California Legal Research is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to law libraries in California’s prisons and jails. The right of access to courts is fundamental to our democracy, but for many incarcerated people this right is meaningless without the ability to access a law library. If someone is unable to afford an attorney, without the tools to teach themselves the law they are unable to assert any of their legal rights.
Self-taught lawyers – oftentimes referred to as “jailhouse lawyers” – have been at the heart of the fight against unconstitutional prisons and jails for the past 80 years. Whether working alone, or in conjunction with bar-admitted lawyers, they operate at every level of the legal system: from helping their cellmates fill out basic legal forms to filing writs in the Supreme Court of the United States. In fact the case establishing the right to a public defender was filed by a man named Clarence Gideon – who taught himself the law while locked in a Florida prison.
California Legal Research is also in the early stages of developing a reentry program, to provide paralegal training to jailhouse lawyers who are returning home.