A documentary by Pine Plains resident Andrew Jarecki has earned an Academy Award nomination for best feature documentary film, bringing national attention to an investigation of Alabama’s prison system.
The film, “The Alabama Solution,” directed by Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, examines conditions inside Alabama’s correctional facilities, exposing patterns of violence, neglect, and institutional secrecy. Drawing on firsthand accounts, inmate-recorded footage, and extensive investigative reporting, the documentary shows how systemic failures shape daily life inside the state’s prisons — and brings those realities into public view.
“The nomination is an important indication that the public is recognizing the urgency of the problem in our prison system,” Jarecki told the Herald. “Alabama may be the deadliest prison system in America, but we see the same brutality and corruption across the country.”
Jarecki is an award-winning filmmaker and investigative journalist whose work has repeatedly examined abuses of power within American institutions. He is best known for the HBO documentary series “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” which helped reopen a decades-old murder case and became a landmark in long-form investigative storytelling.
Jarecki said the themes explored in “The Alabama Solution” extend well beyond the South, pointing to recent deaths and allegations of abuse in correctional facilities nationwide.
“A year ago at New York’s Marcy Correctional Facility, prisoner Robert Brooks was killed by guards while handcuffed,” Jarecki said. “His demise might not have been accurately reported but for the fact that officers inadvertently left their body cameras on while they choked and beat him to death. And what we are seeing now in our own towns — whether in Minneapolis or in Rhinebeck — where people are being taken from their homes and locked away with no press allowed to document their condition, was incubated in the prison system.”
The Oscar nomination follows months of public engagement around the film, including screenings attended by policymakers and criminal justice advocates. At one such event in October 2025, Jarecki appeared in Rhinebeck alongside collaborators and reform leaders to discuss how the film’s findings resonate far beyond Alabama.
Rather than relying on expert commentary, “The Alabama Solution” foregrounds material captured from inside prisons, filmed by inmates. The documentary depicts deteriorating infrastructure, prolonged isolation, and incarcerated people performing uncompensated labor that benefits the state. It also follows families seeking answers after loved ones die in custody, tracing how official accounts can shift or stall in the absence of transparency.
For Jarecki, the Academy Award recognition represents an opportunity to broaden the audience for a conversation he believes remains unresolved.
“We hope that people who watch this film — and we hope more will do so with this recognition — will realize that we have to care about what’s happening in these institutions,” he said. “Taxpayers spend $80 billion a year on incarcerating 2 million people — a higher percentage than any other modern country. We need the public to ask tough questions about what is being done in our names.”
Other films nominated in the documentary feature category include “Come See Me in the Good Light,” “Cutting Through Rocks,” “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” and “The Perfect Neighbor.” The winner will be announced at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards ceremony on March 15.