“The Alabama Solution”: Oscar-Nominated Film Uses Prisoner Cellphones to Show U.S.’s Deadliest Prisons | Democracy Now!
democracynow.org/2026/2/16/the…
ANDREW JARECKI: (...) Alabama has $450 million a year in unpaid labor that they benefit from. So, if the men undertake a work stoppage, it’s a real threat to the way the system —
AMY GOODMAN: You mean they’re sort of running the prison. I mean, they’re being directed, but…
ANDREW JARECKI: Yes, but way beyond that. I think the average person thinks, “OK, well, somebody is in prison. Maybe they’re supposed to sweep up, or they’re supposed to serve a meal or something.” I think what shocks people is that they’re farmed out, not just to the governor’s mansion. They work on road crews. They work on construction for the state. And beyond that, they’re leased out to McDonald’s and
... Show more...“The Alabama Solution”: Oscar-Nominated Film Uses Prisoner Cellphones to Show U.S.’s Deadliest Prisons | Democracy Now!
democracynow.org/2026/2/16/the…
ANDREW JARECKI: (...) Alabama has $450 million a year in unpaid labor that they benefit from. So, if the men undertake a work stoppage, it’s a real threat to the way the system —
AMY GOODMAN: You mean they’re sort of running the prison. I mean, they’re being directed, but…
ANDREW JARECKI: Yes, but way beyond that. I think the average person thinks, “OK, well, somebody is in prison. Maybe they’re supposed to sweep up, or they’re supposed to serve a meal or something.” I think what shocks people is that they’re farmed out, not just to the governor’s mansion. They work on road crews. They work on construction for the state. And beyond that, they’re leased out to McDonald’s and Burger King and the Hyundai parts company and the Budweiser distributorship. So it really is very —
AMY GOODMAN: And how much are they paid?
ANDREW JARECKI: Well, in the film, you see one of the people who works in sanitation is being paid $2 a day. And they’re charging the state of Alabama — the Department of Corrections is charging, you know, $10 or more per hour for these people. So it’s a very, very lucrative thing. And the other thing the men will do sometimes is go on hunger strike. And so, it’s always peaceful, and yet the way the state deals with it is always through violence.
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Three activists — Robert Earl Council, Melvin Ray and Raoul Poole — featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary The Alabama Solution were placed in solitary confinement last month in what advocates believe is retaliation for their role in exposing th…
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