A Call for Compassion and Accountability

 A Call for Compassion and Accountability:

We are all called to remember those in prison, not just in the abstract, but as if we were with them—suffering the same injustices they face. Hebrews 13:3 speaks directly to the heart of what it means to truly care for our fellow human beings: "Remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering."

It also says in Mattew 25:33-46 that I was hungry, sick, and in prison and you visited me. When you do an etymology on the word visit. It means to administer to the needs there of ! 

 

This verse challenges us to consider the humanity of those behind bars, especially when it comes to the deep, systemic issues that many of them face. The horrors revealed in the HBO film The Alabama Solution should not be taken lightly. The stark realities depicted in this documentary—ranging from inhumane treatment and overcrowded conditions to exploitative practices—are not just the problems of a few, but a reflection of our shared societal failure to uphold justice, compassion, and dignity for all people.

As members of society, we are responsible for those in power and those they serve. Our government representatives are supposed to protect us, all of us, including the most vulnerable. We cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering that takes place behind bars. This is not just a prison problem; it’s a reflection of how we value human life, justice, and fairness.

It is time for us to demand accountability. It is time to call on our lawmakers to address the inhumane treatment within the prison system, and hold those in power responsible for their failures to provide humane conditions for those incarcerated.

Let’s use our collective voice to demand:

Transparency in the prison system

Reform to prevent abuse and mistreatment

Equal justice for all, regardless of status or background

A system that values rehabilitation over punishment, compassion over cruelty

Remember those in prison—because they are not just a statistic or an issue on the news. They are people who deserve the same dignity and rights we all do. Their suffering is a reflection of how our society functions, and it's time for us to address it head-on.

The time for complacency is over. We must act now, not only for the prisoners but for the integrity of our justice system and the moral fiber of our nation.

Alabama Solutions Review

 OP-ED: Alabama Solutions is Powerful — But Let’s Be Clear Who Made It Possible

By Pastor Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow

Founder, The Ordinary People Society (TOPS)

National Faith Leader & Pioneer of the Formerly Incarcerated People Movement

“This documentary is not the beginning. It’s the continuation of a truth we’ve been telling—and living—for over 30 years.”

What the Documentary 

Reveals

The Alabama Solutions documentary is a gut punch to the system. It lays bare the violent, inhumane, and deliberately oppressive reality of Alabama’s prison system. For some, it’s shocking. For us, it’s confirmation.

For over 31 years, I’ve lived this. I’ve exposed it. I’ve preached it. I’ve fought it. And for just as long, many ignored or silenced me—until now, when it’s finally packaged and polished for the screen.

This documentary gives the public a peek behind the walls. But it doesn’t tell the whole story. And it definitely didn’t start with a film crew.

The Work Behind the Camera

I founded The Ordinary People Society (TOPS) while incarcerated in 1994. Back when people were still denying prisons were modern-day plantations, we were calling it what it was: legalized slavery.

We didn’t wait for approval or permission. We fought for rights inside the walls—starting with the right to vote.

That led to the landmark case Glasgow v. State of Alabama, which confirmed that incarcerated people with non-moral turpitude convictions never lost their voting rights.

From Faith Dorms to feeding ministries, from reentry support to policy fights, I’ve worked across Alabama, Florida, and Georgia building the infrastructure this documentary now stands on.

What 

Alabama Solutions

 Gets Right

It shows the:

• Overcrowded prisons
• Medical and mental health neglect
• Systemic abuse
• ADOC’s leadership failures
• egregious inhumanity 

And it amplifies voices from the inside—many of which the world is only hearing for the first time.

What the Documentary Leaves Out

But make no mistake—Alabama Solutions has major blind spots.

• It doesn’t show Tutwiler Prison for Women, where our sisters endure sexual violence, rape and neglect.
• It doesn’t show the reentry battlefield—where we face homelessness, joblessness, and no path forward the minute we walk out the gate with nothing but the clothes on our backs and $10 if that. 
• And it doesn’t show the decades of leadership from the formerly incarcerated—the ones closest to the pain, and closest to the solution.

It’s easy to focus on the fire now. But I ask again—who lit the match?

We Are the Solutions

The people closest to the problem have always been closest to the solution.

We never waited for institutions to validate us. We were the chaplains, the strategists, the organizers, the preachers, and the policy experts—because we had to be.

Now the world is catching up. But don’t rewrite our history:

• Don’t erase 31 years of prophetic witness.
• Don’t erase the hunger strikes, lawsuits, sermons, and shutdowns.
• Don’t erase us—those who built the foundation this movement stands on.

This Documentary Is a Door—Not the Destination

Let Alabama Solutions be the doorway, not the destination.

Let it ignite deeper change—not just screen time.

Let it lead people to action—not just applause.

Because we are the survivors.

We are the architects.

We are the Experts By Experience 

We are the Alabama solutions.

About Pastor Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow

Pastor Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow is the founder of The Ordinary People Society (TOPS), Founder of the Formerly Incarcerated People’s Movement (FIPM), and founder of FCIPU – Formerly & Currently Incarcerated People United. He also serves as National President of the New National Christian Leadership Movement (NNCLM) and leads KSG Ministries & Consultants.

With over three decades of ministry, policy advocacy, and grassroots organizing, Pastor Glasgow is a national voice for justice and reform—born from the inside, leading from the front.

CALL TO ACTION: JOIN THE FIGHT FOR A NEW BOTTOM LINE

We are building a movement—not a moment.

We are uniting voices—formerly and currently incarcerated—under one powerful banner: FCIPU.

We are lifting up faith, freedom, and fire for justice through the New National Christian Leadership Movement.

👉 Join us. March with us. Organize with us. Fund this fight.

🖥️ www.ksgconsultants.org | www.wearetops.org

📍 805 North Lena Street, Dothan, AL

📞 (334) 791-2433

Kennethglasgow@gmail.com 

We are not the voice for the voiceless—we are the voices they tried to silence.

And we’re just getting started. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZuuFZDq9Yk

http://youtu.be/7L_h2nVceJc

Pastor Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow

Ministries 

334-791-2433 cell

403 West Powell St. Dothan, AL 36303

WKCG 99.1 fm 

Pas Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow 

Via Facebook 

When God sends His Servants to Prison

 

When God Sends His Servants to Prison: Purpose Behind the Bars

Throughout Scripture, some of God’s greatest leaders—pastors, prophets, and apostles—found themselves behind bars. Yet, imprisonment did not disqualify them. It didn’t lessen their anointing, silence their calling, or erase their divine purpose. Instead, it fulfilled it. God often used prison as a place of preparation, revelation, and transformation.

Biblical Men of God Who Went to Jail

• Joseph was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and thrown into prison (Genesis 39). But it was there, in confinement, that his gift of interpreting dreams opened the door for his destiny. By the time he was released, he rose to become the second most powerful man in Egypt.
• Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, was imprisoned multiple times for prophesying truth to power (Jeremiah 37–38). His message was so uncomfortable that kings tried to silence him—but God’s word could not be chained.
• Daniel was thrown into a lions’ den for praying to his God (Daniel 6). What was meant to kill him became his platform to display divine deliverance.
• John the Baptist, who Jesus called the greatest born among women, was imprisoned and later executed for speaking against Herod’s corruption (Matthew 14). Even from prison, his influence echoed in Jesus’ ministry.
• The Apostle Peter was jailed for preaching the Gospel (Acts 12). But in the middle of the night, an angel opened the prison doors—proof that man’s confinement cannot stop God’s plan.
• Paul and Silas were beaten and locked in a dungeon for spreading the Word (Acts 16). Yet they sang praises at midnight, and their worship caused a divine earthquake that broke every chain—not only theirs, but everyone’s around them.
• The Apostle Paul himself wrote much of the New Testament while incarcerated. Letters like Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon were written from prison cells—proof that the Word of God flows even through walls of stone.

These men were not criminals in God’s eyes; they were carriers of purpose. Prison was not punishment—it was positioning.

The Purpose in the Prison

What the world calls confinement, God calls consecration.

What people call shame, God calls shaping.

What others see as downfall, God sees as development.

Every time a servant of God went behind bars, God used it to elevate His message. When Joseph was jailed, Egypt’s future was saved. When Jeremiah was confined, prophecy was preserved. When Paul was imprisoned, the church received doctrine that would guide it for generations.

Prison did not reduce them—it revealed them.

The Hypocrisy of Modern Christianity

And yet today, many who call themselves Christians read the same Bible but judge differently. They celebrate Paul’s letters from prison but condemn modern prophets who endure the same fate. They quote Joseph’s story but abandon today’s Josephs when they’re falsely accused.

Many in today’s faith and advocacy spaces claim to fight for justice, to uplift the marginalized, and to restore the broken. But when God raises a leader who has actually walked through the fire—who has been tried, tested, and transformed—they back away. They fund the idea of redemption but not the people who embody it.

This is the hypocrisy of the movement: they praise deliverance but distance themselves from the delivered. They want the message, not the mess that produces it. They want the testimony, not the test.

God’s Purpose Still Prevails

When Paul sat in a Roman cell, he didn’t have donors, funders, or friends standing beside him. Yet his letters reached further than any preacher’s voice in history. His chains became a microphone for the Gospel.

The same God who used prisons in the Bible still uses them today. The same Spirit that anointed prophets in captivity still anoints men and women behind bars right now. The difference is not God’s purpose—it’s our perception.

Until the Church and the so-called movement recognize that God’s power often shows up in the most unlikely places—in prisons, rehabs, shelters, and streets—we will keep missing His true prophets.

Conclusion

God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called.

And sometimes, He sends them to a place of isolation to refine their voice, test their faith, and expand their reach.

So before you judge a man or woman of God by where they’ve been, look at what God is doing through them.

Because the same people society throws away are often the very ones God uses to set His people free.