Alabama prison officials moved three inmate activists featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary “The Alabama Solution” to solitary confinement at Kilby Correctional Facility outside Montgomery, attorneys for the men said.
Robert Earl Council, Melvin Ray and Raoul Poole were transferred about two weeks before the reporting and placed in isolated conditions with little contact with others, their lawyers said. Family members and attorneys said they fear the moves amount to retaliation for the men’s outspokenness about problems in Alabama prisons.
“We’re really concerned because they’ve had retaliation and abuse in response to all of their activism,” Andrew Jarecki, director of “The Alabama Solution,” said. Jarecki said it was “particularly ironic” that the men are “always met with violence by authorities,” adding that they have “learned the law and have been leaders” and observe nonviolent means of protest.
Julie Sledd, who is close to Poole, told The Associated Press that she believes the transfers are “straight-up retaliation.” Sledd said she has been able to talk to Poole once since the transfer, and that he told her the men are being held in separate cells on an isolated and closely guarded floor.
Attorneys representing the three men said they were not given a reason for the move. In a statement, the attorneys said the transfers “far exceed standard administrative segregation protocols” and that the prison system did not provide any justification for the restrictions.
The lawyers said the men were cut off from contact with their families and held in isolation, with “no contact with other prisoners or prison staff” except for “a small group of guards and supervisors.” They said the restriction arrangements include legal visits and phone service, while still keeping the men largely segregated.
The attorneys said they fear for the activists’ safety and well-being based on what they described as a documented history of excessive force and a pattern of retaliation by the Alabama Department of Corrections against the three men. The lawyers also pointed to a prior 2021 incident they said involved four guards nearly killing Robert Council.
The Alabama Department of Corrections cited security concerns as the reason for the move. In a statement emailed by spokeswoman Kelly Betts, prison officials said the transfer of inmates is based on intelligence that they are engaged in activity “detrimental to the safety and security of the facilities and the public.” The statement added that “all inmates are safe, secure, and receiving regular meals and other services as needed,” and that they have had legal visits and phone service.
Earnestine Council, the mother of Robert Council, and Ann Brooks, Ray’s mother, said they have gotten little information and had difficulty reaching their sons since the transfer. Brooks said she had been unable to reach Ray, though she said he was able to make one call to his brother.
The moves come as some groups have encouraged a new prison labor strike this year similar to one in 2022 that drew national attention. Thousands of Alabama inmate workers went on strike in 2022, refusing to labor in prison kitchens, laundries and factories to protest conditions in the state lockups, according to the account in the reporting.
Several inmates told The Associated Press that prisons have recently reduced the amount of food and other items inmates can purchase each week at the prison commissary. The prison system said food service has been contracted out to a new vendor, Aramark, but did not elaborate on the commissary-related changes.