The 6th Amendment says we all have the right to legal representation if we get accused of a crime and can’t afford a lawyer. But five U.S. states don’t pay for those lawyers, known as public defenders.
One of those states is Mississippi. In 2017, a new mandate required Mississippi judges to file concrete plans for providing lawyers to low-income defendants, the state’s public defense system “among the worst in the country.” But that didn’t quite happen.
After six years, just one of 23 circuit court districts filed in 2023. Seven out of 82 counties have public defender offices, and 32 attorneys are meant to cover them all. Meanwhile, 85% of people charged with felonies can’t afford a lawyer.
The result for Mississippi’s majority-Black incarcerated population?
After their arrest, people without money for bail or lawyers may spend months or even years in jail before an indictment can happen. It’s so prevalent there’s even a nickname for it: the “dead zone.”
And while dead zone time can shape a person’s life, the time in court they need to leave prison may only take minutes.
The legal system may insist it’s all for fairness and justice but that’s just its excuse for enacting violence in our communities. From arrest to incarceration to court, the system says one thing and does another. How is that justice?