The Reel Review
Inmates inside the deadliest state prison system in America – the Alabama Department of Corrections – use contraband smartphones to detail the ongoing use of deadly violence by guards as well as videotaped details of squalid, rat-infested living conditions, in this Oscar-nominated documentary.
The basis for the story is the suspicious October 2019 beating death of inmate Steven Davis, and later, the equally suspicious sudden death of his cell mate a month prior to his release, who as a witness to Davis’ killing, would have been free to testify against the guards. The videotaped deposition of the main guard accused of the violence is disturbing.
The film’s production values, with shaky videos and at times garbled audio, are clunky at best, but even so, the content from directors Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman is extremely compelling and deeply disturbing. The documentary culminates in the September 2022 work stoppage by thousands of state inmates in protest of their living conditions and their lack of civil rights.
REEL FACTS
• KTVB reports Robert Earl Council, Melvin Ray, and Raul Poole had been moved to solitary confinement as of January 2026.
• Filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman are best known for the Emmy-winning 2015 HBO documentary series, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, that led to Durst’s arrest and imprisonment.
• In August 2024, the Alabama Department of Corrections paid $250,000 to the mother of Steven Davis, who was killed in 2019 while in custody at the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall opted not to press criminal charges against the officers involved.
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