Jailhouse Lawyers

Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the USA

Mumia Abu-Jamal

• Publisher: City Lights Publishers
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9780872868175
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Criminal Law
• Index: Law

"Expert and well-reasoned commentary on the justice system... His writings are dangerous."— The Village Voice

In Jailhouse Lawyers, award-winning journalist and death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal presents the stories and reflections of fellow prisoners-turned-advocates who have learned to use the court system to represent other prisoners—many uneducated or illiterate—and, in some cases, to win their freedom. In Abu-Jamal's words, "This is the story of law learned, not in the ivory towers of multi-billion-dollar endowed universities [but] in the bowels of the slave-ship, in the dank dungeons of America."

Includes an introduction by Angela Y. Davis.

Mumia Abu-Jamal 's books include Live From Death Row and Death Blossoms.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Note from the U.K. Publisher
• Preface
• 1. Learning the Law
• 2. What “the Law” Is
• 3. When Jailhouse Lawyers “Represent”
• 4. What about Street Lawyers?
• 5. The Jailhouse Lawyering of Mayberry
• 6. A Woman’s Work in State Hell
• 7. The Ruiz Effect: How One Jailhouse Lawyer Made Change in Texas
• 8. From “Social Prisoner” to Jailhouse Lawyer to Revolutionary: Ed Mead’s Journey
• 9. Jailhouse Lawyers on Jailhouse Lawyers
• 10. The Best of the Best
• 11. The Worst of the Worst
• 12. The Social Role of Jailhouse Lawyers
• Afterword
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Endnotes
• Index
• About the Authors