With rare access and unflinching restraint, the documentary of the Alabama solution exposes the human cost of confinement in stark, at times difficult to watch detail.

The film sets out and succeeds in offering a view of a mass incarceration system laid bearer.

If what we see is functioning as designed, should it be allowed to continue?

Hello and welcome to USA Today is The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Friday, March 6, 26.

The Alabama solution was directed and produced by Andrew Jerachy and Charlotte Hoffman,

and co-produced by Alex Duran, program director at Galaxy Gives,

an organization committed to criminal justice reform.

The film has been nominated for Best Documentary at this year's Academy Awards.

Andrew and Alex, thank you so much for joining me to discuss the film.

Yeah, thank you for having us, sir.

Yeah, thank you for having us, Daniel.

Andrew, I want to try to get a sense of the scale.

In 2020, the Department of Justice sued, the Alabama Department of Corrections for

unconstitutional conditions in men's

prisons. Where does that case stand? And what can you share regarding the number of lives lost?

Well, we started working on this film seven years ago and have been tracking every death in the

system, which is critical because the Department of Corrections doesn't do that.

You know, if you can't measure it, you can't fix it.

And I think their attitude is we don't really even want to know how bad this is.

So there have been 1,500 people that have died in the system since we started working on

the film.

...