Rating: TV-MA | Runtime: 117 minutes
Release Date: October 3rd, 2025 (USA)
Studio: HBO Documentary Films / HBO Max
Director(s): Andrew Jarecki & Charlotte Kaufman
Writer(s): Andrew Jarecki, Charlotte Kaufman & Page Marsella

Swept under the rug.

I spent most of Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman’s The Alabama Solution trying to figure out if Margo Martindale based her portrayal of Mags Bennett in “Justified” on Kay Ivey or if Kay Ivey simply idolizes Mags Bennett. When the current governor of Alabama asks for one hundred million dollars of the state’s education budget to be used to fund three new mega prisons proven to solve none of their carceral problems, I realized Kay Ivey might just be the literal Devil.

This is an impressive, powerful documentary born from hubris. If the state didn’t hold annual BBQs as publicity stunts to shield inquiries into prison conditions (which the Supreme Court says can be denied due to “security concerns” anyway), Kaufman and Jarecki wouldn’t have known a story existed. And if the state’s prisons weren’t at 200% capacity with a 33% workforce, the inmates don’t acquire the illegal cell phones capturing this horrifically damning footage.

Robert Earl Council’s hope that a strike will get their story out to people with the desire and power to intervene is amplified by the film’s reach—and its additional evidence corroborating what he, Melvin Ray, Raoul Poole, and others already know. Add realities that can only be ignored by a system choosing to ignore them and the reason conservatives don’t yell “states’ rights” when Trump invades cities with impunity is plainly explained. “States’ rights” is merely a dogwhistle for “we should decide the legality of slavery ourselves.”

I want to believe there’s still a chance America can right itself, but the archival soundbites from radio and TV hosts flippantly commenting on prisoners abused by the system before they even arrive in prison (15 years for robbery in the third degree of an empty building?! More body bags than parolees leaving the ADOC facilities?!) has me wondering if empathy truly is dead.

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A scene from THE ALABAMA SOLUTION; courtesy of HBO.