The JLM is designed to assist inmates in understanding their legal rights as prisoners.
[3][4][5] It contains information about how to challenge convictions and sentences, the rights of the incarcerated, and different ways to obtain an early release from prison.
The JLM also publishes an Immigration and Consular Access Supplement in English, and is working towards a Spanish translation.
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Thurgood Marshall wrote in a 1992 forward to the JLM that "[b]y making difficult and sensitive legal issues accessible to the lay person, the manual helps to empower prisoners to exercise a right we, as a society, hold dear—the right to speak for oneself.
A Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual should be read by everyone involved in, or concerned about, prisoners' rights.