Andrew Jarecki

Alabama and had been in this prison system for like 30 years and she said you know I think you should read this book with me because I think you know you're interested in this stuff and then we read the book together and we just sort of spontaneously decided to take a road trip to Montgomery we went to Montgomery we didn't know anybody we almost accidentally met a man who was almost 80 years old who was the first black prison chaplain in the state of Alabama appointed by George Wallace and

I think he was like George Wallace's one black friend because he had to have one.

And so I asked him to have dinner with us.

So we sat and had dinner and I started asking him questions and he was kind of reluctant to.

to tell me too much, but I could also tell he had a lot of pain because he goes into these prisons all the time, so he knows what's happening in the prisons, but he's afraid that if he tells me too much, then I'm going to get too nosy, and then maybe he's going to get kicked out of the prisons because we start...

But I could tell he didn't want to let me leave either.

And so we had this little standoff for a while where I was asking questions.

And he said, well, why don't you just come back and you can see for yourself.

And I said, well, I'm a filmmaker.

They're not going to let me into the Alabama prison system.

And he said, well, just come in without a camera.

Just come in and volunteer.

And we'll give out hygiene packages and food.

And so I said, all right, maybe I'm going to do that.

Well, if I do come back, what will I see?

And I could tell that he was sort of thinking about whether he wanted to say this thing that he was going to say to me.

Because he knew if he said the right thing, I would come back.

And if he didn't, maybe I wouldn't.

And he said, if you come back, I'll take you on the death row at Holman Prison, and you'll see it's a slave ship.

And that was a very important kind of moment for me.