# Restoring hope and dignity to the justice system

- Institution: TED
- Department: TED@State Street London
- Speaker: Alexander McLean
- Year: 2014
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Source: [TED](https://www.ted.com/talks/alexander_mclean_restoring_hope_and_dignity_to_the_justice_system)
- Licence: [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) (Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions.)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

You can learn a lot about the character of a country by its jails. Alexander McLean tells of the subhuman treatment he witnessed in African prisons—conditions so brutal that he founded a distance-learning organization that empowers prisoners to fight for their own rights. But the larger question he asks relates not just to Africa: "If as a society we say that someone who has stolen will always be a thief, what skills and gifts and talents do we miss out on?"

## Lectures

1. [Restoring hope and dignity to the justice system](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/ted/alexander_mclean_restoring_hope_and_dignity_to_the_justice_system/386774765f75), 12 min (TED's player)