Bulwark Takes "The Alabama Solution" May Change How You See Prisons (w/ Andrew Jarecki & Charlotte Kaufman)
Feb 20, 2026
Charlotte Kaufman, documentary filmmaker who helped produce The Alabama Solution, and Andrew Jarecki, director known for investigative storytelling, discuss hidden realities inside Alabama prisons. They talk about covert access, contraband cellphones that captured raw footage, staged scenes versus true conditions, intimidation of organizers, and how investigations connected deaths to systemic failures.
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Prison Secrecy Broken By Contraband Footage
- Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman exposed prison secrecy by following incarcerated men who used contraband cellphones to document conditions.
- Their access bypassed official narratives and revealed systemic abuse and concealment in Alabama prisons.
Cellphones As A Transparency Tool
- Cellphone footage liberated the filmmakers from state-approved visuals and allowed sustained contact with incarcerated sources.
- The phones functioned as one of the few transparency mechanisms inside a secretive, high-cost prison system.
Finding Stephen Davis In The Hospital
- Andrew and Charlotte discovered Stephen Davis had died when they went to UAB and found he had been beaten to death in custody.
- Charlotte moved into his mother's spare room to document the family's search for answers and record intimate moments.