CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper premieres an unflinching look inside some of Africa's most overcrowded maximum-security prisons, where a groundbreaking program is transforming lives from the inside out.In this episode, Cooper returns to Nairobi, Kenya, to revisit a story he first covered six years ago inside a prison system where overcrowding and severe resource shortages create harsh daily realities for the tens of thousands of people held inside. Without access to an attorney and unable to pay bail, many may remain incarcerated for years before ever standing trial. Cooper catches up with Alexander McLean, founder of Justice Defenders, an innovative nonprofit organization that trains incarcerated people to become paralegals and even earn law degrees, and which has helped more than 69 thousand incarcerated men and women leave prison and return to society."It is remarkable to see what Justice Defenders is doing inside these maximum security prisons, where so few people have access to attorneys and many may spend years just waiting for a hearing before a judge," said Cooper. "Justice Defenders find incarcerated people eager to help others and with even a few weeks of paralegal training they can help thousands of others understand their rights and the legal system."With unprecedented access inside facilities in Kenya and beyond, the episode traces the journeys of men and women who have gone from death row and overcrowded cells to becoming legal advocates for themselves and others. The reporting expands to the United States, where McLean meets with men incarcerated in New York to explore whether the Justice Defenders model could be used in America, which has one of the world's highest incarceration rates.

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Anderson Cooper

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