 years in the Alabama Department of Corrections but maintains his innocence. At age 30, he was convicted of murder, despite no physical evidence tying him to the crime. The prosecution relied on the testimony of a co-defendant who gave conflicting accounts over the course of the investigation, and accepted a plea deal for a reduced sentence in exchange for his testimony. Melvin continues to pursue legal avenues to have his wrongful conviction overturned.
Originally from Huntsville, Melvin has a large family who support him, including 2 children and 2 grandchildren. While not working on legal and human rights causes, Melvin pursues other creative endeavors, including the creation of a spiritual garden inside one of Alabama’s maximum-security prison.
Robert Earl Council
Robert Earl Council — widely known as “Kinetik Justice” — is an incarcerated scholar and co-founder of the Free Alabama Movement. Kinetik has been a leading voice in drawing global attention to the inhumane conditions inside the Alabama Department of Corrections, and has organized multiple protests demanding reforms, including hunger strikes and work stoppages. In 2016, he helped lead the largest prison labor strike in U.S. history, with incarcerated people in 24 states participating. Kinetik’s activism is rooted in core values of education and human dignity, with the goal of systemic transformation.
Alabama’s prison system has responded to Kinetik with harsh punishment, including putting him in solitary confinement for years at a time. In 2021, a group of officers at Donaldson prison attacked Kinetik, beating him unconscious. He suffered severe injuries, including permanent damage to his left eye.
Kinetik has served over 31 years of a life without parole sentence. In 1995 he was convicted of capital murder in a shooting that he maintains was done in self-defense. He continues to challenge the state’s evidence, including questions about the key witness, and incorrect testimony added to the appellate court record. He hopes that his appeals will ultimately overturn his wrongful conviction and he can return home to his family.
Kinetik’s parents live in Enterprise, Alabama. He has one daughter, two grandchildren and a large extended family and community behind him. He is currently incarcerated at St. Clair prison, and continues to engage in nonviolent resistance, speaking out about the brutality of mass incarceration in Alabama, and around the United States.
Ricardo Poole
Ricardo “Raoul” Poole has been incarcerated in Alabama’s prison system for over 32 years, beginning with an arrest when he was just 16-years old. He was sentenced to life in prison for robbery at age 18 under the state’s habitual felony offender act, considered the harshest three strikes law in the nation. He’s been denied release on parole four times.
Raoul has been involved in prison activism for over a decade, speaking out about inhumane conditions and the lack of rehabilitative programs inside the system. Most recently, he helped organize substance abuse treatment for other incarcerated men, serving as the program facilitator inside a treatment dorm at Donaldson prison.
Having spent his entire adult life in prison, Raoul is well positioned to mentor other men. He is transparent about his own struggles with substance use and participation in the contraband trade during his incarceration, as well as overcoming past trauma, including running away from a chaotic home at age 15.
During his incarceration, Raoul has earned his GED and participated in many faith, educational and self-development programs. Originally from Birmingham, Raoul has 5 children and ten grandchildren. He maintains hope that he’ll one day be granted parole, allowing him to return home to his family and community.
Sandy Ray
Sandy Ray is an outspoken advocate for ending prison brutality after her son Steven was killed inside Alabama’s Donaldson Correctional Facility by a group of correctional officers. Sandy has amplified the issue of prison violence in Alabama and beyond by speaking directly to lawmakers, and working with organizations that fight for human rights and accountability inside the carceral state. Born in Indiana, Sandy lived in Alabama for decades, raising three children and working as a convenience store manger in several small towns. In addition to her three biological children, she has one adopted daughter, one granddaughter and nine nieces and nephews. After Steven’s death in 2019, she and her husband T.L. relocated to Texas where they live with her daughter, Tina.
filmmakers
Andrew Jarecki’s work over the past 25 years has won Emmy, Peabody, Sundance Grand Jury, and NY Film Critics Circle awards, and been nominated for the Academy Award. His twelve-part HBO series The Jinx (Parts One and Two) led to Robert Durst’s arrest and conviction for murder. He directed and produced the narrative feature that led to that series, entitled All Good Things, starring Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst. Jarecki’s groundbreaking documentary Capturing the Friedmans, won 18 international prizes and led to the conviction review of a notorious criminal case. Among other films, he produced the feature documentary Catfish and the related MTV series, now in its twelfth season. He is a graduate of Princeton University and a board member of The Marshall Project.
Charlotte Kaufman is a New York-based filmmaker with a focus on long-term, in-depth investigative storytelling. She has worked closely with Andrew Jarecki for the past six years, beginning as a producer on The Jinx: Season 2. Her previous investigative work includes Hidden Alibi, featured in the Netflix series The Innocence Files. She is a graduate of Columbia University.
Page Marsella is a documentary film & television editor and producer living in Los Angeles. She currently has projects on HBO, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, in addition to a variety of projects in development. In 2023 she worked as lead editor and co-producer of the critically acclaimed 3-part Hulu series Stolen Youth which Variety cited ‘stands out within its genre - it feels not just ‘true’ but real; an unusually sensitive and strong outing.’ In 2019 she worked as an editor on the final two seasons of the critically acclaimed Netflix documentary series Last Chance U, which won the Emmy for Outstanding Serialized Sports Documentary in 2020. Additionally, she edited and co-produced the Duplass Brothers/HBO documentary series On Tour with Asperger’s Are Us which premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. She has also edited projects for Rolling Stone Magazine, NY Times Magazine, and Universal Music, as well as commercials for clients such as Land Rover, Lexus and Microsoft. She is a member of the Motion Picture Editor’s Guild, IATSE Local 700.
Alelur “Alex” Duran serves as Program Director at Galaxy Gives, where his work centers on supporting directly impacted leaders, including advocates, artists, and storytellers who challenge the narratives that sustain mass incarceration. A graduate of the Bard College Prison Initiative, Alex has made it a central focus of his work to disrupt the narrow and often dehumanizing ways incarcerated people are spoken about. He challenges basic assumptions about who is in prison, what they are capable of, and what society should expect of folks coming out of prison. While incarcerated, he was a member of the Bard Debate Union, helping to build a legacy of excellence that now includes victories over Harvard, Brown, and Morehouse. Alex also serves on the board of Freedom Reads, which brings beautifully designed libraries into prisons nationwide, expanding access to literature and imagination behind the walls. Born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx, he draws on his own lived experience, including 12 years in prison, to amplify voices too often ignored and to affirm the creative power and potential of those most directly impacted by incarceration.
Beth Shelburne is an independent writer and investigative journalist based in Birmingham, Alabama. She’s reported extensively on the crisis in Alabama prisons, with work published throughout Alabama as well as The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, The Bitter Southerner and Facing South. In 2023, she released a critically-acclaimed podcast series called Earwitness that investigates the wrongful conviction of Toforest Johnson, who’s been on Alabama’s death row for over 25 years. In 2018 she was named a Writing for Justice Fellow with Pen America. Previously, she spent 20 years working as a TV news anchor and reporter. Her journalism has won Emmy, Edward R. Murrow, and Associated Press Media Editors awards. She holds a Master’s Degree in creative writing from University of Alabama at Birmingham and a BA in Mass Communication and Journalism from Auburn University.
Mark Batson and Chris Hanebutt are an award-winning composer/producer duo known for crafting emotionally resonant, genre-blending scores across film and television. Batson, a five-time Grammy-winning, classically trained pianist and producer with over 132 million albums sold, has collaborated with Eminem, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Nas, Alicia Keys, Yo-Yo Ma, and Dave Matthews Band, with credits including American Hustle, I, Tonya, Spider-Man 2, Empire, and Godfather of Harlem. Batson has shaped the sonic direction of some of the most influential records of the past two decades, bringing a rare blend of musicality, commercial instinct, and cinematic vision. Hanebutt, a versatile composer, producer, and mixer, has built a wide-ranging portfolio that includes Wu-Tang: An American Saga, the #1 box office hit The Equalizer 2, the NAACP Award–winning series Shots Fired, the Peabody Award–winning David Makes Man, Paramount Pictures’ Infinite, and the critically acclaimed biopic Rob Peace. He has worked with artists like Mary J. Blige, Nipsey Hussle, Anthony Hamilton, Wiz Khalifa, and BJ The Chicago Kid, as well as brand campaigns for the NBA, Coca-Cola, and KFC. His song “On the Come Up” plays in the opening logo of every show in the Power Universe.