On Tuesday, September 22, Samford University hosted a viewing of “The Alabama Solution”, a documentary made to educate the public on the various human rights crisses occurring in Alabama prisons, which currently rank #50 out of all 50 states.
The documentary took six years to create. Filming began in 2019 and the film was released at Sundance Film Festival in 2025. In the same year, it was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars.
“The Alabama Solution” follows the story of Steven Davis, an inmate who was beaten to death by guards at Easterling Correctional Facility. The documentary used footage from inside the prison obtained by inmates Robert Earl Council and Melvin Ray using contraband cell phones.
The footage uncovered various horrific scenarios: puddles of inmates’ blood with brown paper towels thrown haphazardly over them, inmates overdosing on drugs smuggled in and traded by correctional officers, and prisons so crowded that inmates sleep on mattresses lining the dirty corridors. Prisons in Alabama are at 200% capacity and operating with half of the necessary staff. Over-incarceration is cited as the likely cause of excessive violence and lack of resources.
Council and Ray are the creators of the Free Alabama Movement, an inmates’ rights organization working behind bars to educate prisoners on their rights and seek justice for those that have been mistreated within the system. They were punished for their participation in the film by being stripped of any possessions and placed in solitary confinement in the basement of Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery, AL.
“We certainly offered them the opportunity to be anonymous, to not show their faces. We could protect their identities, and that’s not what they wanted to do.” said Beth Shelburne, co-producer of “The Alabama Solution”.
The docmentary has been shown at universities across the country as part of its impact campaign. After the viewing, a Q&A was hosted by co-producer and journalist Beth Shelburne and Eric Buchannon of the M.O.R.E. Prison Ministry.
Shelburne became interested in exposing injustice within the prison system in 2012 when she visited Tutwiler Women’s Correctional Facility to address sexual exploitation and abuse that occurred within the prison. Since then, she has visited prisons across the country, researching best practices and reporting on injustices.
Buchannon was sentenced to life and 10 years in prison for trafficking marijuana in 2011. He served 7 years in St. Clair Correctional Facility.
“I mean, it was a war zone. It was a maximum-security prison. And everything that you saw there, I was there. When I went to prison, I had little kids, my kids was in school.
I missed a lot of time out of their lives. But I survived. And I survived because of my belief in God. I got to be real, it was God that kept me sane in St. Clair.” Buchannon said.
Upon his release in 2018, Buchannon immediately began “moving and grooving”, starting his own business, joining M.O.R.E Prison Ministry, and returning to St. Clair six months after his release to minster to inmates.
Shelburne sent a photo of Brock Forum filled with students for the viewing to Council, who was ecstatic.
“Just for him to know that there’s still some ears out here listening and hearing his story, and that story is going to lead from this auditorium and go into the dorms and maybe go to your homes or go to your churches, and that alone is enough to give them the hope that they need to keep the fight on,” said Buchannon.
Buchannon and Shelburne encouraged Samford students to share the documentary with friends and family.
“I’m still glad you’re here because you’re engaging with this subject matter. That really is a big thing, because the reason that our nation has this over incarceration problem, we are the global leader of mass incarceration, not just now, but forever, since the beginning of man… I think that part of the reason that has continued is people haven’t been engaged with it if they feel like they don’t have to,” said Shelburne.
“The Alabama Solution” is available for streaming on HBO Max. Students interested can find more information at nomorealabama.com. Those wanting to be involved with prison ministries in Alabama can reach out to Chaplain Curtis Browder Ministry or Movement Fellowship Church.
You can access the website for Chaplain Curtis Browder Ministry Here, and Movement Fellowship Church Here.
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