Inmates Secretly Film Alabama Prison and What They Found is Horrifying

➡ The HBO documentary “The Alabama Solution” explores the Alabama prison system from the inmates’ perspective. It focuses on the story of Stephen Davis, who was allegedly killed by correctional officers, and his mother’s quest for answers. The film reveals the overcrowded conditions, understaffing, and excessive force used in the prisons, with much of the footage shot on contraband cell phones by the inmates themselves. It also highlights the efforts of inmate activists who are educating others about their rights and using social media to expose the harsh realities of prison life.
➡ The text discusses the harsh realities of prison life, including violence and corruption among correctional officers. It also highlights the struggle of inmates trying to seek justice and expose these issues, often facing retaliation. The story also mentions a legal group within the prison that helps inmates understand the law and file lawsuits. Despite the challenges, the inmates continue to fight for reform, drawing attention from the Department of Justice.
➡ The text discusses a plan to merge 11 prisons into three mega prisons in Alabama, which is expected to cost over a billion dollars but won’t solve overcrowding issues. It also highlights a brutal incident where an inmate named Robert Earl is beaten and left for dead, and the subsequent cover-up by prison staff. The text further reveals that some guards are involved in smuggling cell phones and drugs into the prison. Finally, it mentions an attempted coordinated strike across all prisons in Alabama, led by inmates Robert Earl and Melvin Ray, to protest against the conditions.
➡ The text discusses a prison hunger strike that eventually dies down without bringing about any significant changes. The prison system in Alabama plans to shut down 11 prisons and open three larger ones, but this doesn’t solve the problem of overpopulation and understaffing. The text also mentions a potential whistleblower who ends up dead before he can share his insights, and the public’s perception of prisoners as being the worst of society, regardless of their actual crimes. The text concludes by highlighting the issue of mentally unstable individuals in prison and the lack of empathy towards them.
➡ The text discusses the reality of prisoners having access to cell phones and social media, and the potential dangers this presents, such as continuing illegal activities from within prison. It also highlights the violence and manipulation within the prison system, often perpetrated by the prisoners themselves. The text criticizes the state’s inability to effectively manage these issues, and suggests that the prisoners are left to regulate themselves. It ends by expressing skepticism towards the claims made by prisoners, their families, and lawyers about the harsh conditions and lack of care within the prison system.
➡ The text discusses the harsh realities of prison life, including violence and corruption. It highlights the experiences of a military police officer who worked at Guantanamo Bay and the brutal treatment of prisoners. The text also discusses a prison strike and the power dynamics within the prison system, including the role of correctional officers and influential inmates. It ends with a critique of the documentary on the subject, suggesting that while it’s informative, it doesn’t offer new insights into the well-known issues of the prison system.
➡ This text talks about a unique outdoor event at a prison, where inmates can enjoy some freedom. However, one inmate hints that the event is a cover-up for the harsh realities inside the prison. The text also mentions various websites and a comic about a conspiracy theory involving Stanley Kubrick and the moon landings. Lastly, it includes lyrics from a song about feeling paranoid and misunderstood.

To start cleaning up the blood to make sure no one realizes this was a horrific crime scene. And the amount of chemicals that they were using to clean his blood wakes him up. And then they’re like, oh damn, this guy’s alive. Still under the do. Yeah, under the docks. Buried deeper. We breaking the locks, got clip. They erase all the shots. They collecting dots under the darks, under the ducks. Main Street Mondays. You know what it is under the docks. Mainstream Mondays where we cover the newest, the viral, the thing everybody’s talking about. The documentaries that are roaming around.

Tick tock. And we got our little cyber sluice solving the case. You got paranoid Americans. Sean, Chris, what’s up? And today it’s going to be like prisoner solving the case. Which is kind of interesting. So today we got a brand new came out on October 10, 2025, the Alabama Solution. An HBO documentary directed by Andrew Jerich Horiz and Charlotte Kaufman. And this basically is a documentary that covers Alabama prison system, but from the perspective of the inmates inside. Like raw footage with cell phones and actually seeing how it is. And they actually do a good job of spreading it out and talking to the attorney General, kind of shedding light on the government.

It’s a. A mainstream conspiracy, shall we say. I gotta ask man, you been to prison? I’ve been to county jail. Okay. All right. So it, it is, it’s. It’s interesting watching this because there’s people that have had to actually deal with institutions even if you’re just in the military. Another good example because even as I’m. While I’m watching this, there’s like correlations where man from the outside looking in. Maybe it does it. It might be mind blowing to hear some of this for the first time when you’re like 50 lot in the course get the key claims and what they actually throwing out there.

There is actually claims in this. So it is interesting that they’ve stakes some claims and try to answer them. So it follows three characters. Melvin Ray, Robert Earl Council and Sandy Ray. Sandy Ray and. And Stephen. Stephen Davis, who is the son of Sandy Ray and she’s kind of like trying to find out answers. And now granted some of this is probably pieced together as far as like hey, make that call again. Like it, it makes it try to dramatize it. But like what it follows at the beginning is Stephen Davis is beaten by correctional officers and killed.

And the narrative that’s out there is that Stephen had weapons. They told him to drop the weapons. He didn’t drop the weapons. And they had to use lethal force. It was not something they wanted to do, but they had no choice. And debatable. Debatable on if they wanted to do it or not. Debatable if they wanted to or not. And it follows Sandy Ray trying to get some answers. And it kind of like plots it out of where you get phone calls. So we’re going to start out with the incident itself. So the mainstream report, as I said, what they claimed, but then there was, like, additional allegations.

It goes through an unknown caller, calls Sandy, and it’s like, hey, I know who killed your son. Like, he. He was murdered. It was the correctional officers. Like, you know, they dramatize it, obviously, but I’m sure that that did happen. Someone got into contact with him and was like, yeah, your son was murdered. And the claim that they make is that he was murdered because this is a systemic problem within the Alabama prison system. I mean, or just at large, but Alabama maybe being so. So the. The key things that I think it was presenting for me to frame it, one is that a majority over half of this documentary is shot inside the prison on contraband cell phones.

That’s probably going to be like, the. The big novelty of what makes this one unique in some ways. So a lot of the footage you get is prisoners that have smuggled cell phones into the prison. And the reason why they’re able to even do this is because the Alabama prison system is double, like, over twice its capacity right now. So for every room that’s only supposed to have 100 people in it, it’s got 200 people in it. And at the same time, they’re operating with a third of the staff that they’re designed to do. So right now, it’s kind of.

I mean, it’s. It’s de facto that the prisoners are running the prison, except that there are these wrecking squads that can come in, and the wrecking squads come in when the prisoners can’t handle something themselves or something else pops off. And then horrible tragedies occur because you got basically Slim Pickens. They’re making points about how they have to hire anyone that applies to this job because they’re understaffed 100 of the time. So if you’re looking for a job and you want to be a CEO in Alabama, I think that you got a job already. Like, you could just.

It’s like, that nice. Right now, this is not necessarily a claim, but I thought an interesting, like, factoid of what they were talking about. They’re talking to Robert Earl and Mel Melvin Ray, who are inmate activists. And this was really interesting to me because I was in county jail and. And. And this kind of scenario kind of rose, not to this extent, but. But they. They really started learning the law from this. They call it Halifax county, which was an initiative started by inmates where they actually teach them the Bill of Rights, the constitutional law. Looking for evidence Alabama law, like, what.

What you’re going to find in parole hearings. And I found it really interesting that they’re like, yeah, you didn’t know who you were locked up with? I’ve been here 30 years. Some of these guys were locked up during the civil rights movement activism. So you’re like, oh, so there’s some very intense, intelligent people that were able to spread this message. And I was like, it is interesting to me, fact that how they started this and how humans work, right? Like, you’ve taken everything away from them, but they have. They can pass down knowledge. And I thought it was pretty cool, like, how they really educated some of them and they ended up starting this Free Alabama movement where they’re using the cell phones and social media to change and sway the public perception.

And I was like, that that’s just so genius. Not that it’s something that’s out of the ordinary, but to see the genius of, like, you’re trapped. You have nothing. It’s not like you’re at home, hey, let me Pop on YouTube. You’re like, we gotta sneak in these phones and we gotta, like, push this narrative of like, look what they’re doing to us. And actually showing people like, hey, look at the flooded floors. Look at cops beating people up. Hey, look at my face. I just got beat up. And. And then I think that when the public starts to take notice, you get to see the clips that the mainstream media is like, here’s their version of it.

And then you start seeing the official version of the story coming out through the official channels. And all the while, it’s being juxtaposed against this insider look of the people in the jail. Well, I gotta say that there is no footage at all of the events taking place that they’re all claiming. So it’s pretty much a prisoner on the phone, and you either got to take their word for it or you see a politician on the phone or take their word for it or the mainstream media, right? So the. The most important parts that they actually talk about in this kind of revolve around a single image that Stephen Davis’s brother took after he was in the icu.

But the fact that they were able, able to like get that picture. He had to smuggle a phone into the ICU to get a photo of it. So it kind of shows that anything that needs to be solved within this prison system, you got to kind of smuggle the solution in. It’s not going to happen naturally through the institution itself. They even kind of joke about that, like later on in the film where like Melvin Ray’s like, you know, yeah, I know it’s like we’re breaking the rules, but this is how we can show you what’s going on.

We have to break the rules in order to like expose what’s going on. And a huge claim throughout the film is excessive force. Right? That’s what they’re focusing on is the excessive force. They, they touch on the conditions and stuff like that. But particularly in this film, they’re like, the excessive force. And they even call like that, they say they got the guards have a team, as you said, an extract team. And they’re like called the Wrecking Crew, right? Like that just tells you that they come in here and they’re like, hey, we’re shutting down. And they even like go as far as to interview former correctional officers that kind of break down what it was like in the prisons they were working at.

And one of them was talking about how. Beat their ass. Beat their ass. Beat their ass. He said in main gets out of line. Beat their ass. You got the green light to like whoop on them. So. And then the other officer, that is a former officer, is kind of painting the other picture of like, it’s bats, it’s short staffed, there’s zombie correctional officers, there’s people sleeping. And then they have footage of, from the inmates filming, like sleeping officers or, or empty pods where there is no officer. So that kind of connects some of the story, even though, like you said, some of the major incidences they don’t have on footage.

And I, I mean, you got to remember you’re in prison, so you can’t just be like, oh, let me grab my phone. Your phone’s hidden somewhere. Like, you can’t. Well, especially as you’re watching CEOs like literally beat somebody to death when you just like stand out there and like, oh, hold on, let me this in. In both perspectives. So going through the course, they have Sandy Ray hires a lawyer, Hank. Hank starts to call these inmates and it’s supposed to be an attorney call. So they’re supposed to have, you know, attorney client confidentiality or some sort of like that, I believe.

And as he’s going through the calls. You get the first call and the guy’s like, kind of, like, hostile. Like, what, man? Like, I gotta get out of here. And like, I. Can we end this call? And he’s like, is there an officer with you? He’s like, yeah, the officer right here, man. And he’s like, it’s not supposed to be. So it kind of pushes you into the direction of like, okay, I see where this is going. It’s ultimate control. And as he’s talking to some of these other inmates, nobody really wants to cooperate. And then they have an unknown, an unknown guy that.

That starts talking about the story of like, hey, look, they came in. Some guy was calling Stephen gay. And. And if you don’t understand, like, in jail, like, this is nothing but men. Calling someone gay in prison is not something you just take lightly, right? You’re like, I’m gonna have to defend myself because they may attack me and either just try to kill me or rape or worse, right? It can get pretty graphic. So he had weapons on him. He said he had the right to defend himself. The COs came in. He said. They said, drop the weapons.

Get on the ground. He claims that he slid the weapons like, 15ft, and he complied with officers. And then they just decided to start whipping him and with batons. And a particular officer that they claim, he goes, well, can you say who it was? He said, officer Gatson. And then they started introducing Gatson, who is. Has this laundry list of lawsuits that have all been settled. Not all been settled, either dismissed or settled. And you start focusing on the characters individually. Then you get to this other guy that was Stephen Davis’s cellmate. His name is James Sales Williams, but they keep calling him Sales throughout the film.

He kind of like, dances around and he’s like, look, man, I’m gonna get out in February. At that time, I’ll go to Sandy Ray Davis’s mother, and I will tell her the truth to her face right now. I can’t put my life on the line. He’s like, if she thinks I’m going to just tell the truth, she’s sadly mistaken. Right now I have a couple months away from going home, and I’m out of there. You know what I mean? And so you kind of get loft on the cliffhanger right there. And they just continuously kind of tell you some of the excessive force that’s happened to people.

And during that time, then they click over to, like, Robert Earl and Mel Ray, Melvin Ray, who are both the activists with inside the prison. Walls. And they pushing this narrative. They. They tell you, like, as we were breaking everything up, we were put in consolatory confinement. We were claimed as enemies and claimed that we were security threats because we are getting this information out, brother. There’s so many parts in this, too, that. That line up with just. This is how it works. If you watch enough cops, right, or, like, Live pd, you’ll. You’ll pick up that there’s keywords, there’s like, a legal cheat code, that once you say a legal cheat code, you now you’re allowed to do, like, all these other things.

For example, on cops and Live pd, they’ll be like, are you. Were you afraid for your life? And you have to be like, yes, I was afraid for my life. Like, you have to say the exact phrase. And now all of a sudden, it’s like, okay, you’re the victim then, and you’re not the aggressor. But if you. If you don’t know to say that thing. And that’s kind of what was interesting about the relationship between Robert Earl and Melvin Ray is because they were part of that Halifax group. So that. That Halifax group, it was literally.

They literally call it a secret society inside the prison. So they’re operating the secret society in the prison, and their secret knowledge is how the law works. And that whenever the cosos or the institution realize, hey, these guys are studying the law and they’re not just gonna, you know, complain or get into a fight, they’re filing out lawsuits. Like, they’re actually bringing this through the legal system, and now we got to spend money and pay them off, and it kind of becomes a problem. So like you mentioned, they. They get split, but the way they get split and is another legal cheat code.

So if. If you say on paper within the prison institution system, that person X is an enemy of person Y and that it’s dangerous for them to be together because they’ll try and hurt each other, and someone else could get hurt or a CEO could get hurt trying to break it up. So the safest thing is just move them away from each other. So they’re sitting there like, we’re not enemies. Like, we’ve literally been friends this entire time. And. And we both have, like, sworn to never cause violence on another brother. I’ll be specific. They’ll never be violent towards each other.

And then essentially it turns into, nah, you guys are enemies, and that’s why we got to move you apart. And it’s all just like these little legal cheat codes. But it. It shows that as they learn more about that and they try and teach other people about that, now they’re being punished as well, and they’re getting beat up and dragged out of their cells. And this isn’t just, like, hearsay. Like, you’re actually seeing mean. Who knows if they got into, like, a. Like, a regular fight, but everyone’s like, yeah, man, the seals just came in. This.

This guy’s trying to tell me how to file a lawsuit. Next thing you know, he’s getting pulled out. And then you actually see him on camera with his head all swollen, like, oh, here’s where they stomped on my head there. And there it is there. And, like. Like, blood trickling down. So, I mean, it doesn’t seem like it’s put on to me. It could be, but it absolutely seems legit what all these guys are going through and what they’re describing. I have a bias from my experience, and the people that I know experience that. Like, that.

A lot of that to me, is true because I’ve seen it, like, firsthand just in county jail and then talking to people that have been in prison. So I’m like, it’s. Again, it’s my bias because of my experience. But, like, I’m like, oh, man, I’m buying the story. I’m like, yeah, it seems most likely that this guy’s like, oh, you’re in prison. I could just whoop your ass. Right? And the fact that they’ve spent $53 million on settlements and defending correctional officers, I’m like, they can’t all be just lying, right? Like, all the people aren’t just like, oh, no, these guys are outstanding citizens.

You know what I mean? Like, these officers have never. They’ve only jumped on them because their life was almost in danger. That money being so high, I’m like, tells me that some of this leads to be true. And the thing I forgot to mention that one of the. The things that got Robert Earl and Marvin Ray to this situation is that they got the attention of the doj, and the DOJ filed a lawsuit on Alabama prison system, and they were pushing them to, like, hey, you need to make reform. And this is where we kind of get into some surface level, conspiratorial, basic, like, oh, money laundering.

Like, you know, I mean, like, are we, like, just giving money to your friends so they can, you know, build stuff? So the solution. And this is why the film is called the Alabama Solution. The Governor of Alabama, Kaylee Ivy. Like, dude, typical. Like, I’m like, if you wanted to paint Like a movie of like a racist governor that was like, like it’s just like right in the 90s, you know what I mean? You’re like, like just like, well, no, we need a, it’s an Alabama problem, we need an Alabama solution. And the solution she comes up with is like, hey, let’s merge these 11 prisons into three mega prisons.

And it’s gonna cost. In the beginning they say it’s gonna cost $900 million. And now towards the film’s end, it starts getting up to one point, some billion. But it’s not going to solve the problems. That’s the best part. It’s not going to solve any of the issues. It’s gonna. Well, I won’t say any of them because it would be a brand new facility. So that may solve some of it. But it, they interview one of the guys and they’re like, hey, so it looks like it’s going to have the same amount of beds, so is it going to still be overcrowded? He’s like, yeah, it’s gonna be the same amount of beds.

He STUTTERS A little bit. So it kind of dves in and they, they push down the narrative. Obviously inmates. And I would agree, so because I’m a conspiracy person, it’s like, oh, they’re just trying to make money. They’re like, oh, we’ll just get our contractors to build a new prison and we’ll get this and we’ll get some government funding maybe, and, and boom, we got three mega prisons. Shocking, right? That’s like unbelievable that this would happen. Gambling and rob. The crazy part starts to me after this, right? Robert Earl is allegedly beat to like unconsciousness and dragged out of us.

Now you don’t see him dragged out, but you do see footage of blood streak just like going down the hall. So they dragged somebody like, well, yeah, no, I mean if you take the word of all the inmates, and I do on this particular one, they turned his face into like a crayon or something. Like you can see blood splatter on the wall and then like a, like a face shaped streak that goes from inside his cell all the way out the door. And, and according to them, they were saying that everyone thought he was dead, the COs thought he was dead.

So that’s why they’re just dragging him by his feet. And then they just kind of put him inside a room and as he’s in this room they get out all the bleach and the chemicals to start cleaning up the blood to make sure no one Realizes this was a horrific crime scene, and. And the amount of chemicals that they were using to clean his blood wakes him up. And then they’re like, oh, damn, this guy’s alive still. So, honestly, I don’t even know why. Like, why didn’t they just finish the job there? And then it seems like they had already kind of concluded that it was a crime scene.

So I don’t know. Yeah, I thought they would have ended it, too, because, like, it’s like, dude, he’s gonna. It’s not gonna get any better. But I think some of these guards, they are comfortable when it’s like, oh, he attacked me. But now too much is going on. I. I just. They’re not good at this. If they’re. If you’re gonna do it, be good, bro. Like, you guys. You guys are terrible. Hire anybody if. If. Even if you’re horrible at covering up a crime, you can still get hired in the Alabama prison system. And they even show Robert Earl afterwards.

And, like, you’re like, oh, yeah. Like, you don’t see his face, but he has, like, these makeshift sunglasses, and he’s like, I’m kind of going blind in one eye. And. And. And people might be asking, like, how is. How is he getting cell phones? And when he’s in solitary confinement, you’re like, it’s easier than you think. And some of these guards, not all of them, are against you as far as trying to beat you. There is some good guards, and there’s some good people, but also the guards are the ones bringing in the cell phones and the drugs.

So that’s how you get a cell phone. Well, this is the easiest way. And they make a good point that if you’re a guard and you can make even more money, and. And there’s, like, a dilemma, because even if they catch you, they would pro. They ask this question, does it hurt the prison more for you to be selling drugs and you to be passing out phones or for you to not even be there at work? Because now they’re understaffed even more than they should be, and they’re only at a third. So that it creates this environment where the prison system is willing to look the other way and allow you to just sell drugs and bring guns in and bring.

Or bring in phones, rather. Maybe not guns, but that, like, they’ll look the other way because they need you. They need a body in a seat. Right? They need that statistic there. So even if that statistic is adding more crime into the prison system, that is an okay tradeoff. Just for outward appearances, because no one ult I think the ultimate point of this entire movie is that no one really cares what’s happening to people inside prisons and in Alabama because of the overpopulation and the being understaffed. Those two things combined that it’s it’s like, really easy to see.

It’s so visual. And the only way to get the message out is for them to, like, smuggle this footage out and then they start networking, right? They get a couple good ideas with this DOJ stuff with, like, people looking into what’s going on in the Alabama prisons. They’re like, hey, this is our time, right? Let’s. Let’s send them a message. And what they this is cool because for me, because this is almost like, again, I didn’t get Mine didn’t get achieved. So they did a hunger strike and they were gonna stop working. So at when I was in county jail, only for, like, six months, right? And and the thing is, too, is that you’ll see in this film is that and this is why it resonates with me is because people don’t realize how prisons and jails and like, military and stuff like that work until you’re in it.

So when you’re in it, you have more compassion. Like, oh, I know how this goes. So they had a raid one time in in the where I was at. So people, you’re not in California jails. You’re not allowed to work out. It’s. It’s just not frowned upon. It’s against the rules because people inmates were getting too big, and the guards were getting beat up. They’re getting swole. So they’re like, you’re not allowed to get swole. Yeah, you can’t get swole. So in California, there’s a lot of Hispanics, so what they would say is yaves, which means keys.

So when you hear a guard, people are working out, you go, yaves, Yahweh. So, like, people know, hey, I’ ma stop working out. Well, one of the guards got really mad, and he was like, if I hear that javez again, I’m gonna I’m gonna tear this whole place off. Well, one of the guys was sleeping, right? Of course. Just like a movie. The guy was sleeping, and then he’s like. And then he wakes up later, the guy comes back in. He’s like, yeah, man, yeah. And he’s like, that’s it. And he comes in with, like, 20 other guards, and they l ripped the whole dorm apart.

Ripped our pictures, broke our, like, excessively right. They had us all on our boxers, out on our knees. Be anyone to death, though. That’s the question. Oh, thank God they didn’t know it was in Alabama. And plus, it’s county jail, so I think there’s a little bit. Yeah, sooner. You know what I mean? You’re gonna go home sooner. But after all this chaos happened, I was like, you know, like, me being a conspiratorial guy my whole life, and I’m like, they can’t do this to us. We’re Americans. You know what I mean? I literally had. And we’re separated by race in California jail and prison system.

I had all 64 black, white, Hispanic, couple Samoans, and. And Filipinos all just listening to me, and I’m like, we run this place, bro. We’re like the petty criminals, man. We are the ones cooking the food, doing the laundry. I was like, let’s not go to work. Let’s not go to work. And they’re like, yeah. And I’m like, come on, guys. So I was like, hey, when they come in in the morning, just stay in your bunk. Like, what are they gonna do? They’re gonna take our good time away, dude. We’re gonna go home in a month.

Who cares? But what happened was that other people that run the jails, like, the other inmates that are, like, gonna go to prison that we feed, we’re like, no, you’re not doing that. Right. Well. Well, then that’s kind of what happens in the end of this, towards the end of the series, too. So, like, the one prison that we’ve got Robert Earl and Melvin Ray in, they start this, or at least they’re starting to coordinate this whole, like, strike. But it’s every single prison in the entire state of Alabama. At one point, I can’t remember, there was, like, 11 of them or something, but they’re.

They’re all involved. They all do the exact same hunger strike. And they’ve got videos of, you know, all different races standing around holding hands or, like, at least next to each other, not getting into fights. And they’re like, yeah, bro. Like, everyone’s being peaceful. No one’s working. We’re just gonna start broadcasting this. And then you just start seeing them fold one after the other. It’s like, now there’s, you know, nine out of 11. Now it’s seven out, 11, now there’s two left. And then you realize that, all right, we’re. We’re getting into the end of this.

And it also. It crescendos at the End with this is where Sandy Ray, Steven Davis’s mom, the guy that originally got beat up, this like, what little scene getting white kid essentially got stomped to death inside in front of all the different prisoners. She also gets the conclusion of her lawsuit in progress or complaint or whatever it is that she was attempting to do. And to no one’s, you know, surprise, I think it was like, nope, everything is fine. We’re not looking into that. No one’s being charged. Her mind is rocked. The, the prison hunger strike, work strike all dies down.

None of that really changes. Like you mentioned, the, the Alabama solution is literally for this, this old racist governor lady with like barbecue sauce on her hands is like, we’ll just shut down these 11 prisons and just open up three super Walmart prisons and just move everyone there. And it’s, it’s the exact same problem though it’s still going to be twice as overpopulated. It’s still going to be a third of the, the hiring and that like none of the solution actually makes sense for the problem itself. And then I want to just let me, let me give away like the, the big part of the ending I think is that the cellmate of Stephen Davis, the guy that got stomped down that was getting out in a month and was like, look, I’m not gonna talk about this until I’m out of here.

He ends up dead. No signs of like being beat up or anything or. And the, the rumor inside the jail that you get from all the contraband video is that he was given a hot shot, which is basically a cigarette that someone slipped some kind of poison into so that when you smoke it you just die. And that apparently that’s exactly how he died. But of, of course, since the Alabama prison system doesn’t allow any sort of media coverage or public access, then they can just not give out any sort of details for that event. And the details is just like cause unknown natural causes.

So it, the, the movie itself ends on. And here’s another person that might have had insight that was talking about he’s going to be this whistleblower, he’s going to come out and tell everyone the truth. And now he ends up dead less than a month before he’s getting out. And it just fits this pattern that it’s almost like comical James Bond villain style, like leaving clues all over the place just so you can find them. But it’s just, it’s just incompetence mixed with indifference, I guess. Hidden treasures in overboard moments I personally didn’t have. I again When I get sucked into some of these films, it’s hard for me to find overboard.

Like, the overboard moments are just the other characters, like the. The racist governor and the. The Attorney General. But, like, they’re not overboard. I just don’t like them. Like. So I don’t know if I could categorize as that, but I do want to highlight one thing, like, more than one thing. But this. This is something I was gonna do in plotting the course, but I wasn’t sure. I thought this was like, kind of like, hit it moment because it gives you an insight on how people really think. And, like, I know that people want to say like, and I’m not saying it’s because of racism.

I actually think racism’s not the key. Because they even talk about how, like, there was brown, white and black poor people locked in together. But the perception, the public perception of things is what shakes my court. Because they had this little council meeting, justice champs, loins. And this is his quote. I literally kept playing it back so I could get him a quote of it. He said, of course, the way to assure absolute and total protection of the public upon conviction of crime would be execution of all who are convicted. However, conscience and the limits of the U.S.

constitution do not tolerate such extreme consequences for wrongdoing. So we live in the reality that most of these convict, most of those convicted of crime will be roaming the streets again. I thought that quote right there is like, oh, this is their mentality. They think if you created, you commit a crime. I’m like, you don’t know why they’re in prison, right? That, like, Stephen Davis, they kind of go in the mom. This is another one I want to highlight. She goes into, like, a barber shop, maybe like a little diner or something. You can’t really tell, right? Just see, and she’s talking to this old man and she’s like, yeah, they killed my boy.

And he’s like, he’s in prison. You know what I mean? Well, you know, you’re in prison, man. You know? And he’s like, no. Like, is he on the alcohol? Like. And she was like, no, he drank and stuff. So automatically it shows you that. That public perception. I don’t think this is just in Alabama. I think in general, people believe everybody in prison is like some. The worst of the earth, right? The rapist, murderer. You can be in prison for selling bootleg DVDs. You can be in prison for outstanding tickets. Or maybe not prison, but for sure, jail for.

For outstanding tickets or not paying your child support. It’s not this, like, place that’s filled with murderers, and it’s mostly drug addicts. And they also highlight that. And that’s another thing I thought was big in this film, is that they were able to get footage of all these strung out people. And I’ve seen it, like, and I understand it, even just in the jail aspect, they put people in these situations where they’re mentally unstable, where they’re on drugs, pissing themselves. Like, real quick, I want to tell you a funny story that when I was in jail, so we had a 64 man unit where it’s two.

Two people to a cell, right? And it’s a cell block, but. And there’s a dorm room. They lock us all in because they’re gonna bring a new prisoner. This guy comes walking in, probably like 48, 49, walking up, quiet. As soon as they close the door, he just starts going off. He’s like, I want my horse. Where’s my horse? I want my horse. Where’s more? And he’s going on for 20, 30 minutes where the, the CEOs are like, if this guy doesn’t shut up, like, none of you guys are getting day room. Which again, this highlights part of the problem where you’re like, dude, this guy is obviously not right in the head.

Like, you need to take him out of this unit because you’re gonna get him beat up. Like, you have to, like, you know, people will try to help them, but, like, they’ll try to beat them up. So. Because people were like, what do you mean? I can’t go to the day room? They’ll be all pissed. So we use the, the ventilation system as, like a communication for, like, we could communicate to people. And as he’s going, I want my horse. Where’s my horse? You just hear someone go, you and the horse you rode in on. Sorry.

I never laughed so hard. Well, because it broke the tension a little bit. But he never got his horse, so I’m sure it didn’t solve the problem. No. And then me being like in my mid-20s and this guy being 49 years old since he was a white guy, he had to be in my group. And I had to be like, I had to watch him. I had to go, get over here, like, and I had to make him sit like, like, because I didn’t want to get beat up, man. Like, you. You feel bad. You’re like, dude, he’s mentally unstable and people are on edge.

And there’s a lot of young, stupid people that are like, I don’t care that like they don’t have the compassion or empathy to be like, oh, this guy has mental problems. So I got a quite a few overboard moments on this one. Let me start out with the, the Hidden Treasure, which I wasn’t expecting because I went into this blind since it’s so brand new and that’s the, the whole thing being shot on this contraband. I think what a genius novel approach to this because it’s wild to even see it. When prison videos make their way on a tick tock that I watch a cup, I’m subscribed to a couple channels where it’s like prison cooking and they show you how they’re like making some decent, the best food that they possibly can.

Just kind of funny though that they’ve got an entire channel and that this is the, the reality that we’re in right now is that prisoners have cell phones and social media accounts. And part of that is a little scary because like, what if you’re in prison for scamming people? Like scamming grandma out of her retirement savings. Like you can keep doing that exact same thing with a cell phone in prison. So it’s, it’s a new reality that didn’t exist, you know, a couple decades ago. So that was, that was pretty much the Hidden Treasure was like this novel approach.

For me, the overboard moments was just like every five minutes I was rolling my eyes a little bit because I got, I’m not gonna tell any stories, but I got experience too. And there are, believe it or not, there are some guilty people in the system that weren’t completely innocent. There’s a lot of really good manipulators, people that would just lie and lie and lie. For example, one of the main characters, and forgive me, I can’t remember if it was Robert Earl or Melvin Gray, but one of the two main characters at one point they’re like, well, what are you in for? Because one of them was in for like 30 years.

And he’s like, it’s again, it starts with like this like meandering. Sorry. Yeah, well, you see, what happened was. But the, the story that understood was that he sold crack. He sold crack to a crackhead. The crackhead got into a car and was driving at him, hit like two other people, so he says, and then was ain’t driving towards him. And the only way that he could protect himself was to take out a gun and shoot the crackhead that was driving at him in the car. And I’m the first thing. And he was like, it was self defense.

I feared for my life. I heard that little cheat code. I was like, yeah, this is that Halifax county coming through right now, bro. Like, I feared for my life. I. I shot him. And unfortunately, you know, tragically, he lost his life. But it was the only way that I could protect myself. And it was self defense. And I, I mean, obviously we weren’t there. We don’t get a visual reconstruction of what happened. But also, I don’t know, man, it sounds like this guy just straight up shot somebody in the head that was in a car and went to jail for 30 years for it.

Apparently I was with the system implied on it and that later on, like you, like, I hear some of these same kind of claims, but like, for example, here’s one of my favorite ones is when they have the 11 prison lockdown and they’re all on the same hunger strike and the same work strike. And then there’s like a four second clip of them panning the inside of one of these rooms. And it’s got the white guys and Mexican guys and the black guy. Like they’re all in one room, not in a fight, kind of like solemnly standing there.

And my thought too was like, Dan, they only got four seconds of that would like a fight like erupt right after they were showing the unity or whatever. And. And part of this is that a huge overboard moment is so much of the framing, since it’s coming from inside the prison system. And like the, the actual prisoners is. They’re constantly framing everything like it’s the system that’s doing this. And, and as you’re watching it, I had to keep asking myself, like, when you say that this dude got jumped or someone almost got beat to an inch of their life, are we talking the CEOs did that or are we talking the prisoners did that? Because there is a huge difference between those two and the framing of this movie.

Because there’s. There’s a way that you could go into this movie and assume that every single bad thing that happens the entire time is all coming from the, the state, that it’s like the wrecking crew coming in and doing all this. And like my gut instinct, and this is like the overboard part of it, like, it seems like a majority of that violence and all of the other problems that they’re highlighting are really happening from the prisoners themselves. And the problem is that the state doesn’t have enough qualified people to handle it. So it’s ultimately up to the prisoners to figure this out.

And I guess, long winded story Short though, but when they show that clip of like, all right, man, 11 prisons, we’re all in unity now. No one’s fighting. All the races are getting together now. Like, no, like we’re, we’re behaving ourselves and we’re just gonna keep like showing us being normal on social media and let the state come in and enact violence. Like, why can’t the all 11 prisons continue to do that and continue to work just like be peaceful and make it so that the only violence that happens is either like actual self defense or it can be like almost like hyperbolic next to these peaceful prisoners versus these rough COSOs that are coming in and beating people up.

Like it would, it would, it would make such a better message. And I think deep down, ultimately it’s like blame every act of violence on the prison system. Even if it was like a fight between two guys. For example, the whole reason that Stephen Davis, from what we know from this documentary, the reason he died is because he was on edge and was keeping shanks on him. And apparently everyone has to keep a shank on them because if you get into a fight, they have video footage of like an officer just like slow walking, like a fat guy.

Just like, like if you’re in a, if you got a problem, you’re not gonna see help for maybe a day or two. Like, they’ll find your dead body and be like, oh, there’s a dead body here. They wouldn’t even know about it. So like, part of that aspect is that the, the prisoners do have to self regulate. And Stephen Davis getting accused of being gay basically means that he’s gonna, he’s gonna be murdered now and that he had to keep weapons on him all the time. And the second that the wrecking crew had to come in, it’s probably like the fact that you made me walk all the way up these stairs and come into this room with all these dangerous people and do this thing I don’t want to do.

Like, I got a green light to do whatever the f. I want right now. And I, and I’ve got immunity to do it. I, I can beat this person. In fact, there’s a quote. What is it? I’m the reaper of death now say my name. That this is a, a quote that one of the prisoners said that they heard this guy, or it’s actually in like a legal transcript of something I think that might have been recorded. So clearly they’re going in here with this like huge bone the pick. And one of the, the prisoners that we get interviewed with.

He makes a good point. Like, they’re. They are now addicted to brutal violence. It’s like, something that they get a rush out of, and they know that they’ve got free reign to do this, and the outside world doesn’t care about it. So f. Final overboard moment. Cover your children’s ears. But no, I mean, like, every. Every single thing that. That happens in this. And maybe I’m just jaded, but every claim that the mom makes, every claim that the lawyers make, all the things the prisoners are saying, like, man, they’re just gonna let us die in here.

Like, yeah, no, bro. Have you not paid attention to, like, what state institutions do? If we’re talking the 1920s, if we’re talking the 1860s, like, you can go as far back in history as you want, and these state institutions have never cared about your general, like, upkeep or, like, you even being alive, frankly, and not just in constant pain. And then. And if an institution has to investigate itself, like, if the federal government comes in and has to investigate the state, that’s still the government investigating the government. And these people don’t, like, not have dinner together.

They. They more likely have dinner with each other and go to each other’s dinner parties than to anyone in the prison or anyone that works in the prison system is a CEO or anything. So that was the biggest overboard moment, man. Like, every single time I. And I imagine there’s people watching this, like, I can’t believe this has happened. How have I never heard about this before? Like, you should be embarrassed if you get surprised by anything that happens, by the fact that they murk the guy that’s getting out in a month and it might spill the beans.

If you’re surprised by that, that’s your fault. If you’re surprised that Stephen Davis could get stomped in the. You know, in public in front of all these people. And the CEOs don’t even care. And the CEOs, like, yeah, I got 20 lawsuits on me. I don’t care. None of them have ever gone through. Like, if any of that shocks you, that’s all your fault. And you haven’t been paying attention for however long you’ve been alive to the world. Like, it’s like, dude, they treat me like that at my work. Like, not at that level, but I’m saying they don’t care.

Like, you know what I mean? Like, Right. Well, even. Here’s a quick personal story. Even in the military. So if you think it’s bad in the Alabama prison system, imagine Being at, like, Guantanamo Bay as a taxi driver that got swept up in, you know, some investigation, and now you’re in a black site. And I personally know my. The guy that was. Lived directly next to me, he would get sent over to Guantanamo. He was an mp, military police. He would go over there and basically as a CEO and come back. And after like two or three trips over there, he comes back and he’s like, bro, you should sign up for this.

You get extra hazard pay. Like, it’s the safest job you’ll ever have. Like, everything is done for you. You could just break people’s fingers, man. And he was like, describing how they would, like, force the. The prisoners to stick their hands through the bars and they would just kick them or punch them or just like, smack them and just break the fingers around. And like, as. As I’m watching this Alabama solution, like, yeah, they just got addicted to violence, man. I was like, damn, bro. Like, this brought back this visceral memory for me. And it’s. And again, it’s like, this isn’t just the prison system.

This is like humans. This is like, at some point, when you do the Stanford prison experiment and you give one person authority over another person, that it. It seems to just instinctually happen. Maybe men in. In particular, because I’m watching this with my girlfriend, she’s like, how come they’re not showing the women’s prison system? Are they involved in this? And it’s like, they’re probably not beating each other to death, and they don’t need wrecking crews to come in and saw. I’m sure there’s fights in the women’s prison system, but you made a fair point, though. Like, and I.

I like that because it’s both sides. Like, both sides. Like, Robert Earl is using the same excuse that Officer Gatson’s using. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I fear for my life. You know what I mean? The cheat code. Yeah, they know the cheat code. And. And yes, is not emphasized enough in this film that prison is violent on its own. You know what I mean? Like, it’s a violent place. Like, this is not even in. In county jail. It’s violent, but it’s not to the violent extreme of prison because you’re going to be there in years.

And. And yes, officers are bringing in cell phones and contraband and drugs, but who are they bringing them to? The kingpin dude that’s still making all the money, that’s calling the shots in the prison that wants it to keep going, right? So there Was probably people inside, not just correctional officers, but there was probably people inside the prisons. Like, end this strike now. Like literally people, when I thought of that thing, people were sending kites. Which if you don’t know, a kite is like a little note that someone like carries like hides it because, and passes it around.

And you’ll be surprised how fast a message even without a cell phone can get around. And people are like, yeah, the big homie said, you better go cook the food. If you don’t, someone’s gonna catch up. So you don’t just have to worry about the, the correctional officers, which in this film they only want you to look at the correctional officers and the way the system is dealt, which I agree with you, it is horrible. But yes, let’s not pretend that these guys are just like, dude, they’re just trying to make their way in life, man.

You know, I mean, they just want to see their kids and stuff. There’s a lot of violent piece of people in the. And I guess the, the mask does slip just a little bit, a tiny little bit. The mask slips at the end because both Robert Earl and Melvin Ray and I want to say like one other inmate that they’re talking to. And this is as the hunger strike and the work strike is starting to taper out and it’s like two left and both, both of them in their own ways, I’ll paraphrase both of them, but they’re kind of like, yeah, man, you know, we really thought this would work.

I put my all into this. Like, I hope I don’t have to revert back to what I know. I hope I don’t have to revert back to being violent again. Maybe, maybe bloodshed is the only way that revolution can really happen. And, and like how quickly it’s like, man, if I didn’t get my way after approaching this one thing that I really thought was going to work, that like, maybe violence is the answer. And just the, the fact that that mask slips and it reverts right back down to like, let’s get violent again. It’s almost like, damn, like maybe like I was right about to let you out of the jail still after 30 years, bro.

And now you’re talking about, oh, if I don’t get my way, I have to get violent. Like, damn, now maybe it’s gonna have to be 50 then that’s sort of what happens, right? And they realize that they’re, they’re self aware of this dynamic, that it’s like the only thing they know. But it’s real. It’s tough, man. Like, I could see people watching this movie from so many different angles. It’s that time. Sink or swim. This might be a little bit of a shocker, man. I’m gonna say sync, dude. Not, not because it’s a bad documentary at all.

It’s, in fact, it’s great, and I highly recommend it, and I was entertained by watching it. But I guess part of my criteria, man, I want to learn something brand new and some dude that got stomped to death by CEOs in a prison system and no one heard about it, and here’s proof, and no one still cares. It’s just like, okay, what is it, a Tuesday? Like, it doesn’t, it doesn’t seem like I learned anything interesting or, or new from this. Like, no respect to the people that got harmed or died in the process. Like, obviously, I respect all their lives and the.

I’m glad that, that their story is making its way out, but it’s like a drop in a bucket for what’s actually happened in the system. And again, if any of this was new information to you, then you just now started paying attention. Good for you. Keep it up. But otherwise, the, it was just the novelty of it being recorded on contraband, which I think makes it so incredibly interesting and important and worth the watch. But ultimately, I’m rating it a sink. I mean, I can like it and recommend it and still call it a sink. I’m gonna go with the swim.

I, I, My bias was leaning heavy. I’m like, yeah, man, I remember that car. That was Officer Ibarra. I remember you, bro. Like, he was, you think? You know what I’m saying? So I, My bias definitely creeped in. I was, I watched it twice, and I was still, like, I was angry. Like, oh, yeah, I know they probably did do that. But you are right that they could have explored it better. They could have, like, really set it to a tone of like, hey, this is human nature. And, and kind of that would be more profound than, like, hey, did you know that there’s corruption in the prison system? What? Like, no way that they’re corrupt there.

Like, you’re telling me an insta, a private institution that is funded by the federal government, like, does things and cuts corners to save money and, and they make the prisoners work to run the jails? Like, is this news to you? Like, I see your point on that level. I’m going to give it a swim just because I liked how it was shot. I, I love the, the, the footage of seeing like rats in bottles, them catching rats and rats, you know, swimming in their toilet and seeing some of the footage of how prisoners are living. And because people think that all the American jails are just like nice and dandy, you know, and like, oh, you got to see the Mexican jails or you got to see the Guatemala.

You’re like, we have some pretty horrific jails ourselves, but that’s just status quo. That’s why I kept saying surface level, mainstream conspiracy. Like, what? The government’s corrupt. You’re like, if you’re barely figuring that out, you’re a little behind. Yeah, maybe I’m jaded on that. And that reminds me too of, of one genius. Part of how the documentary starts is it starts out and this film crew have been invited to a once an annual, like, barbecue. Apparently the Alabama prison system has like a church, outdoor church revival, SL barbecue that I assume if you’re one of the good inmates that’s not in solitary, you’re allowed to go to this thing.

And they’re getting all this footage and they’re singing and there’s food and originally the prisoners are like, man, there ain’t nothing like this. This is the only prison system in the whole country that you get to come outside and just hang out and like reclaim some of your freedom, blah, blah, blah. And then they try and get an interview with someone, like off to the side without an officer being there and he’s like, oh man, there’s a reason why they invited you to this today. Like, they don’t want you to see the inside of the prisons.

Inside of these prisons are, are not what you expect them to be. And then you hear like the, the CEO come over, like, hey, what are you doing? Like, you guys can’t be recording this. You could have got hurt. Like, I’m afraid for your safety. Again, there’s like a legal cheat code word that they threw in there. So I like how the movie started out on. Here’s what the state like had planned for us when we said we wanted footage. And now here’s how we actually went about it. Yeah, that was great though. The, the band going on.

And that had one of my favorite moments where it was like a slow looking dude and they’re like, hey, how’s it over? He’s like, it’s a good day. Well, you know what it is. Go to paranoidamerican.com kill themockingbird.com check out all our content. Like subscribe share. Like subscribe share. Like subscribe share. Maybe that will like get people in there. Go on a hunger strike if you don’t. They’re like you guys should. This is another episode of under the Docks. Mainstream Mondays. Peace. I think we got some quotes from that one that we don’t have to respond.

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Yeah, go visit NASA comic.com this is the perfect read for comic Kubrick or conspiracy fans of all ages. For more details visit NASA comic.com paranoid I scribbled my life away Driven to write the page Will it enlight your brain Give you the flight my plane paper the highs ablaze somewhat of an amazing feel. When it’s real to real you will engage it your favorite of course the lord of an arrangement I gave you the proper results to hit the pavement if they get emotional hate maybe your language a game how they playing it well without Lakers evade them whatever the cause they are to shapeshift snakes get decapitated met is the apex execution of flame you out Nuclear bomb distributed at war rather gruesome for eyes to see max them out that I like my trees blow it off in the face.

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