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. Jhody Polk, who served time for several felony convictions in Florida, is working to bring those incarcerated legal experts to light, NPR reports. Her Jailhouse Lawyers Initiative, housed at New York University Law School, counts 1,000 members, across every U.S. state. “The first time I read a law book, it was like finding the cheat code to life,” Polk said.This week, they’re hosting a meeting in New York and launching a new web site. It’s filled with oral histories and more than 350 letters from people in prison who work with the law.
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 confinement for violating a rule that barred inmates from helping with legal matters The justices ruled that 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. “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," said Polk, "There’s so many cases where there’s a jailhouse lawyer behind it, so many policy changes." The vast majority of people who enter prison eventually return home, but jailhouse lawyers are not allowed to practice law once they leave prison, because that’s typically controlled by state and legal officials. “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 they were doing while they were on the inside,” said Tyler Walton, managing attorney at the Jailhouse Lawyers Initiative.
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