"The Alabama Solution" May Change How You See Prisons (w/ Andrew Jarecki & Charlotte Kaufman)
Bulwark Takes
The Bulwark
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sonny Bunch speaks with Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman to discuss their Oscar-nominated documentary, The Alabama Solution. Currently streaming on HBO, their documentary combines interviews, investigative journalism, and footage from within the prisons themselves obtained via contraband cellphones to reveal the horrible and dangerous living conditions of those serving time in the Alabama correctional system. It’s a documentary primed to shock the conscience, and I hope everyone out there watches it—even, perhaps especially, if you do not consider yourself a prison reform advocate.
Go to https://TheAlabamaSolution.com to learn more about the deaths inside Alabama’s prisons.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the Bullwark Coast of Hollywood. My name is Sunny Bunch. I am culture editor at the |
| 0:03.5 | bulwark. And I'm very pleased to be joined today by Andrew Jurecki and Charlotte Kaufman, who are |
| 0:07.6 | the directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary, The Alabama Solution. I'm very excited to have you guys |
| 0:14.1 | on the show today to talk about your film. Thanks for joining me. Thanks. We're happy to be here. |
| 0:19.8 | Thanks. So I want to set the stage here just a little bit |
| 0:24.2 | because I think it will help demonstrate the power of this film. I am, you know, we were setting up this |
| 0:29.7 | interview and I mentioned I'm not really a prison reform guy. I'm a movie guy. I'm the movie guy. |
| 0:35.0 | But I'm not a prison reform guy. I do not necessarily believe in |
| 0:40.0 | a lot of, you know, decarceration style. Like it's, that's not, that's not my |
| 0:45.0 | Ballywick. And I say this as, uh, just, just to drive home the fact that watching this really, |
| 0:53.3 | uh, really move me because it's not, |
| 0:56.5 | it's one thing to say, people should be in prison, |
| 0:58.2 | people, |
| 0:58.5 | people who commit crime should be in prison, |
| 1:00.1 | but they should also be treated humanely. |
| 1:02.0 | And I think that what we see in this film is the creation of, |
| 1:07.7 | it's like watching the HBO show Oz in real life and that's horrifying that's a that's a |
| 1:14.6 | horrifying thing to watch um the what's interesting about the film is that it kind of starts off as a |
| 1:22.1 | a wholly different thing the first two minutes or so of this it feels like you're starting a |
| 1:27.3 | different documentary i was kind of like what am i watching here and then things get things get intense and different thing. The first two minutes or so of this, it feels like you're starting a different |
| 1:27.5 | documentary. I was kind of like, what am I watching here? And then things get, things get intense and |
| 1:31.6 | crazy. What was the genesis of this project, Andrew? Well, you know, I had visited prisons over |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Bulwark, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Bulwark and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.