Penguin Press and Penguin Random House Social Impact Team Partner to Donate THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER to Incarcerated Individuals
On July 8, Penguin Press will publish THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER by Calvin Duncan and Sophie Cull. This title is a searing and ultimately hopeful account of Calvin Duncan, described by Sister Helen Prejean as “the most extraordinary jailhouse lawyer of our time.”
The book traces Duncan’s 30-year journey through Angola following a wrongful murder conviction, his transformation into a brilliant legal mind behind bars, and his ongoing fight for justice on behalf of others still incarcerated.
John Grisham succinctly captures the essence of Duncan’s story: “If I created a fictional character like Calvin Duncan, no one would believe him and the story wouldn’t work. Fiction can be many things, but it has to be believable. Duncan’s story is so incredible it strains belief. It is so heartwarming and hopeful that it will stay with you for a long time.”
In a special initiative, Penguin Press and the Penguin Random House Social Impact Team are partnering to print 2,000 copies of a unique softcover edition of THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER, exclusively for incarcerated readers. Recognizing that hardcovers are often prohibited in prisons so access to new books can take a year or more, this initiative aims to bridge that gap. These 2,000 softcover books will reach incarcerated readers timed to the July 8 publication date.
About THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER
Calvin Duncan was nineteen when he was incarcerated for a 1981 New Orleans murder he didn’t commit. The victim of a wildly incompetent public defense system and a badly compromised witness, Duncan was left to rot in the waking nightmare of confinement. Armed with little education, he took matters into his own hands.
At twenty-one, he filed his first motion from prison: “Motion for a Law Book,” which launched his highly successful, self-taught legal career. Trapped within this wholly corrupted system, Duncan became a legal advocate for himself and his fellow prisoners as an inmate counsel at the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola. Literature sustained his hope, as he learned the law in its shadow.
During his decades of incarceration, Duncan helped hundreds of other prisoners navigate their cases, advocating for those the state had long since written off. He taught a class in the midst of Angola to empower other incarcerated men to fight for their own justice under the law. But his own case remained stalled. A defense lawyer once responded to Duncan’s request for documents: “You are not a person.”
Criminal justice reform advocate Sophie Cull met Duncan after he was finally released from prison; he began to tell her his story. Together, they’ve written a bracing condemnation of the criminal legal system, and an intimate portrait of a heroic and brilliant man’s resilience in the face of injustice.