Rabbi Michael Lezak, GLIDE’s Social Justice Director, introduced The Alabama Solution film to its audience with a warning that the contents would be shattering and devastating. “After seeing this film, it’s on us to organize for power, for justice, and for life,” he reminded us.
The film described an Alabama prison system filled to 200% capacity, in which stabbings were everyday events, and people slept on wet concrete floors at night and performed slave labor by day. Alabama’s prisons are a humanitarian crisis, with some of the highest murder, suicide, and overdose rates in the United States. Since the public and media are forbidden from entering Alabama state prisons the prisoners featured in the film took on enormous risk to capture scenes of horrific violence and unimaginable living conditions on contraband cellphones.
The film follows the story of a mother, Sandy Ray, trying to get justice for her son Steven Davis beaten to death by a prison guard. It also spotlights the story of the 2022 Alabama Prison Strike. One of the strike organizers lost vision in one eye after being beaten and left to rest in a pool of his own blood. The pools of blood are shown in the illicit cell phone footage. This was not an easy documentary to watch: truly an expose of unimaginable horrors.
What was inspiring about the documentary was the bravery, genius, and unfailing optimism of the prison strike organizers. They constantly urged their fellow prisoners not to be divided along the lines of race but to show unity and solidarity with each other in pursuit of nonviolent goals of dignity and survival.
The documentary shared that $450 million of goods and services are produced for the state by prisoners in Alabama every year.
Julie Godwin, Board Member, United Women of Color attended and commented, “Don’t assume just because you’re in progressive California, prisoners have it good. This is everywhere in the United States.” She spoke true!
California gets at least $384 million annually from prison labor, which includes dangerous firefighting that free people are often not willing to do. In 2024, GLIDE supported Proposition 6, which would have ended the practice of slave labor in prisons– but Prop 6 was tragically defeated.
We hope the people of GLIDE can be as courageous as the prisoners in the documentary when it comes to fighting for justice. As a reminder, GLIDE does justice education in the form of pilgrimages to Alabama and Ghana– amazing trips for anyone who wants to move racial truth and reconciliation forward in this country.
We also offer justice education right here in the Tenderloin; to set up a training for your school or workplace, contact Rabbi Michael Lezak at mlezak@glide.org.