Justice Defenders

We are building a new kind of law firm: one shaped by lived experience of incarceration. Paralegals inside. Advocates and legal professionals outside. All with lived experience, delivering high-quality legal services to the most defenceless. Across our work, more than 230 trained paralegals provide legal help inside prisons. Outside, 69% of our staff bring lived experience of incarceration into their roles. Today, formerly incarcerated leaders are qualifying as Advocates of the High Court, with more on the way. We are building a deliberate pipeline from incarceration to full legal representation and practice. A law firm staffed by those who have lived the system they are now transforming. Because those who have lived it are best placed to reshape it.

Correctional Services Principal Secretary Dr. Salome Beacco is calling for enhanced collaboration among legal sector stakeholders to improve access to justice within correctional institutions. Speaking during a meeting with representatives from the National Council for Law Reporting, Justice Defenders and Oraro & Company advocates, the PS said there was need for more coordinated engagements, mentorship and provision of legal resources for those deprived of liberty. She said such collaboration will ensure cases are resolved fairly and expeditiously, upholding the rule of law while protecting constitutional rights to timely hearings. “If we come together and collaborate, correctional institutions will be the home of second chances,” observed the PS. She said the department has prioritized key reforms aimed at enhancing access to justice and respect for human dignity by promoting non-custodial sentences, rehabilitation programs and the decongestion of facilities to improve the administration of justice. National Council for Law Reporting editor Janet Munywoki said such collaborative engagements can result in better outcomes even as she called for a need to champion public litigation matters. Present during the meeting were Pamela Ager of Oraro & Company Advocates and Country Programme Manager at Justice Defenders Kenya Hamisi Mzari.

We are building bridges across continents to reimagine justice globally. In San Francisco last week, guests gathered to watch our latest CNN documentary and hear from Justice Defenders founder Alexander McLean and Legal Education Director Morris Kaberia about how incarcerated people and prison officers across Africa are transforming justice systems as unlikely allies. After two decades strengthening justice from within, the model now begins its next chapter in the United States. Fuel the defence: join.justice-defenders.org

Today we recognise the women defending justice from places the world rarely sees. Women in our community study law, run legal offices, prepare appeals, and guide others through the justice system. Prison officers and people in prison working side by side as unlikely allies defending the defenceless. This #InternationalWomensDay, when we give, we all gain stronger communities and stronger justice systems. Stand with them. Equip the next generation of defenders: join.justice-defenders.org

Jane, Bancy, Grace and Joan are four of the women leaders in our community. They are people in prison and prison officers working together as unlikely allies to defend the defenceless. Each carries a different story. Some began this journey while serving a sentence. Others while serving in uniform. Today they study and practice the law side by side, helping others understand their rights and navigate the justice system. In the lead up to International Women’s Day we celebrate these women and the many women around the world, in prisons and in communities, who are bravely standing up for fairness and justice.

In 2025: 55 women paralegals. 3,227 women served. 1,983 released. Inside women’s prisons, they run legal offices, draft appeals, and guide women through bail and sentence review. They are not waiting for reform. They are delivering it. When you fuel the defence, you stand with the women behind this work.

Jane Muthoni achieved a perfect score in her first @UoLondon law exams while studying inside Langata Women’s Prison. She is one of nine members of the 2025 cohort who sat their assessments in Kamiti and Langata. The class recorded a 93% average. This excellence translates into practical, high-quality legal services for our clients, grounded in a preferential option for the defenceless.

Jackline was one of 12,870 people who returned home from prison in 2025. Behind every number is a person. A family. A future. We work from inside prisons so every accused person has the chance to tell their side of the story. This is long, patient work. But we refuse to grow tired of work that has no end. Because everyone deserves a fair hearing.

Power is shifting inside prisons. At the Lautoka Correctional Center in Fiji, we convened Commonwealth Law Ministers inside a prison for the very first visit of its kind. Justice leaders, correctional officers, and incarcerated people came together to engage directly on reshaping justice from the inside out. We believe prisons can be sites of transformation, where people step into the law together and power begins to shift. Grateful to @commonwealthsec and the Fiji Corrections Service for their extraordinary openness. Relationships can transform justice systems anywhere in the world.

Today we presented the Justice Defenders model at @commonwealthsec Law Ministers Meeting in Fiji, under the theme “Strengthening the Rule of Law for a Resilient Future.” We shared a practical toolkit for responsible replication across jurisdictions. Encouraged by the strong reception and a shared understanding: equipping those closest to injustice to understand, practise, and shape the law accelerates fairer societies. #CLMM #AccessToJustice #RuleOfLaw

Alexander McLean and Morris Kaberia are heading to Fiji today to attend The Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting, where Justice Defenders has been invited to present our work as a model that could be replicated across @commonwealthsec . Alongside the presentation, we will also host a prison visit for ministers, convening justice reform in direct proximity with those living and working within the system. thecommonwealth.org/news/fiji-set-… #CLMM #AccessToJustice #RuleOfLaw

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed a former prisoner to run jails. 64-year-old Stanley Richards has been appointed as New York City’s commissioner of the department of correction. He will be the first person who has served time to lead the department. Richards spent two and a half years in Rikers Island - the city’s largest jail - and another four and a half years in state prison for robbery in the late 1980s. He was released from prison in 1991. Since then he has worked helping people prepare for their release from prison and re-entry into society. Mamdani said Richards’ appointment is “a testament to the thought and leadership he will bring to every member of Correction staff and incarcerated New Yorkers underneath his purview”. Richards said: “My experience and journey is a testament that when we provide support, when we centre our collective work to hope instead of fear, when we see the best in all of us instead of judging people in the worst thing we ever done, when we see our commonality [more] than our difference, we can achieve the unimaginable.” Jails are a thorny political issue for Mamdani. Prior to his election, the democratic socialist called for “no new jails”. Now in power, he must oversee the closing of Rikers Island and its replacement with four new prisons.

We’re excited that We Are One Humanity will be interviewing Justice Defenders Hamisi Mzari and Morris Kaberia as part of the Reshaping Justice webinar. Hamisi first encountered Justice Defenders while incarcerated, when he began volunteering in 2014 to support other people in prison who had no access to legal help. He later graduated with an LLB from the University of London and is now a Senior Legal Officer at Justice Defenders, soon to be admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. Hamisi’s journey from behind bars to the Bar is living proof of how our work reimagines justice systems from the inside out. Morris, a former police officer, spent thirteen years on death row for a crime he did not commit. While incarcerated, he studied law with Justice Defenders, graduated with an LLB from the University of London, and successfully defended himself in court, securing his freedom. Today, he defends the defenceless across prisons in Kenya and Uganda as a Legal Education Lead at Justice Defenders and is currently working on a petition to end the death penalty in Kenya. Together, they will speak about what makes our model unique, training incarcerated people and prison staff side by side as paralegals and lawyers, and why legal education inside prisons reshapes justice for all. Join us on 6 February for the Reshaping Justice webinar. Register here: lnkd.in/eKcA3yPn

Last night, at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace and later at the Royal Over-Seas League in London, we gathered for our Carol Service and reception in full Justice Defenders spirit, with stories and voices born in prison finding their way into palaces. We saw warm reunions, new connections forming, and unlikely allies standing side by side in solidarity and celebration. In the King’s Chapel, we sang the same hymns once sung on death row. Morris, who spent thirteen years in prison, wept as memory met the moment. We read prayers from our incarcerated community, closing the distance between inside and outside. We lit candles for those we’ve loved and lost, including our trustee Dr Anne Merriman and our graduate officer Willy Ojulu. At the reception and documentary screening, voices from the courtroom, the media, and our own community named why this work runs so deep. We reflected on proximity, justice, and love. Thank you to everyone who stood with us last night and throughout this year — in the room, in prisons, and from your homes. We are one community, and we are grateful for you.

CNN has just released a follow-up piece to The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper. It captures major steps toward bringing our model to the United States. Led by our US ambassador Bruce Bryan, who spent nine years in Green Haven prison, our team went back inside with partners from Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, accompanied by Daniel F. Martuscello III, the Commissioner for New York State Prisons. Together they explored what it would look like for people in prison and prison officers in New York to study law side by side, as they do in our programmes across East Africa. When people who have lived the system are equipped with the power of the law, they begin to shape it. And the future shifts.

Tonight on "The Whole Story" at 8p ET, Anderson has the incredible story of Alexander McLean. He's the founder of Justice Defenders, which trains inmates and prison guards to become paralegals, and some even earn law degrees, while in some of Africa's toughest prisons.

📽️Takeover Alert! Three hours before CNN The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper premieres at 8PM ET/PT, you will be hearing from two of our lived-experience lawyers reimagining the justice system in Kenya and Uganda. Morris Kaberia is a University of London law graduate and former person on death row who now helps expand legal education across East Africa as part of Justice Defenders’ Servant Leadership Team. Hamisi Mzari is a former incarcerated person turned University of London law graduate and Senior Legal Officer at Justice Defenders, the first from our community to be admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and now practising. Follow along as they share their thoughts, answer your questions, and explain why justice must be transformed from the inside out. #JusticeDefenders #TheWholeStory #CNN #AndersonCooper

In just a few days, a groundbreaking documentary will air that challenges everything we think we know about justice. It is not fiction. It is happening inside prisons across Africa. Read our latest op-ed by Founder and CEO Alexander McLean, and discover why those who have lived through injustice may be the ones best placed to transform it. justice-defenders.org/news/when-pris…