Alexander McLean
Founder | Prison Reform Advocate & Human Rights Activist
About
Alexander McLean is the founder of the African Prisons Project, a nonprofit that improves conditions and access to justice in African prisons. A former Rhodes Scholar, he has dedicated his career to uplifting the dignity of incarcerated individuals.
McLean's TED talks have reached millions, highlighting the power of education to transform lives. His keynotes provide a searing firsthand account of the human rights challenges in global criminal justice systems and the urgent need for reform.
Talks1
Restoring hope and dignity to the justice system
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?"
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