An Organization That Provides Legal Training for Inmates

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, Alexander, how do you get prisoners and, in fact, prison guards and others in prisons, whether in Uganda or Kenya, to actually become expert at what they’re doing? You’re affiliated with a university in London, right?

ALEXANDER MCLEAN, FOUNDER, JUSTICE DEFENDERS: We are. There’s a hunger for justice in Uganda, in Kenya, in the Gambia, where we’re soon working, in dozens of countries around the world, which has said, bring your model to our country. Prison officials say, we can’t say no to any prisoner who is sent to us by the courts. The head of Uganda Prison Service said, we have got the gallows, we have got the executioners, but we can’t be sure if we’re to execute anyone that they are guilty of a crime, because we know our justice system isn’t functioning as it might. We know that 80 to 90 percent of our prisoners never meet a lawyer. And it means that we have got innocent people in prison for years. And so we train them as paralegals, giving them knowledge about how the local criminal justice system functions, so they can work on bail applications and prepare those without lawyers for trial or work on their appeals. And then we have this incredible cohort. It’s following in Nelson Mandela’s footsteps, studying law with the University of London by correspondents from prison. We have got 39 prisoners and prison officers who have graduated so far. They study side by side. In some of our classes, prisoners are teaching prison officers law. Our first graduate, Moses, started studying when he was a prisoner. He used his legal knowledge from the University of London to work on his appeal. He got his conviction overturned. Now he’s a prosecutor in the Ugandan army.

AMANPOUR: So, I want to turn to Jane Manyonge, who is in prison right now. We find her at the legal office that you all set up in the woman’s prison, which is outside of the capital, Nairobi. Jane, tell me how you got interested in this idea of training to be a paralegal, training to really understand the law and be able to use it.

JANE MANYONGE, PARALEGAL AND INMATE: I did not have the knowledge before. And I thought that ignorance may be defense in the court of law, but it wasn’t. Now I had to prepare myself for an appeal, to present myself in court. And where was I to get the knowledge? I was to get it from the Justice Defenders. Thank you.

AMANPOUR: Jane, why are you in prison? You were convicted of murder, right?

MANYONGE: Yes.

AMANPOUR: Murdering your husband?

MANYONGE: Yes.

AMANPOUR: Did you do it?

MANYONGE: I did it.

AMANPOUR: So, you believe that some punishment or punishment is due to you, correct?

MANYONGE: Oh, my. Yes, some, but not all of them.