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
We are not the voice for the voiceless—we are the voices they tried to silence.
And we’re just getting started.
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