Resource: BURKS, ET AL. V. SCOTT COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

After learning that the Scott County Detention Center in Mississippi has held people for as long as a year without indicting them or appointing counsel, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Mississippi, and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center filed a class action suit against the county’s sheriff, district attorney, and judges. The county’s practices violate the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments’ rights to counsel, to a speedy trial, and to a fair bail hearing.