ERIC WESTERVELT, HOST:
Their names may not appear on court briefs or judicial decisions, but behind the scenes, incarcerated people have played a big role in the law for decades. A new initiative wants to introduce the world to these jailhouse lawyers. NPR's Carrie Johnson has our story.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: When Jhody Polk entered a Florida prison years ago, she noticed something special about the women in the law library.
JHODY POLK: And I remember when they walked in, they felt taller than the rest of us. It was the knowledge that they had, the way they used legal language, the confidence that they had.
JOHNSON: Those women had no formal legal training, but they had prestige. They figured out how to decode the law to help other people in prison. Polk became one of them.
POLK: The first time I read a law book, IT was like finding the cheat code to life.
JOHNSON: All of a sudden, she says, she understood important things about housing, education and constitutional rights. Now out of prison, Polk dedicates herself to sharing that wisdom. Her Jailhouse Lawyers Initiative counts 1,000 members across every U.S. state. This week, they're hosting a meeting in New York and launching a new website. It's filled with oral histories and hundreds of letters from people in prison who work with the law. Brandon Tieuel found the law when he was incarcerated in Texas.
BRANDON TIEUEL: I'd go in there, like, 8 o'clock in the morning, and I'd be in there sometimes until 8 o'clock at night, and I just fell in love with just reading the case law, learning the policies and the statutes.
JOHNSON: Tieuel says prison can be dehumanizing. Authorities refer to you by a number, not your name. But those long hours in the library found him writing complaints and prison grievances, helping challenge convictions and preparing parole applications for other people. Those moments gave him a boost, too.
TIEUEL: Once I started helping other people, like, on a big scale, like, I just saw how it - you know, it made my time a little bit better. It made me happier because I was doing something worthwhile. And then it just kind of snowballed from there.
JOHNSON: Tieuel won parole last year. He now lives in Houston and works with families of people who are incarcerated.
TYLER WALTON: Giving people tools and knowledge of the law is the right thing to do.
JOHNSON: That's Tyler Walton. He's managing attorney at the jailhouse lawyers initiative.
WALTON: I think that the law should be working for everybody, and the way that we're going to move towards that is if everybody has a place to participate in the law.
JOHNSON: The Supreme Court enshrined the role of jailhouse lawyers back in 1969, in a case about William Joe Johnson, also known as Joe Writs. He was a Tennessee inmate who helped illiterate fellow prisoners file legal petitions. Prison officials threw Johnson in solitary for violating a rule that barred inmates from helping with legal matters. The justices ruled, people in prison have a right to access the courts, but they did not require states to provide prisoners with attorneys. So jailhouse lawyers flourished inside prison walls, even if they remained invisible on the outside. Again, Jhody Polk.
POLK: When a jailhouse lawyer works on a case, it's pro se, and so their name is typically never mentioned inside of the appellate brief or the outcome. And so there's so many cases where there is a jailhouse lawyer behind it, so many policy changes.
JOHNSON: The vast majority of people who enter prison eventually return home, but jailhouse lawyers run into some big complications. They're not allowed to practice law once they leave prison because that's strictly controlled by state and legal officials. Again, Tyler Walton.
WALTON: And so suddenly, what we see is that jailhouse lawyers who often have developed these legal skills over decades, helping their community - as soon as they get out, they can be at threat for prosecution if they do the same work that they were doing while they were on the inside.
JOHNSON: He says there's a huge need for people outside prison who can translate what happens inside, exactly what jailhouse lawyers have been doing for decades to little acclaim. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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