News & Commentary
Ending Indefinite Solitary Confinement for the Vast Majority of People with Death Sentences in Oklahoma
By Travis Handler
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Share this event "Stories That Free Us!" The Alabama Solution Screening & Panel Discussion
JJI hosts The Alabama Solution Screening + panel connecting prison conditions in Alabama & Oklahoma and why reform matters nationwide.
Join the Julius Jones Institute for a powerful community screening of The Alabama Solution, an Oscar-nominated 2025 documentary that brings audiences inside the Alabama Department of Corrections, revealing severe conditions, unchecked violence, and systemic failures long hidden from public view through footage recorded by incarcerated people themselves.
This event is hosted in partnership with C.A.N, Diversion Hub, Foundation for Liberating Minds, ACLU of Oklahoma, LiveFree Oklahoma, Oklahoma Appleseed and Vote For Change.
Though the film centers on Alabama’s prison crisis, these systemic issues are urgent not only in Alabama, but also in Oklahoma and across the United States, where communities are impacted by mass incarceration, lack of accountability, and human rights concerns within our carceral system.
Following the screening, stay for a community panel moderated by Senator Nikki Nice, where leaders and advocates will discuss how the film’s insights connect to justice system challenges nationally and locally, and explore pathways toward reform, accountability, healing, and collective action.
Activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham on Building a Lasting Movement
In the last month, protests have erupted across the country calling for justice for Black lives, a wholesale restructuring of policing, and a greater racial reckoning across all facets of American society.
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“All Hell Broke Loose.”
When Kishon McDonald saw the video of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of four officers from the Minneapolis Police Department, he could tell it was going to turn the country upside down. “I knew it was going to catch fire,” he said. McDonald, a former sailor in the U.S. Navy, watched over the following days as demonstrations against police brutality spread from Minneapolis to cities and towns across the country, eventually reaching Washington, D.C., where he lived. On June 1, he heard that people were planning to peacefully gather at Lafayette Square, a small park directly across from the White House, and decided to join them. By then, police had begun to attack and beat demonstrators in Minneapolis, New York, and others in states everywhere, escalating tensions as smaller groups broke into shops and set fire to police cars. But when McDonald arrived at Lafayette Square, he found a crowd of a few thousand people cheering, chanting slogans, and listening to speeches. Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had imposed a 7 p.m. curfew after clashes the night before, but that was still an hour away. “Everybody there was like, it’s alright, we’re going to be here until 7 o’clock,” he said. “It was a very good energy.” It wouldn’t be long before that would change.
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