Tutwiler

America ReFramed Season 8
  • Feature Film
  • 2020
  • 45 Mins

Tutwiler takes audiences into Alabama’s only maximum security women’s penitentiary, Julia Tutwiler Prison and explores the Alabama Prison Birth Project, helping expectant and new mothers learn childbirth and parenting skills while dealing with the pain of being separated from their children.

Tutwiler is presented in partnership with FRONTLINE and The Marshall Project.

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Film Credits

  • Elaine McMillion Sheldon Director, Producer
  • Alysia Santo Reporter, Producer

Critical Acclaim

As the population of incarcerated pregnant women across the U.S. continues to grow, Tutwiler is a powerful lens into the reality of pregnancy and parenthood behind bars.

“What we found was much more complex than a black-and-white, good-and-bad story,” says Sheldon. “I think it’s in many ways the story that other Southern prisons, and prisons across the United States, need to see.”

FRONTLINE Production with The Marshall Project