“The Alabama Solution” to receive Special Citation for Documentary Film at 2026 Goldsmith Awards

The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and the Documentary Film in the Public Interest Initiative (DFPI) will recognize THE ALABAMA SOLUTION, directed and produced by Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, with a Special Citation for Documentary Film at the 2026 Goldsmith Awards.

Guided by the principles of editorial independence, factual accuracy, and public accountability, this Special Citation honors a documentary feature film that deepens public understanding of the critical issues shaping our time. It recognizes work that meets the highest standards of journalistic ethics and integrity while illuminating complex realities with clarity and purpose.

The selection committee for the documentary film Special Citation included journalists Tom Casciato, Phillip Martin, Alexandra Zayas, and filmmakers Jacqueline Olive and Bernardo Ruiz.

The selection committee released the following statement about the film:

“We are honored to present the Shorenstein Center Special Citation for Documentary Film to The Alabama Solution, a courageous film that exposes a brutal reality of the U.S. prison system—one many may have assumed had eased. With clandestine cell phone footage, the filmmakers worked alongside incarcerated men, documenting their voices, living conditions, and a 19-day labor strike to reveal a systemic lack of transparency around beatings and deaths in one of America’s deadliest prisons. The Alabama Solution’s revelatory power is in the voices of these men, offering the closest possible lens on contemporary mass incarceration and forcing the public to confront a system that too often continues to deny the humanity of incarcerated people.”

This Special Citation comes with a $10,000 cash prize, and the filmmakers will be celebrated at the 2026 Goldsmith Awards on April 9^th, 2026.