Alabama prison officials transferred 'Alabama Solution' whistleblowers to extreme solitary confinement

In mid-January 2026 — approximately January 14, per an Associated Press report published January 28 stating the men "were transferred two weeks ago" — the Alabama Department of Corrections abruptly moved incarcerated activists Raoul Poole, Robert Earl Council (known as "Kinetik Justice"), and Melvin Ray from their respective prisons, via convoy, into an isolated five-cell unit at Kilby Correctional Facility outside Montgomery, Alabama, where they were held in extreme solitary confinement. All three men were the sole subjects of "The Alabama Solution," a 2025 Oscar-nominated documentary built substantially on contraband cell-phone footage the men and other incarcerated people shot inside Alabama prisons, exposing overcrowding, medical neglect, drug use, and violence by officers.

Attorneys representing the men said the Alabama Department of Corrections gave no explanation for the transfer and that the restrictions imposed "far exceed standard administrative segregation protocols," cutting the men off from contact with other prisoners, prison staff, and initially their families. A department spokeswoman, Kelly Betts, said in a statement that the transfers were "based on intelligence that they are engaged in activity that is detrimental to the safety and security of the facilities and the public," without elaborating. The men's attorneys and family members, along with the documentary's director, Andrew Jarecki, described the move as retaliation, noting the transfer came after Council, Ray, and Poole announced a nonviolent prison work strike in December 2025, and that Council was beaten unconscious by guards in a 2021 incident after prior organizing.

Council and Ray co-founded the Free Alabama Movement in 2013 to organize against forced prison labor and unsafe conditions, and both were previously held in solitary confinement for roughly five years and classified as enemies to keep them separated following earlier activism.