On January 13th and 14th, Robert Earl Council, Melvin Ray, and Ricardo Poole — three incarcerated whistleblowers featured in The Alabama Solution documentary — were abruptly transferred to Kilby Correctional Facility. For more than two weeks, they've been held in solitary confinement in cruel, inhumane conditions, and deprived of their civil and human rights.

Despite this retaliation by the Alabama Department of Corrections, the Prison Oversight Committee, tasked with keeping the Department accountable amid a humanitarian crisis, did not address or mention this retaliation at their January 28th meeting, nor meaningfully address any of the deadly issues facing people incarcerated in Alabama prisons.

Send a letter to the Alabama Department of Corrections and the members of the Prison Oversight Committee to demand that these three whistleblowers are kept safe and to end retaliation against them, and to meaningfully address the crisis in the prisons.

The letter text is listed below:

Commissioner Hamm and member of the Prison Oversight Committee,

I'm writing to demand that the Alabama Department of Corrections take immediate action to protect Robert Earl Council, Melvin Ray, and Ricardo Poole and their civil and human rights. Robert Earl, Melvin, and Raoul are incarcerated whistleblowers featured in the documentary film ”The Alabama Solution,” exposing the humanitarian crisis inside Alabama's prisons. Since mid-January, they have been transferred to extreme isolation and the deprivation of the civil and human rights in solitary confinement at Kilby Correctional Facility. These men fear for their safety, and they have no way to regularly communicate with their loved ones. The Department of Corrections is responsible for the safety of all people incarcerated in their custody, and the Prison Oversight Committee is responsible for addressing systemic issues across Alabama prisons — including ADOC's pattern of retaliation against incarcerated people and staff who speak to the media about the crisis in the prisons. Please take immediate action to end this retaliatory segregation, restore their access to communicate with their loved ones, and protect them from further retaliation like abrupt transfers, unjust segregation, confinement to inhumane living areas, and other actions designed to punish them for speaking out.