Hello, I'm Ed Butler and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. Today, the struggle for better

criminal justice in Africa. Most prisoners said they'd never met a lawyer. I saw prisons were filled

with poor people without access to lawyers. If poor people have access to quality legal services,

very often they won't end up in prison in the first place.

Also, the extraordinary story of the Ugandan death row convict,

who by teaching herself law, managed to regain her liberty.

I never knew that I would see the outside world again.

I would see the moon.

I would see the stars. Having your freedom back,

but that is the most important thing in life. That's all to come in Business Daily from the BBC.

Last week, we considered the state of the justice system in the United States, how poor people were

being incarcerated or held on remand

by the tens of thousands, just for the sake of a small, perhaps an unpayable fine for them.

In today's Business Daily, we're switching our attention to another continent, where the plight

of poorer inmates can often be even harder. Africa has around a million prison inmates at present.

Many hundreds of thousands of them have been incarcerated without a fair trial or even any

kind of serious legal representation.

It's the poorest continent, of course, and lawyers do not come cheap there.

Alexander McLean is a lawyer himself. He launched a charity, aiming to change that.

African prisons project, as it's called, is working to establish the world's first

prison-based legal college and law firm, working primarily with prisoners in Uganda and Kenya.

In countries like Uganda and Kenya.

...