Mississippi inmates incarcerated indefinitely without being indicted

Michael Wolfe

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There is an epidemic of individuals in the United States jailed for extended periods of time before they’ve been convicted of anything. Many of them are stuck behind bars because they can’t afford bail, in a system that in too many jurisdictions punishes defendants simply for being poor, not because they are considered at risk of fleeing pending trial.

But mostly, we at least assume that after a few days or a few weeks, if a jail is going to keep holding them, they are charged with something. Not so in Scott County, Mississippi, according to a new class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Octavious Burks has been in jail for ten months on an arrest of attempted robbery with bail set at $30,000. But he has never been charged with anything. He has never been appointed a lawyer. And, by the account of the ACLU, he has twice before been held in jail for periods of 18 months and 16 months, before being released without ever having been convicted of anything.

Not sure there's an "epidemic" as the author claims, but this does seem like a real problem when it happens, imo. Personally I think there needs to be some particular time frame involved, where an inmate is released automatically if there's no indictment before x amount of time has passed.

Thoughts?
 

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Personally I think there needs to be some particular time frame involved, where an inmate is released automatically if there's no indictment before x amount of time has passed.

Thoughts?


My really bad, undocumented guess --which stems only from my one and only experience of a friend's cousin getting arrested, and my having to help her bail him out-- is as follows. And this kind of data will assuredly vary from state to state:

I think that you MUST, without fail, ask for one of the following:

a) ask what the charges are

and/or

b) ask for a lawyer.

If you ask what the charges are, they they have to either tell you or let you go, otherwise they risk a Miranda lawsuit. And if you ask for a lawyer, they MUST provide one within a certain period of time (a period that will vary from state to state), and then the lawyer is obligated by the ethics of his profession to do his rock bottom best to get somebody to charge you with something and thus trigger a bail hearing, or else demand your release. But if neither one of the above gets asked for by you, then you are at the whim and mercy of the cops eventually getting around to it.

Is there a time frame written in stone for when they have to "get around to it?" Again, that one will vary from state to state. But I'm pretty sure I recall one jurisdiction that merely said "in a reasonable amount of time" which is a specification that falls somewhere along the lines of being next to useless.
 

robjvargas

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Is there a time frame written in stone for when they have to "get around to it?" Again, that one will vary from state to state. But I'm pretty sure I recall one jurisdiction that merely said "in a reasonable amount of time" which is a specification that falls somewhere along the lines of being next to useless.

Not sure how written in stone it is, but The Constitution demands a speedy trial. The Sixth Amendment.

The Court rather has adopted an ad hoc balancing approach. “We can do little more than identify some of the factors which courts should assess in determining whether a particular defendant has been deprived of his right. Though some might express them in different ways, we identify four such factors: Length of delay, the reason for the delay, the defendant’s assertion of his right, and prejudice to the defendant.”[sup]24[/sup] The fact of delay triggers an inquiry and is dependent on the circumstances of the case. Reasons for delay will vary. A deliberate delay for advantage will weigh heavily, whereas the absence of a witness would justify an appropriate delay, and such factors as crowded dockets and negligence will fall between these other factors.

Sounds like it's written in warm butter, to me.
 

Shadow Dragon

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This is definitely a civil rights violation to hold someone for an extended time without charges. Or to hold them that long before trial. That being said, a big part of it is the prison system simply being backed up by having too many prisoners which makes it hard to have timely trials. Remember, the US leads the world in prison population.
 

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Based on personal experience, involving a relative of mine, you get arrested for X, and cannot arrange bail, you sit until indictment happens, which can take months, and after that happens, you sit some more while the case is put together by your attorney (assuming you are fortunate enough to afford a private one), and the opposing case is put together by the prosecutors. AND, oh yeah, then a court date becomes available, which not uncommonly gets pushed back and pushed back, for any number of "reasons", including vacation time for the judge, the attorneys, the witnesses, etc.

This happens everywhere in the U.S. The state of Mississippi is by not means unusual.

And God help you if you have to fall back on the assistance of a public defender. The job of a public defender is to make sure the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted in the lens of the legal system, and nothing more.

Oh, yeah, and in addition, prosecutors and correctional officials are answerable to NOBODY, in meaningful real terms. They get what they want to get, pretty much.

caw
 

rugcat

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See, this is something I just don't get. Have things changed so drastically since the days when I was working – admittedly a long time ago, or did I just work in an unusual place?

From my own experience it was pretty cut and dried. When you arrested someone the prosecutor's office had three business days in which to file charges. If they did not file charges within three days, a kick out letter was issued and the suspect was released. That was standard; no question about it, no exceptions.

The idea that someone could spend weeks, not to mention months in jail before charges were filed was unthinkable.
 

blacbird

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See, this is something I just don't get. Have things changed so drastically since the days when I was working – admittedly a long time ago, or did I just work in an unusual place?

From my own experience it was pretty cut and dried. When you arrested someone the prosecutor's office had three business days in which to file charges. If they did not file charges within three days, a kick out letter was issued and the suspect was released. That was standard; no question about it, no exceptions.

The idea that someone could spend weeks, not to mention months in jail before charges were filed was unthinkable.

Oh, charges get filed, sure. That's essentially a matter of the arresting authorities (cops) filing a report. Actual indictments are formal court proceedings, typically involving a grand jury, and take a lot longer, often many months.

caw
 

rugcat

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Oh, charges get filed, sure. That's essentially a matter of the arresting authorities (cops) filing a report. Actual indictments are formal court proceedings, typically involving a grand jury, and take a lot longer, often many months.

caw
Not really.

Cops don't file charges. Sure, they write a report the prosecutor reads.
The prosecutors office then must decide if there's enough evidence to file a criminal complaint. They have three days to do so.

Once the criminal complaint is filed there's a preliminary hearing, where a judge decides if there's enough evidence to bring the case to trial. Again, back then, no one spent months in jail awaiting a prelim.

After the prelim it could certainly take quite a while for the case to come to trial. But that was almost always at the request of the defense – and the public defenders, many of whom were friends of mine, worked for their clients very hard. They certainly were not there to just cross t's and dot i's. If the prosecution was not ready to put on the case they would ask that their client be afforded a speedy trial as their constitutional right and the judge would almost always grant that request.
 

Michael Wolfe

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And God help you if you have to fall back on the assistance of a public defender. The job of a public defender is to make sure the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted in the lens of the legal system, and nothing more.


caw

I guess I'm not so down on public defenders, but in any case, the inmates in the article couldn't even get public defenders. That's even worse, don't you think?

See, this is something I just don't get. Have things changed so drastically since the days when I was working – admittedly a long time ago, or did I just work in an unusual place?

From my own experience it was pretty cut and dried. When you arrested someone the prosecutor's office had three business days in which to file charges. If they did not file charges within three days, a kick out letter was issued and the suspect was released. That was standard; no question about it, no exceptions.

The idea that someone could spend weeks, not to mention months in jail before charges were filed was unthinkable.

I don't think your experience is so unusual. What's mentioned in the article seems much more unusual to me.

Blacbird is right that a formal indictment can take a long time, but there seems to be a strange twist here. In Mississippi (or at least in Scott County), the grand jury convenes every three months, but if they don't bother to indict you, that doesn't necessarily mean you get released. You wait until the next go-round. And theoretically, it seems like there's nothing to prevent the cycle from going on indefinitely. That seems like what's going on here. Otherwise, it's hard to see how someone could possibly spend ten months in prison without an indictment.
 
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robeiae

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Not really.

Cops don't file charges. Sure, they write a report the prosecutor reads.
The prosecutors office then must decide if there's enough evidence to file a criminal complaint. They have three days to do so.

Once the criminal complaint is filed there's a preliminary hearing, where a judge decides if there's enough evidence to bring the case to trial. Again, back then, no one spent months in jail awaiting a prelim.

After the prelim it could certainly take quite a while for the case to come to trial. But that was almost always at the request of the defense – and the public defenders, many of whom were friends of mine, worked for their clients very hard. They certainly were not there to just cross t's and dot i's. If the prosecution was not ready to put on the case they would ask that their client be afforded a speedy trial as their constitutional right and the judge would almost always grant that request.
This is how it is in most places, I think. I looked around and couldn't find any authoritative cites, but it looks like Scott County, Mississippi has never bothered to put a standard down for the county prosecutor with regard to filing charges. I'm not sure the State even has a standard (which means it's all on the individual counties/cities). Most States do. Maybe even all of them except Mississippi? I haven't done all the research.
 

Michael Wolfe

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Yeah, it seems like the state as a whole doesn't have a codified time frame for indictments. I'm not sure how many particular counties have the same problem outside of Scott.
 

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They definitely need to get smacked down for that. I'm very glad to see the lawsuit, and it sounds like they'll win, imho.

I wish there were charges for officials acting unconstitutionally this egregiously, like civil rights abuse charges for the folks who thought this was the way to go. It's one thing to see changes made for the future, but I like to see actual punishment of officials as well.