In prisons across Kenya and Uganda, the Justice Defenders organization is training hundreds of inmates, many of whom don't have their own lawyer, to become paralegals and attorneys.
Justice Defenders: The organization teaching prisoners in Africa how to defend themselves in court - 60 Minutes cbsnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cbsnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Over the years we ve done a number of stories about wrongly convicted prisoners who get exonerated when a crusading attorney takes on their case. In prisons around the world, however, that rarely happens. In Kenya, for example, more than 80% of prisoners have never been represented by a lawyer. Justice Defenders would like to change that. It s an organization started in Africa by a soft-spoken, 35-year-old lawyer named Alexander McLean. Justice Defenders has worked in 46 prisons in Kenya and Uganda, giving legal training to hundreds of inmates who can then help their fellow prisoners, the innocent and the guilty, get a fair hearing in court. They are also helping some prisoners get law degrees, and as we found out when we visited Kenya before the pandemic, the results have been astounding.