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The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper
Justice Defenders: Change Inside Prison. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired December 07, 2025 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: These hundreds of people have access to an attorney.
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JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: An all-new episode of "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER," that is headed your way next only here on CNN and then tomorrow on the CNN app.
Thank you so much for joining me tonight. I'm Jessica Dean. If you're here in the U.S., you can now stream CNN whenever you want on the CNN app. Just go to CNN.com/watch to check that out. We're going to see you back here next weekend. Have a great night, everyone.
COOPER: Welcome to THE WHOLE STORY. I'm Anderson Cooper.
In this next hour, I'll bring you a story about a remarkable man named Alexander McLean. He founded and runs an organization called Justice Defenders which says it's worked on the legal cases in more than 170,000 men and women incarcerated in some of Africa's toughest prisons. And many of these men and women have no access to attorneys and may have been waiting in prison for years just to get a hearing. Justice Defenders has helped some 69,000 of them win their freedom.
What makes Justice Defenders so unique is they train the incarcerated and prison guards to be paralegals, who then help others in prison learn the law and prepare their own defenses. For those who've shown a willingness to serve others while serving their sentences, Justice Defenders will help them get law degrees from the same British law school that Nelson Mandela studied with while he was incarcerated.
Alexander McLean hopes what he and his Justice Defenders have accomplished in nearly two dozen African prisons might also be possible in prisons around the world, particularly right here in the United States.
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ALEXANDER MCLEAN, FOUNDER AND CEO, JUSTICE DEFENDERS: In countries like Kenya and Uganda, and far beyond, you'll find that often 70 percent or 80 percent or 90 percent of the prison population has never met a lawyer. And as Justice Defenders, we're dreaming of a world where every accused person has a chance to tell their side of the story before they're convicted or punished for a crime.
We ask, how can we be unlikely allies? That's how we see ourselves. This community of unlikely allies who are hated by many because of the things we've done to bring us to prison. And we're expected to hate each other. There's more to each of us than the worst thing that we've done.
COOPER (voice-over): Inside Thika Prison, one day feels the same as the next. At 6:00 am, men on kitchen duty prepare breakfast over open flames. About 900 incarcerated men line up. They wash their hands and quickly get their meal. Today, like many days, it's a kind of cornmeal porridge and beans. It's grim, but orderly. The guards keep tight control, though overcrowding is a constant concern.
In this cell there's 170 men who sleep here. It's a cell built for about 70 people. There's one toilet for all 170. It is stifling hot. There's very little ventilation. The conditions are difficult, to say the least. All the men here asleep on the floor. And they have to sleep on their sides because there's not enough room for somebody to sleep flat. They're in this room from around 5:30 in the afternoon until 6:00 am, all of them together here. There's been an outbreak of scabies because of the close conditions.
(Voice-over): Just outside the cell, hundreds more men sit in rows. Five times a day they gather for headcount.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One hundred and 10.
COOPER (voice-over): The guards tally their numbers. By now the men are used to this routine, they know what to expect from prison life on a daily basis. What many here, and in prisons throughout Kenya, don't know is how long they'll be locked up. Some can't afford to pay a relatively small bail, others aren't sure of the charges against them. They don't have access to an attorney and don't know their rights.
There are inmates here who have been convicted of crimes, and many others who are still waiting to see a judge.
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Inmates who wear the striped uniform, that means they've had their case heard. They've been convicted by a court. But they're doing a headcount now of inmates who have not been convicted of anything. There are several hundred people here. There's more in this cell as well, and very few of these hundreds of people have access to an attorney.
(Voice-over): On this day, however, there's a special visitor.
MCLEAN: Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. Alexander McLean, founder and CEO of Justice Defenders. It's great to be back here with you.
COOPER (voice-over): Alexander McLean is a British Jamaican lawyer who founded Justice Defenders 18 years ago. In this prison, and 21 others in Kenya and Uganda, Justice Defenders has trained about 240 men and women to be paralegals, and helped 67 get law degrees so they can help others behind bars.
MCLEAN: So I'm excited and expectant for the time that we're going to share. Some have been in prison for long periods, and we thank each of you for your discipline and your hospitality.
COOPER (voice-over): We followed Alexander McLean and others from Justice Defenders for weeks as they worked in four different prisons in Kenya, three of them maximum security facilities. McLean was welcomed by prison officers and guards who are also eligible to receive the same legal training Justice Defenders offers those who are incarcerated.
MCLEAN: As Justice Defenders we stand with you in love and solidarity because the law is for you.
COOPER (voice-over): In this prison, McLean is speaking to about 150 men waiting for their court dates.
MCLEAN: Raise your hand if you have a lawyer representing you.
COOPER (voice-over): Only about 10 raised their hands, indicating they have access to a lawyer.
MCLEAN: And those who don't, if you don't have a lawyer.
COOPER: How common is it to meet people who have never had an attorney, and they've been incarcerated for years awaiting a trial?
MCLEAN: In countries like Kenya and Uganda, but all around Sub-Saharan Africa and far beyond, you'll find that often 70 percent or 80 percent or 90 percent of the prison population has never met a lawyer.
COOPER: I mean, that's incredible.
MCLEAN: Many people don't understand that they have a right to speak in court. A senior officer in the Kenya Prison Service said to me once, we reckon about half of our prisoners are innocent because they've gone to court, they've gone for trial and they've had no one to speak on their behalf.
COOPER (voice-over): At Thika, incarcerated men, and women from a nearby prison, have come to hear the presentation by Justice Defenders.
This is a legal training session that Justice Defenders is holding. There's probably about 150, maybe 200 incarcerated people here. Some have already been convicted of crimes, many, though, are still awaiting trial, and they may be here for years. A session like this will give them just some basic information about what lies ahead for them.
MORRIS KABERIA, FORMERLY INCARCERATED PERSON: That is the only way you will understand how the prosecution is framing the case against you. That's the only way you will be able to defend yourself, to tell your story.
(Through text translation): We will ask questions in court. We will go home. We will go home.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER (voice-over): That's Morris Kaberia, and he was once incarcerated here. We'll introduce you to him shortly. But, first, I'm looking for a man I met in another prison in Kenya six years ago who's now been moved here.
GEORGE KARABA, INCARCERATED PERSON: Ah, brother Anderson.
COOPER: It's good to see you.
KARABA: Nice to see you, too. How are you doing?
COOPER: You look good.
KARABA: You look very fine.
COOPER: Yes, you look-- you look good. You look younger. I don't know what's -- what are you doing?
KARABA: You too.
COOPER: No. I'm ravaged by time.
KARABA: Thank you so much. Welcome here.
COOPER: Yes, yes.
KARABA: Yes. We've been waiting for you. That's very fine.
COOPER: It's so good to see you.
KARABA: We're so happy to see you.
COOPER (voice-over): His name is George Karaba, and he's been locked up for 23 years.
This is yours?
KARABA: Yes. Welcome in. So this is my place. That's my bed. That's Karioke's bed.
COOPER: So you have -- is this all to yourself or?
KARABA: No, we are three of us here.
COOPER: Three of you?
KARABA: Yes.
COOPER (voice-over): In 2002, Karaba was charged with murder. He said it was self-defense, but he was found guilty and sentenced to death.
When you got convicted and you heard that death penalty, could you ever have imagined in that moment that you would be here right now? KARABA: In fact, I thought that my life was over.
COOPER (voice-over): Justice Defenders helped him get his sentence commuted to life in 2009, and made it possible for him to study for a law degree through the University of London. Karaba graduated in 2018.
Do you like the law?
KARABA: Very much.
COOPER: You do?
KARABA: It is what I eat, what I even -- that's basically what I live upon. My life revolves around it. That's why I can't just abandon it.
COOPER: Even though the law brought you here?
KARABA: Yes. Even though the law brought me here.
COOPER: I mean, the law turned against you and brought you here.
KARABA: Because you know they brought me here because I did not understand it. If I had understood the intricacies of the law, I could not have been here.
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COOPER: If you had known the law --
KARABA: If I had known law, I wouldn't be here.
COOPER: You wouldn't be here.
(Voice-over): This is what Alexander McLean is working towards, helping everyone access the law, the innocent and the guilty. He believes every life has value.
How did you come to be in Africa?
MCLEAN: When I was 16, I read about Hospice Africa Uganda, in Kampala, set up by Dr. Anne Merriman. I said, I want to be like Dr. Anne.
COOPER (voice-over): Two years later, he went to Uganda and volunteered with Dr. Merriman.
MCLEAN: But one day we went to Uganda's main government hospital, and I saw this man lying on the floor by the toilet. He was lying naked. I said to a nurse, what's the deal with him? She said the police found him unconscious in the market. We think he's in a diabetic coma. Because he doesn't have money, he doesn't get care. We're waiting for him to die.
COOPER: He wasn't getting care, though he was in a hospital?
MCLEAN: Yes, because he couldn't pay for it. And so he was lying down on the floor in a pool of urine, and the flesh on his bottom and back was rotten down to the bone. And I spoke to Dr. Anne about him. She said with someone like that, even if he's going to die, he can die when he feels loved, that when he feels cared for. I bought a basin and a towel and a bar of soap. I found a nurse who'd been trained by the hospice. We tied bandages around our noses because of how he smelled and we washed him.
I did this for a number of days, and I came one day and he had died the night before. And he was lying dead and naked on the floor. I called my mom that evening and I cried for that guy because I couldn't imagine that someone could die in that way.
COOPER (voice-over): He also began doing hospice work in a prison, and got his first glimpse at what life and death behind bars was like.
MCLEAN: I bulldozed my way into Uganda's maximum security prison, and it changed me.
COOPER: That was the first time you'd been in a prison in Africa?
MCLEAN: Yes. There was no plan. It's just that I met these prisoners in hospital, I was moved by what I saw. I went off to university to study law, and I raised money for my old school and friends and family and church. Working with prisoners and prison officers, we refurbished that prison hospital. So even if prisoners were going to die there, they die when they felt their lives were valued.
We were actually creating a more beautiful, better stocked environment, motivated the doctors and nurses to show up more and the death rate went down. I got a sense that education was something that the people in prison were excited about.
COOPER (voice-over): Alexander McLean's work here in Kenya is a direct result of that experience in a Ugandan prison. At first, his focus wasn't the law. After all, nearly 40 percent of Kenyans live in poverty.
After Alexander McLean came to Africa to care for dying patients in hospitals and prisons in Uganda, he established Justice Defenders. Back then he called it African Prisons Project, and for the next 10 years he focused on improving conditions inside prisons in Uganda and here in Kenya, building medical facilities, running education programs. But after all that time, he realized there was a lot more he could do.
MCLEAN: We saw that the need was limitless. So we asked, how do we go to the root? The problem being a need for an improved healthcare and education for people in prison, was the fact that prisons were so crowded because people weren't getting justice. So we thought, well, why don't we give them legal knowledge and maybe it can bring transformation in their communities.
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MCLEAN: As I was doing my training to become a barrister, I wondered, why is it that often those who make the law and implement it come from backgrounds of privilege, and those who feel the weight of the law come from backgrounds of poverty?
Saint Oscar Romero said certain things can only be seen through eyes that have cried, and we started to get an inkling that someone who'd been in prison for years without trial, in some cases five or 10 or 20 years without trial, or someone who's been tortured in the police station, they can have an interest in justice. It's not intellectual, it's not academic, but their heart has been formed by what they've experienced.
COOPER: I mean, some organizations would come in with lawyers from the outside and look at people's cases. That's not the model you chose.
MCLEAN: We believe the law is for all of us, and all of us should understand it and be able to engage in it. And so that was the beginnings of our model. And I had studied for my masters with the University of London, I knew that Mandela had studied with him from prison. So we thought, well, why don't we give it a try? Maybe we can create a new generation of Mandelas, people who've been in prison, people who've suffered at the hands of the state but who've got brains that can move mountains.
COOPER (voice-over): Alexander McLean may be idealistic, but he's not naive. He and the other Justice Defenders are well aware plenty of people in these prisons have committed terrible crimes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): How many have a case of robbery with violence? OK. Stealing?
COOPER (voice-over): They do, however, believe everyone has a right to a fair hearing.
You work with people who have committed crimes, sometimes heinous crimes, murder, rape.
MCLEAN: Even a person who's guilty of a crime should have a chance to explain what was behind it, what their circumstances are. Perhaps they're going to be punished, perhaps sent to prison, but I think there's a sense of peace that comes from knowing that they've been heard.
COOPER (voice-over): And those who've shown a desire to help others while incarcerated can train to become paralegals or even lawyers.
If they've shown a willingness to serve inside the prison, then they get a chance.
MCLEAN: And if they have a vision for how they'll use legal knowledge to transform their community in prison and beyond, and when it comes to getting a law degree, if academically they're able to be admitted to the University of London, then absolutely, we'll take them. Our focus is on loving each other rather than judging.
COOPER: But what about punishment? MCLEAN: One of the things that struck me when I first came into
prisons here in Africa is I heard again and again the people are sent to prison as punishment, not for punishment.
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If in prison we say, how can we dehumanize this person on a daily basis? How can we make them feel less than us on a daily basis? What does it mean for that person when they come out of prison? Almost everyone in prison today will come out in the future. If we dehumanize each other, we don't make our society safer.
COOPER (voice-over): Justice Defenders relies on donations. Putting someone through law school is not inexpensive, but it's nothing compared to the cost of law school or attorney's fees in the U.S.
MCLEAN: In terms of getting people out of prison, we spend an average of a few hundred dollars on each case. To train a paralegal costs less than $1,000. To get someone from beginning their University of London law degree to completing it into the bar costs about $25,000. It's an investment, but that's preparing them for a lifetime of service.
COOPER (voice-over): Remember Morris Kaberia? He was giving a talk inside Thika Prison. He was incarcerated for 13 years for a crime he always said he didn't commit.
This was your room?
KABERIA: Yes, this was my room.
COOPER: And so, how many people were in here at the time when you were here?
KABERIA: When I was here, we were staying here, 30 of us.
COOPER: Thirty people.
KABERIA: Thirty people here.
COOPER: This is a room maybe for 15.
KABERIA: Of course, as you can see, these are around 10, 12 people, and they are already at full capacity. But when I was living here, we were living 30 of us. And we would sleep in shifts.
COOPER: In shifts?
KABERIA: In shifts because we couldn't sleep, all of us.
COOPER: So what kind of shifts?
KABERIA: You know, you sleep, others stand, some sleep down, then others they -- we replace each other. We change.
COOPER (voice-over): Kaberia was a police officer in Nairobi. In 2005 he was accused of stealing a cell phone. For eight years he waited for a trial, convinced he'd be found not guilty, but that's not what happened.
What were you convicted of?
KABERIA: Robbery with violence.
COOPER: And what was the sentence?
KABERIA: Death.
COOPER: You had a death penalty?
KABERIA: Yes. It happened like a shock to me to be sentenced. I didn't think I could be convicted even for a day or for an hour.
COOPER: You were sure that --
KABERIA: I was very sure. I was innocent, and the law would see that I was innocent. But, unfortunately, I was convicted. And when I heard those words, what I saw was darkness and I thought my life had gone.
So the first time I came here, I was told to sleep somewhere here. That's where I slept that first day.
COOPER: Right down there?
KABERIA: Yes. That's the bathroom. So -- but I graduated because here you start graduating the way -- the longer you stay, you continue graduating. So I graduated a bit and until I came here.
COOPER: So new people are positioned near the toilet?
KABERIA: New people are positioned here near the door.
COOPER: And near the toilet, which is the least desirable spot.
KABERIA: Yes, yes.
COOPER (voice-over): Just like George Karaba, Morris Kaberia found Justice Defenders while on death row. They showed him learning the law could be his way out.
You saw, the first day in class, you saw something that would help your case.
KABERIA: Exactly.
COOPER: If you had argued in court.
KABERIA: If I had known before, I would have gone home. Actually, I wouldn't have been convicted.
COOPER (voice-over): He began reading law books Justice Defenders provided. Not easy to do in a dark cell packed with 30 people.
When you were trying to study your case, you would do it in here?
KABERIA: In here. And, you know, this is the only bulb so --
COOPER: That's the only light?
KABERIA: That's the only light. So it was dark, as you can see.
COOPER: What's it like to try to study law in a room like this with one light bulb on the ceiling?
KABERIA: Yes. You can't read that book when you're seated. You have to stand at least to get some more light.
COOPER: To get closer to the lights.
KABERIA: Yes, to get closer to the light.
COOPER: So you're standing in the cell reading.
KABERIA: So most of the time, yes. You study holding the book. You want to write something, you pick it, you write, you drop the exercise book, you continue standing. You get a point you need to notes, like that. You know? So it was a tough call to study law in prison.
COOPER (voice-over): Justice Defender saw how hard he worked and how he helped others, too, so they paid for him to take law school classes. And seven years ago, he argued his appeal in court. When the judge began to read her decision, Kaberia expected the worst.
KABERIA: She read the judgment. I was listening to it keenly. I -- to tell you the truth, I was waiting to be returned back to do my trial again. But I was shocked to hear, "And now I've set you free." And I was like, what? Are you -- are you serious? She told me, "But you are a lawyer. You gave me your certificates here. You should be understanding these things."
COOPER: That's what she said to you?
KABERIA: Yes, that's what she told me. So I told her, I don't believe it is happening. Can you give me the judgment, please?
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COOPER: You wanted to read it?
KABERIA: Yes. And she said, OK, give it out, and I was given a copy of the judgment. I didn't look at anything else. I went straight to the last sentence to confirm that I was released. And that day, Anderson, I really cried. I really cried. It was so emotional. I had been in prison for 13 years. I had never seen my children for those 13 years.
COOPER: You had not seen your children in 13 years.
KABERIA: Never. For 13 years, I'd never seen them.
COOPER (voice-over): Kaberia could have left prison and never returned. Instead, he decided to work with Justice Defenders full time. He now regularly returns to prisons where he was once incarcerated to help others learn the law the way Alexander McLean once helped him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER (voice-over): Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in Nairobi is considered the harshest in Kenya. They held executions by hanging on these grounds until the late 1980s. Many of the men here are serving life sentences and will likely never step outside these walls again.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So today we'll be doing evidence.
COOPER (voice-over): But in a spartan room, incarcerated men and a prison guard are studying the law. Hamisi Mzari, who was once imprisoned here, has come to speak to the class. He's the first graduate of the Justice Defenders program to be admitted to the Kenyan Bar Association.
HAMISI MZARI, FORMERLY INCARCERATED PERSON: Remember you have a future, a future to become an advocate, a future to become a lawyer. You have a future to become a teacher, a judge, a magistrate, a politician or even a president. And I'm sure you will walk out of prison a different person.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has to be some facts.
COOPER (voice-over): The teacher was formerly incarcerated here as well. He appealed his case and now helps others do the same. Like law students anywhere, they discuss and debate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before the court, is there a difference between the truth and the evidence? Because I believe I was convicted wrongfully, but the evidence was taken to court. So is there a difference between evidence and truth?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can be legally guilty, but factually innocent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All rise.
COOPER (voice-over): Today they're holding a moot court.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The honorable court is now in session.
COOPER (voice-over): Practicing for the day they might be able to appeal their convictions or someone else's before a judge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come before this court.
COOPER (voice-over): The moot court clerk was convicted of manslaughter. The judge in his formal robes is serving life for murder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chapter 63 Laws of Kenya.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone has killed.
COOPER (voice-over): But all here play their role seriously. They hope it will one day be for real.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of continuing to hold my client in prison.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A declaration is hereby made that the mandatory nature of the death sentence is hereby declared unconstitutional.
COOPER (voice-over): The defense has proved its case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We made it.
COOPER (voice-over): In this court, at least the defendant is spared from death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we are ready. We are ready. We celebrate this document. Yes. The people of Kenya have won.
COOPER (voice-over): Court is adjourned for the day, but the legal work isn't done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you, my brother? You're good?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.
COOPER (voice-over): Now they'll go and work as paralegals here, reviewing other incarcerated people's cases to help them find any possible avenues for appeal.
In another prison, some passed the time watching sports or playing board games, like this one called Ludo. But Justice Defender, Fedan Goko, has spent the past three years here studying law and passing on what he learns.
FEDAN GOKO, INCARCERATED PERSON: The constitution guarantees them. The right to bail and bond.
COOPER (voice-over): Fedan Goko was a dentist. He was convicted on two counts of financial crimes.
GOKO: I had family, I had business I used to run. I had things I used to do. So that disconnect had a real hit on me.
COOPER (voice-over): Unlike most here, he was able to afford an attorney, but says the one he hired didn't notice he'd been sentenced to more time in prison than he says the law allows.
GOKO: Through an awareness session, I met Justice Defenders. The paralegal who helped me noticed the discrepancy of my second charge, that I had been sentenced on the wrong section of the law.
COOPER (voice-over): He's now just days away from presenting his appeal in court.
GOKO: Personally, if all goes on well, I look forward to meet my family. I miss my two daughters. I miss my wife. I miss my aging mom. COOPER (voice-over): He's confident the law is on his side, but the
Kenyan court system is underfunded, understaffed, and as Fedan Goko knows all too well, often unpredictable.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:38:00]
(MUSIC)
COOPER (voice-over): Sunday worship at Lang'ata Women's Prison. Some here have been convicted of theft or murder. Many say they were victims of domestic violence, but with almost no access to lawyers, they had little chance of proving self-defense.
Lang'ata is a maximum security prison, but under Kenyan law, incarcerated mothers can keep their children with them until their four.
(MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The lord has done so much for you beautiful ladies. And I shall not fear because the Lord is with you. God wants to show something in you. Thank you.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take two seconds, just tell God to speak. You have a right to speak, you heart to speak, to your mind that you may be able to hear his voice in Jesus's name.
COOPER (voice-over): Justice Defender Morris Kaberia has come to Lang'ata today to talk about the law, and he's brought an American, Bruce Bryan, with him.
KABERIA: Bruce, stand up, please. Bruce has been one of us also, and he's doing quite great job in the United States. But the good thing about him today is that today is his birthday.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
[20:40:07]
COOPER (voice-over): Bruce Bryan was incarcerated for 29 years for murder he always insisted he did not commit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll sing the Kenyan way. The Kenyan way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Kenway way. Give me that mic.
(Singing) Happy birthday, dear Bruce.
COOPER (voice-over): He turns 55 today.
(MUSIC)
BRUCE BRYAN, FORMERLY INCARCERATED PERSON: It's kind of emotional for me because I spent 29 years behind prison bars in those same seats where you are in New York state maximum security prisons. If I can come from 29 years and be on this side, and I tell you, to be completely honest, there's no place I'd rather be on my 55th birthday than to be here with you.
COOPER (voice-over): This is the first time he's been inside a prison since his sentence was commuted by New York's governor. It's also the first time he's ever been outside the United States.
BRYAN: In the U.S. of America I was wrongfully convicted.
COOPER (voice-over): He's working with Justice Defenders now in the U.S., and has come to Kenya to see their programs firsthand.
BRYAN: Use me as an example. You too can thrive.
COOPER (voice-over): Bryan first learned about Justice Defenders while watching the report I did about them on "60 Minutes."
BRYAN: I was in Sing Sing Correctional Facility. I watched 60 -- I used to go out, come back in early and make sure I catch "60 Minutes" every Sunday. This day is when I saw Justice Defenders on "60 Minutes."
COOPER: You saw the story that we did.
BRYAN: I saw the story that you did. I wrote it down. I put it on my vision board. I kept a vision board on the side of my locker, inside of Sing Sing. And I immediately wrote my nephew and my sister, and I said, get an e-mail address to this organization, Justice Defenders, because whenever I get out of here, I want to be a part of what they're doing.
Where you are doesn't have to define who you are. Amen? Study hard, read and learn. You have Justice Defenders people here to help you learn the law, help you understand the law. You have amazing guards here that are members of Justice Defenders that collaborate with you even though you're inside here. They work with you. Where I come from, there's no such thing as a prison guard studying with an incarcerated person.
COOPER (voice-over): That is one of the most unique aspects of Justice Defenders, prison guards studying law with the men and women they supervise. Joan Amati has been a guard for 18 years. She started training as a paralegal six years ago.
Many people in the United States would be surprised to see a guard who feels it's part of their job to learn the law so that they can give legal advice to people who are incarcerated.
JOAN AMATI, PRISON GUARD AND PARALEGAL: Yes. It doesn't go well with most of the people, but as time goes by, so many people are embracing it. Even my fellow officers, they used to think that there used to be that gap between us and the inmate. We couldn't stand with that inmate. They had to go down, keep their distance from us. But now we are working with them, we sit with them in the offices, we get so close to them, and it's really changing the perspective of all the prison officers.
COOPER (voice-over): Bruce Bryan would like to see Justice Defenders allowed to work in American prisons, but he thinks it will be difficult to get permission and have guards join in.
BRYAN: To think of a guard literally sitting and being educated and attending classes with an incarcerated person, it blows my mind. I don't think that it'll be that easy. Nothing is impossible. I don't think it'll be that easy in the United States. Education changes people's lives. Right? It changes your life. It deters violence.
MCLEAN: violence goes down in prisons when there's Justice Defenders' office there.
COOPER: You've seen that here?
MCLEAN: Again and again and again.
COOPER: Violence goes down in the facilities?
MCLEAN: Because justice brings hope.
COOPER (voice-over): Hope is hard to find behind bars, but on this day, there's plenty of it. It's graduation day for the University of London Law School. Since most of the graduates are still incarcerated, it's being held behind the walls of Kamiti Prison.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: May you continue to be defenders of the defenseless.
COOPER (voice-over): Twenty-nine people are getting law degrees today. That makes 67 in total who've earned law degrees thanks to Justice Defenders.
MCLEAN: Today, we're here celebrating the impossible having become possible. To all of the men sitting over there in your prison uniforms, know that when you see these graduates, they've been just where you were.
[20:45:09]
They faced the challenges, the rejection, the resistance that you faced, but with resilience and with commitment, they've overcome it.
COOPER (voice-over): Also on stage receiving his law degree, Morris Kaberia.
MCLEAN: I'm proud. Well done. I'm proud of you.
COOPER (voice-over): Once condemned to death, it's been 20 years since he was first sent to prison. KABERIA: Grand, ecstatic. I'm in celebratory mood. So it's so happy.
Yes, yes, yes. It's indescribable, no? I just can't say how I'm feeling because the feeling is ecstatic. I'm so happy that it has happened. And I reached here, actually, from this place. So marvelous.
I came here when I felt like I was completely finished, but now I feel I have been rejuvenated after I succeeded from this place. This is where my life changed. Absolutely, it's amazing that continuing -- when I went -- I came in, I thought I was dead and I was dying, but today I'm feeling alive.
COOPER (voice-over): Justice Defenders is beginning to explore what might be possible in U.S. prisons. So this past November, they sent two of their graduates.
KABERIA: Seriously? No, I'm not believing it.
COOPER (voice-over): Hamisi Mzari and Morris Kaberia to New York.
KABERIA: Oh, Jesus. I'm in America.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:50:11]
COOPER (voice-over): Greenhaven Prison in Stormville, New York, is more than 7,000 miles away from Nairobi. Bruce Bryan was incarcerated here for the first nine years of his 29 years in prison. He still knows some of the men here.
BRYAN: This is my very first time walking back into Greenhaven ever. Ever. Like I, you know, I had no idea about coming back inside the prison like this. I've never been in here. And so --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you found out that it was going to be Greenhaven, did it have a -- what was that feeling like?
BRYAN: I mean, until I saw the wall, I was really tense when I saw the wall. The wall made me tense. It conjured up all those emotions of being held captive, being stifled. And my body tenses up, right, because when you're here, you're in survival mode.
COOPER (voice-over): He's come today with Alexander McLean, Morris Kaberia and Hamisi Mzari who just flew in from Nairobi.
BRYAN: I was in here when guys used to have been killed 25, 24-years- old, scared to death. You walk into the yard, you guys are lifting big weights. Everybody is --
KABERIA: I've seen them.
BRYAN: Yes, you walk in the yard and you're like, wow.
MZARI: Was there violence where you were like --
BRYAN: And my sentence, I got cut here two times. MZARI: This scar you got it here?
BRYAN: Here, Greenhaven.
COOPER (voice-over): They're here to talk to prison officials and a group of incarcerated men who are part of a college education program run by a nonprofit called Hudson Link.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you want to go to college, this is the spot for you.
COOPER (voice-over): Bryan is surprised to see Joseph Wilson who he served time with in another prison years ago.
JOSEPH WILSON, INCARCERATED PERSON: Didn't expect to see you today. They kept that under wraps.
BRYAN: Yes.
WILSON: They did a good job.
BRYAN: Yes.
WILSON: I saw you on the podcast.
BRYAN: Yes.
WILSON: Yes.
BRYAN: Yes. Meet Alexander McLean.
WILSON: How you doing, sir? You well?
MCLEAN: Yes, I'm well. Thank you. Thank you, Joseph.
BRYAN: Morris. We call him preacher.
KABERIA: Hello, brother. Nice to meet you.
WILSON: Nice to meet you. Thank you.
BRYAN: Yes. We call him preacher.
WILSON: Thank you. Thank you for the hug, man. Appreciate that.
BRYAN: Hamisi.
WILSON: Hamisi?
BRYAN: Hamisi.
MZARI: Comrade.
WILSON: Thank you.
BRYAN: You're actually -- you're actually meeting "Coming to America" part three. This is the first -- it's their first time in America.
WILSON: Oh, wow.
BRYAN: From Kenya, first time ever.
COOPER (voice-over): The incarcerated men around this table are all interested in learning more about the law and hearing Morris Kaberia's experience as a police officer behind bars.
KABERIA: And I found myself inside a prison where I'm taking inmates to. People who are there, you all know how you feel when you could sit down in the same cell with your arresting officer or your investigating officer. You can imagine my life. That's the kind of life I met and found in prison, and it was too tough for me.
I was so discouraged, so hopeless. And I wanted to kill myself. I want to commit suicide. This friend of mine introduced me to African Prisons Project then, which is today Justice Defenders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. Well, we're not getting the exposure.
COOPER (voice-over): Alexander McLean suggests a corrections officer might join in on the discussion.
MCLEAN: I wonder if we can invite our correction officer to join us, because when we get together as Justice Defenders, everyone is always welcome around our table.
COOPER (voice-over): But it quickly becomes clear that won't happen.
MCLEAN: OK. It feels weird to us not to have the correction officers here because we know if a community is going to progress, everyone in that community has to have a chance to be part of it.
MZARI: Studying with officers in the same prison room changed everything. It made prison a peaceful place because we are studying law.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've seen the fights. I've seen the fights between the incarcerated individuals and the officers, and I'm like, no. This got to change.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This program will be beneficial to both incarcerated individuals and the officers that work with us because we all have to change our thinking.
BRYAN: We deserve an opportunity to thrive, not just survive. We deserve an opportunity to pursue higher education and to have diverse education. I got friends in here, I got brothers in here. This shit is personal to me. It breaks my heart seeing y'all in here. God damn, you still in here? How much time you got in now? You got damn near 35 years. Some of these guys were 19, 18 years old when they came in here.
This is real shit, man. Nobody's saying that we perfect and some of us ain't commit some bad acts, but goddamn, the nature of the crime doesn't change but people do. People do, man. And we deserve an opportunity to thrive, and that's what we want to provide you all with, an opportunity to pursue law along with the officers.
[20:55:05]
COOPER (voice-over): The meeting is nearly over. McLean is hopeful this won't be the last one here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you, boy.
BRYAN: Love you, too.
MCLEAN: The potential here is tremendous. And I think as Justice Defenders, we plant seeds when it comes to the legal training we offer, and we can't tell what it will look like when they bloom and they flourish. And my sense this is really fertile ground with men who are transforming their lives, who are already transformed.
(SINGING)
BRYAN: one more time.
(SINGING)
COOPER: I think some people watching this will say, well, you're this bleeding heart liberal and, OK, sure, it works here, but it wouldn't work in the U.S.
MCLEAN: I've been a prosecutor. I've been a magistrate. I've sent people to prison myself. I believe that this approach can work anywhere because, whether it's prison here in Kenya or in Uganda or in Alabama or Mississippi, they're filled with human beings, human beings who want to feel safe and to live with purpose. Prisoners and prison officers who want that.
COOPER (voice-over): So far Justice Defenders has reviewed cases of more than 170,000 incarcerated people. Some 69,000 of them have been able to get out of prison as a result. After more than two decades in prison, George Karaba will soon be one of them. He successfully appealed his life sentence.
So you were able to learn enough about the law to petition the court and that got your sentence reduced, which means you're getting out.
KARABA: I'm getting out soon. Very soon. In 2028 I'll be out.
COOPER: And what do you want to do when you get out?
KARABA: The first thing that I want to do is that I want to go to the bar. I want to be admitted to the bar.
COOPER: When you say go to the bar, you're not talking about the bar to drink. You're talking about the legal bar.
KARABA: I'm talking about the legal bar.
COOPER: So you want to actually be an attorney practicing in Kenya?
KARABA: Exactly.
COOPER: Helping other people.
KARABA: For sure.
COOPER: That would be incredible.
KARABA: thank you. You've walked me in this journey.
COOPER: Yes, yes.
(Voice-over): It's a journey of faith for George Karaba and for Alexander McLean, faith in the law and in God.
(SINGING)
COOPER: How much does faith motivate what you do?
MCLEAN: It's a huge -- it's everything. I think it's a simple faith, but I look at Jesus's subversive, countercultural, radical life saying that those that others have rejected have inherent worth. They are created in God's image. And that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. I think we're all motivated by that same desire to love those that others have rejected.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Praise the lord. Praise the lord.
COOPER (voice-over): Among the worshippers in this prison chapel, Fedan Goko, though he didn't think he would still be here. Today he was supposed to appear before a judge to argue that one of his charges was improperly applied.
GOKO: So today, once I woke up, I was extremely sure today was my last day to be in prison.
COOPER (voice-over): But at the last minute, his hearing was canceled, and he had to break the news to his wife who was waiting for him at home.
GOKO: I called her again. And even though she was emotionally saddened, I encouraged her and told her God's time is the right time.
COOPER (voice-over): He doesn't know when his hearing will be rescheduled, and so he waits. There's little else he can do.
(SINGING)
COOPER (voice-over): Alexander McLean continues to hope Justice Defenders will one day be allowed to work in a prison in the U.S. The odds are long, but he's overcome long odds before.
MCLEAN: We were told it couldn't be done, there's no way. We were told that our people weren't bright enough. And then we were told that they couldn't be accepted, but it's happened. And so we look back on our past and we say, well, what does it mean, this track record of seeing the impossible become possible?
What does that mean for our future? What does it look like to have a growing cohort of servant lawyers who've come from prison and are willing to go anywhere in society where there are defenseless people, those that others have rejected, and say, I'm with you, I'll listen to you, and I hope you tell your side of the story, and how far can they go on this journey.
