THE LIBERATION DEFENSE MODEL™
A community-powered approach that equips justice-impacted people, families, and communities with the knowledge, organization, and support needed to understand the criminal legal system, protect rights, strengthen defense, and build pathways toward restoration.
THE SIX PILLARS
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Understand charges, court procedures, constitutional rights, plea options, discovery, sentencing, incarceration, supervision, and the consequences that can follow a conviction.
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Organize records, timelines, discovery questions, attorney meetings, court observation, community support, and other defense-support work while respecting the attorney’s professional role.
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Develop mitigation, family narratives, personal history, achievements, needs, and community ties so that the person is not reduced to an accusation, charge, or case number.
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Support rights education, documentation, grievance preparation, family advocacy, humane treatment, programming access, and meaningful preparation for release.
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Address housing, employment, identification, healthcare, family reunification, supervision challenges, early termination, and the barriers that can destabilize successful reentry.
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Support voting-rights restoration, civic education, public advocacy, leadership development, and opportunities for justice-impacted people to guide community and policy change.
FROM THE CREATOR: MARSHA KING
I created the Liberation Defense Model™ from what I learned through my own experience with the criminal legal system. I was incarcerated in federal prison, and one of the major issues I encountered was the lack of programming to support genuine rehabilitation. A person may have rights written on paper and still lack the knowledge, support, resources, and meaningful access needed to use those rights. I also learned that when one person enters the system, an entire family and community can be pulled into the consequences. This model turns lived experience into education, organized defense support, advocacy, reentry preparation, and justice-impacted leadership.
WHAT IS THE LIBERATION DEFENSE MODEL?
The Liberation Defense Model™ is a justice-impacted, community-centered framework created by 13th Liberation Village. It recognizes that a criminal case affects more than the accused person. Arrest, detention, conviction, incarceration, supervision, and collateral consequences reach families, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and future generations. The model combines lived experience, legal education, organized support, advocacy, and leadership across the full journey from investigation through reentry and civic restoration.