Jackson Jambalaya

If a vicious attacker/ killer is insane, he can't be turned loose on all of us just because he can't get mental treatment. I don't care why some mean-ass pushes innocent people in front of subway trains or why they sucker punch the elderly or rape and kill for pleasure. Isolate them in a clean jail cell until they prove themselves safe. Or forever otherwise.

"I fart in your general direction".

The entire system of public defenders is a mess. Every county should have their own funded office that matches the DA’s in staff, resources and pay. How can anyone claim it’s a fair system when right from the start the defendant is disadvantaged. The PD handle the exact same cases in front of the exact same judges for a fraction of the pay prosecutors make. Aside from the PD issue in Hinds County (and many other counties) some defendants, both innocent and guilty, sit in jail because they can’t afford bond. FOR YEARS waiting to exercise their right to a trial. I know of several individuals being held in Raymond going on 4 years waiting for their trial to be scheduled.

Tate Reeves would rather abolish state income tax than fund more beds at Whitfield.

The local authorities don't want to release someone who believes God is telling them to kill the demons possessing their loved one, but they don't have any place else to put them.

Who would want to be a public defender in some MS podunk county?

So true! Hinds County Judicial system has far too few public defenders, proscecutors & judges ( judges willing to work & administer their caseloads. Defendants languish in county jails for far too long & are thoften moved repeatly from county Dr parts detention facilities to private prisons in other parts of the state. “Man’s Inhumanity To Man” is alive & unwell in Hinds County!

12:12 - better check your circular argument and come back again with something better.

Hinds does have a publicly funded Public Defender office, staff, and equipment, equal to the DA for Hinds County. (BTW, Hinds is one of the few counties to have its own DA, so asking for every county to have its own PD is somewhat oblique to the argument, but I digress.) And Hinds, with its public defender office, is where the Raymond jail is located - and you use for your argument some folks held there for four years or more. Seems like your solution, having a PD office equivalent to a DA office loses its legitimacy when the only reference you can make to those folks in jail for lengthy periods is in Hinds.

Rather, lets check the docket on those in Raymond for lengthy periods - they are there because a delay in their trial is the best thing a defence attorney can get for a guilty client with little to argue in court. And Hinds County Circuit Judges are always quite willing to allow postponement petitions when presented, because that way they can go home and have lunch at the house. No Circuit Judge since Weill has pushed the defence attorneys (publically funded or client/other funded) to bring their case to trial.

There is a good racket going on for many of those housed there whereby their business requires them to stay in the cellblock. Hell, under a prior sheriff they would break out of jail to obtain more contraband and then -- of all things -- break back in. Their business, or control of the gangs, would fall apart if their case actually went to trial because they would more than likely be sent off to the Big House up in the Delta where it would take them a long time to move up the chain and be able to rebuild their business.

Lack of funding for public defenders may actually be a problem in a few counties, but the caseload in those counties doesn't warrant the DA having its own assistant in them either; so this quick and easy 'cry me a tear' story needs much more attention than the Greenwood Commonwealth editor who is always looking for a way for the state to dump more money into his favorite little charities.

Thanks, Crawford, for using Kalich as the basis for this weeks dribble. You used to do a good job of actually looking into things worth discussing, but now you rest solely on what others have written and come up with a 1,000 words for a column.

damn 2:28 - learn what you are talking about before you hit your keyboard.

I'll agree the Judicial system has too few prosecutors & judges WILLING TO WORK (no need to talk about the many public defenders willingness, they don't have to do much if the prosecutors and/or the judges operate as they do and don't prosecute and/or set cases) -- but

If someone incarcerated in the Hinds County JAIL is moved to a private prison, or a public one for that matter, in another part of the state, its because they were found guilty, and were no longer an incarcerated person CHARGED with a crime but somehow they were actually prosecuted by our DA, and there was a Judge who actually held a court hearing and a jury found them guilty.

They don't get moved to PRISONS - private or public - unless they have actually been to court and sentenced.

Take a breather, maybe put down the crack pipe or the joint - and come back with a better argument tomorrow.

Don't commit crimes & you won't need a taxpayer-paid attorney.

To the person who responded “who would want to be a public defender”. Obviously, it would be a person who finished last, or pretty close to last in there law school class.

“Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”

in 2023 the State of Mississippi, through the legislature and signed by the Governor, gave millions of dollars to Hinds County for both the District Attorney's office AND the Public Defender's office to supplement their staff.

Granted, if one depends on Mississippi Today,or the CL, or JJ who doesn't pick up on these things, for their news, one would never know this. But, in additiion to the State for several years having supplied additional Judges to do the work that is NOT BEING DONE by the elected Circuit Judges of the COunty, they gave the DA and PD enough additional dollars to hire three or four more (each) attorneys.

These additional dollars have been in place for many months now - lets see if anything different happens. Will the CIrcuit Judges actually go in to work and actually HOLD COURT in those four courtrooms in the Hinds County COurthouse?

Challenge to all those crying about the failure of having PDs - go on any day and walk through the Hinds COunty COurthouse and see how many of the courtrooms are actually being used to ---- hold it ---- wait for it --- HOLD COURT!!

Yes,on Mondays they have a jury call, and the main courtroom is full; at least until almost noon. Then, they send the juriors selected home. And most all (sometimes, all) are never brought back again.

Look at the parking places reserved for the judges, along President Street by the Courthouse. See if they are ever occupied. Walk through the courthouse and find a courtroom being used - if you do, walk in and see a phenonomen that hardly ever happens.

The best defense for a guilty criminal is delay (just ask Donald Trump, he has excelled in this for decades, and continues today) and all the defense attorneys for those that 12:12 cries about being held in Raymond know this as well. Any defense attorney in Jackson - be they publically paid or paid by the client or his/her gang - know that the best thing for them to do is never make it to trial, and hope that Justice Jess Dickinson will again be appointed to 'clear the docket' and he will dismiss all the cases without question and put the criminals back on the streets again.

Give us a break - the failure in Hinds is not a failure of having a PD properly funded --- its a total failure of the system, from the DA through to the SC when the Chief Justice appoints a coddler to 'clean the docket' without any thought about how that idiot has ruled since his son's encounter with the system.

@5:57 - It's defense.

Hey Democrat Bill Crawford, if the perps don't like their publicly funded lawyers they can hire their own.

Since I am a practicing criminal lawyer in Central Mississippi, let me chime in with my actual experience, and not just commentary. Throughout the State of Mississippi, the PD system is mostly a joke. In most counties, PDs are appointed from the local bar, and are expected, sometimes for less than $1,000, to provide an adequate representation to felony criminal defendants. How good of a defense do you think that the average person is going to get for $1,000 or less?

Hinds County does have a fully staffed Public Defender's Office, but they are paid far less than the assistant district attorneys to do the same job.

Three of the four elected Hinds County Circuit Judges hold court and send cases to trial EVERY week during the criminal terms unless all of the cases that are scheduled plea out. These judges schedule cases for trial fifteen to fifty cases at a time to try to keep their dockets moving. The Hinds County backlog continues because the Mississippi Legislature will not allot resources for one or two new PERMANENT judges. Instead, they rely on the Supreme Court to continually appoint special judges (who are usually retired) to occasionally travel to Jackson to sit on a special docket. They have been doing this for at least twenty years, despite seeing no real reduction in the backlog. Again, what is the definition of doing the same thing repeatedly, yet expecting a different result?

I am writing as one who is in the trenches of criminal law in Mississippi, and not just making useless and mostly erroneous comments from the peanut gallery. Hope this sheds light on a few things.

@Krusatyr: If a mentally ill person has committed or has been accused of a felony, he or she will be held in jail unless they are found by a court-approved psychiatrist to be legally incompetent to stand trial. However, you cannot hold a psychotic person who has committed no crime in jail with accused criminals while that person awaits a commitment hearing. See the difference?

"They have been doing this for at least twenty years"

It almost seems like the people in charge like the situation. The same goes for the education situation. As long as the people in charge are satisfied, nothing will change.