Justice Defenders

Defends the defenceless. We train incarcerated people and prison staff side by side as paralegals and lawyers to serve those denied justice.

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

What does successful re-entry look like?

For Betty Mbatudde, it meant arriving for her first day of work as a Legal Trainee at Justice Defenders Uganda.

Betty first encountered Justice Defenders while incarcerated. She studied law, served as a prison paralegal, and helped fellow prisoners navigate the justice system from within Luzira Women Prison.

Last month, she began the next chapter of that journey.

Alongside her, two more formerly incarcerated law graduates and prison paralegals, Ismail and Sowedi, joined Justice Defenders Uganda as legal trainees.

Together, they represent something larger than individual success stories.

They represent a pathway: from incarceration to legal education, from legal education to employment, and from employment to service.

For two decades, Justice Defenders has worked to create a pathway from prison into the legal profession, enabling people with lived experience of incarceration to become paralegals, law graduates, legal professionals, and leaders.

Because justice systems are stronger when those who have experienced them from the inside help shape them from within.

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

We know our clients by name.

In prison systems where most people will never meet a lawyer, cases are often reduced to numbers and lives are left waiting.

For us, every case has a name, a story, and a path forward.

In the first three months of 2026, 8,201 people received legal support through our prison legal offices and 4,016 were released. Behind each figure is a person whose case moved forward because someone took the time to understand it, challenge it, and act on it.

Our latest dispatch shares some of those stories, including Samuel's. After more than a decade in prison and with his appeals exhausted, a Justice Defenders paralegal identified a change in the law that ultimately led to his release.

Read the January–March 2026 dispatch and meet some of the people behind the numbers.

https://t.co/lbpQHjhRym

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

Janet is free!

Charged with murder, she spent months waiting for judgment, uncertain of what would come next. Inside prison, she trained as a paralegal and began helping others with their cases before her own was resolved.

On 22 May 2026, she walked out of prison after being acquitted in court. Now, she hopes to continue using what she learned to support others.

“I want to use the knowledge I have gained to help those who are helpless. Challenges are bitter, but they are there to make us better.”

We celebrate Janet, her release, and the possibility of a future where everyone is accountable to and protected by the law.

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

In his farewell to 60 Minutes, @andersoncooper singles out our work, bringing it to a global audience once again.

That earlier coverage shifted our trajectory. It exposed the reality of legal exclusion inside prisons and contributed to the momentum now carrying the work into New York.

We are grateful for the attention, the platform, and for Anderson’s continued support.

Inside our legal offices, the work continues to move cases forward, advancing justice for the defenceless.

Watch from 7:14:
https://t.co/8lj44F5YOl

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

Can those who have suffered injustice become the ones who defend it?

This question sits at the heart of our work, and what we are now beginning to build in New York.

In this conversation on the Pursuing Justice podcast, Alexander McLean reflects on what happens when legal knowledge is placed in the hands of those who need it most.

Listen to Part 2: https://t.co/YcZxfaJ5mQ

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

Alexander McLean joined the Pursuing Justice podcast to reflect on why those closest to injustice should shape justice.

Most people in the prisons where we work have never met a lawyer. Not because they don’t need one, but because they can’t access one.

The conversation explores why the root problem is not prison conditions, but access to justice itself, and the question that reframed the model: what changes when those closest to injustice are equipped to understand and use the law?

This is what that looks like.

Read more and listen: https://t.co/bUtOyvkvbx

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

Much of our work begins not with speaking, but with listening — listening with the ear of our hearts.

Across the prisons where we work, many have experienced the justice system as punishment, exclusion, or abandonment. Too often, they are never truly heard.

We believe every person accused of a crime should have the opportunity to tell their side of the story before they are judged.

Accountability matters. Truth matters. Justice matters. But without dignity and the possibility of transformation, justice becomes only condemnation.

We place the tools of justice into the hands of those closest to injustice — building communities where dignity, responsibility, and hope can be restored.

Listening is not separate from justice. It is the beginning of it.

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

This week at the @alphacourse Leadership Conference 2026, our CEO Alexander McLean was reminded of the “upside down kingdom” — a vision where those pushed furthest to the margins are brought to the centre with dignity and honour.

One of the most striking expressions of this is that people with lived experience of prison are given the place of honour, seated in the Royal Box at the Royal Albert Hall, where the King and his family usually sit.

Later, at HTB Church, a sculpture of the prodigal son captured something deeply familiar to the heart of Justice Defenders: the longing to be welcomed home.

So many people we serve have experienced rejection, violence, shame, or exclusion. Our hope is that the legal communities we build inside prisons become places where people encounter dignity, responsibility, belonging, and transformation.

Justice is not only about laws. It is also about restoring humanity.

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

We’re pleased to share our 2025 Annual Report.

2025 marked the beginning of a new chapter, as we establish our work in the United States while continuing to deliver justice at scale across Africa.

In Kenya and Uganda, people in prison and prison staff are providing legal services from within. In New York, that same model is now taking root.

29,080 clients served across 22 legal offices
12,970 people released through the work of 233 paralegals

Thank you for walking this journey with us, and for recommitting, again and again, to a mission born as a response of the heart.

Read the full report: https://t.co/aBy1N8g1Hz

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

Today, Alexander McLean meets Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III and the team at New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to formalise the launch of a legal education pathway inside Bedford Hills Correctional Facility and Green Haven Correctional Facility.

30 learners. People in prison and correctional staff learning side by side. A ten week Introduction to Law as the starting point. A different way of engaging with the system, from within.

This work builds on a proven model that has already supported over 180,000 cases and contributed to more than 74,000 releases globally. It is now being brought into the United States context.

This is how justice is defended and transformed. By finding, inspiring, and equipping those closest to it. By building a pipeline of legal talent from prison communities into the legal establishment. By reshaping the culture of justice as those who have experienced it most directly take part in shaping it.

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

Legal knowledge does not belong to the wealthy, but to those who need it most.

40 new paralegals trained across our prison legal offices in Kenya. Incarcerated people, prison and probation officers completed intensive training, delivered by national and global legal experts and culminating in assessment.

On April 17, they gathered at Nairobi Remand to mark completion.

They now step forward to serve others, expanding access to justice from within the system. Shaped by lived experience, and sustained shoulder to shoulder within a community standing in defence of the defenceless.

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

Our episode of CNN The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper has been nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Social Issue Coverage.

We work for a world where everyone has the right to tell their side of the story.

Storytelling can reshape how justice is understood, and who gets to shape it.

Proud to stand alongside others driving that shift.

Watch the first 5 minutes: https://t.co/DVGkrI5nwc

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

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.

[State Department for Correctional Services | Kenya @CorrectionalKE]

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.

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

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: https://t.co/sKPlL0aZOp

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

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: https://t.co/sKPlL0aZOp

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

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.

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

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.

[Justice Defenders @justicedefends]

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.