Kim Kardashian West helps fund release of 17 prisoners from jail as part of campaign

The reality TV star, who has expressed dreams of becoming a lawyer, has funded the clemency initiative

FILE - This Oct. 9, 2018 file photo shows Kim Kardashian West at the Tiffany & Co. 2018 Blue Book Collection: The Four Seasons of Tiffany celebration in New York. Oxygen Media said Tuesday, May 7, 201Show more

She revealed just last month that she plans to take the bar exam in 2022, and achieve her hope of becoming a lawyer.

However, Kim Kardashian West is already helping provide aid to those behind bars, according to one non-profit law firm.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star has helped free 17 inmates from jail in the last three months, the Decarceration Collective told broadcaster CBS, as part of her work with the 90 Days of Freedom campaign.

The initiative was launched by Kardashian West's lawyer, Brittany Barnett, and Decarceration Collective lawyer MiAngel Cody, and seeks to work with non-violent offenders incarcerated on low-level drug charges.

Mother-of-three Kardashian West has funded the operation, Barnett confirmed to BuzzFeed, adding that the star is "using her platform to shine a light on this issue".

The campaign was launched in response to US President Donald Trump's signing of the First Step Act, which aims to give prisoners who show good behaviour the opportunity to seek shorter sentences.

“She really helped us with the work we’ve already been doing," Barnett added.

Kardashian West, who told Vogue last month that she has begun an apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco, has previously celebrated the release of prisoners she has been involved in petitioning for.

The entrepreneur visited the White House last year to talk with Trump about criminal justice reform, a meeting that resulted in the release of Alice Johnson, a great-grandmother given a life sentence for a drug-related crime.

“People get out of prison when powerful women link arms. Brittany and I linked arms years ago, and Kim has come and linked arms, too," Cody added to BuzzFeed. “It’s about using what resources you have to shine a light on the underbelly of American injustice."

Kardashian West has previously said her father, Robert Kardashian, who worked as a defence lawyer for OJ Simpson, has inspired her love of the law.

"My dad always taught me that hard work is really important and to really commit to things, so my goal would be in like, 10 years, to give up being Kim K and just focus on this and be an attorney and fight for so many deserving people," she said during a recent episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

According to W magazine, it is possible for Kardashian West to take the bar exam in California without a previous college degree, by means of completing a four-year apprenticeship under a practising lawyer.

The star must complete a minimum of 18 hours a week at her apprenticeship, and is also required to take tests every month.