The Tubman Project

Liberty and Justice for All...

Our justice system has a problem. Rather than a force for good, for keeping the good people of society safe from the criminal element, it has been tainted. It has been used to oppress the powerless and to keep the powerful safe from retribution. It has been used to invade poor communities and tear their families and communities apart. And, perhaps most insidiously, it has been used to create a massive slave labor force within the US... resulting in a country with 5% of the world population being home to 25% of the world's incarcerated. One in every four prisoners lives in the land of the free. Most of these people have never been given a fair trial.

They've never faced a jury, never had a chance to defend themselves... Instead, they were shuffled through the system. Scooped up by heavily armed police forces, thrown in front of a public defender for 5 minutes and told to plead guilty, regardless of whether they had done anything wrong. They were too poor to afford legal defense. Priced out of the market for justice. The goal of the Tubman project is to make legal defense available to the masses. To create a fair and equitable system for all those who are bound by its laws. We can end the two tiered justice system by using technology to bridge the gap. Our choice is to Surrender or Code.

The Project

Main Goal — Public AI

The primary goal of Project Tubman is to create a Public defender AI; an open sourced tool that can be used by public defenders to help them defend their clients. This tool will be designed to take some of the load off of the public defenders who are often tasked with more cases than it is humanly possible to take on.

Project Modules

Rather than try to build this all at once, we’re breaking the project into modules. These modules are proposed and developed by the crowd and will become part of the Main Project. Modules are free to open sourced and can be used even beyond the scope of Project Tubman.


You can submit your own ideas for Tubman Project modules using our GitHub Repository

Possible modules

  • Case Data Aggregator
  • Legal Chat Bot
  • Arraignment Survey Tool
  • Secure Recorder
  • Automatic Brief Filer

The Hackathons

Hackathon format

  • Propose Modules
  • Vote for modules to be worked on
  • Choose the module that’s right for you
  • Stay Connected

Who Can Join

  • Developers
  • Activists
  • Lawyers
  • Public Defenders
  • Prosecutors

Ready to hack the justice system?
We need your skills! March 28th at Suffolk Law School in Boston, MA