Mississippi counties pay about $100 million a year to jail those who haven't been convicted of crimes, according to a newly released database by the MacArthur Justice Center.

That’s more than the state of Mississippi spends each year on child protective services ($98 million).

“Our database confirms that long-term pretrial incarceration of poor Mississippians, attributable primarily to improper and illegal use of the money bail system, continues to be a significant problem that costs counties millions of dollars,” said Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

The database (which can be found online at www.MSjaildata.com) points out that the vast majority of the 5,534 men and women detained in local Mississippi jails are not serving sentences for criminal convictions but instead are awaiting their day in court to face charges, and nearly half of the detainees have been in jail for more than 90 days.

The initial version of the database, released in April 2018, identified 7,193 such detainees. In addition to the names of those held in jail, the database provides dates of arrest, the charges against each detainee, the amount of time each person has been in jail, the average length of detention in each Mississippi county, and a comparison of the April and November databases. The information used to create the database was obtained directly from “jail lists” produced by Mississippi sheriffs pursuant to court rules.

According to the new database, more than 2,600 people have been detained in local jails for longer than 90 days. Of those, 1,603 have been held for longer than 180 days, 1,035 for longer than 270 days, and 675 for longer than a year.

The database has shown a 24 percent decrease in the jail population since the initial report in April.

“I believe the decrease is attributable, at least in part, to our public disclosure of information regarding the people locked up in our jails coupled with recent litigation in Mississippi reminding judges and other participants in the criminal justice system of what the law says about the proper use of money bail and the illegality of incarcerating poor folks for unpaid fines and fees,” Johnson said. “I also credit the new Mississippi Rules of Criminal Procedure adopted by the Mississippi Supreme Court last year.”

More:Mississippi defendants spend months in jail awaiting trial

The newly released database shows that several counties have reduced their jail population since the Center’s first report. Among those:

DeSoto: 519 to 219

Harrison: 1,106 to 882

Lauderdale: 245 to 140

Lincoln: 150 to 65

Despite the downward trend, the jail population in some counties increased over the same period. Those include:

Hancock: 124 to 185

Hinds: 625 to 667

Leflore: 86 to 136

Johnson emphasized that the data currently available does not show whether detainees are awaiting trial, have yet to be indicted, are waiting for mental health evaluation or treatment, or have been convicted and are waiting to be transported to a state prison.

“At this point, we can only provide limited ‘snapshots’ of Mississippi’s jail population at different points in time,” Johnson said. “We urge the Mississippi Legislature to require the implementation of a uniform statewide system of reporting jail data that is available to the public and provides comprehensive real-time information about who is in our county jails and why. This tool would enable judges, lawyers, legislators, politicians and the public to make informed decisions regarding how best to make certain that our criminal justice system is efficient and fair.”

The center isn’t alone in urging lawmakers to create a uniform statewide system of reporting jail data.

The PEER Committee (Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review) has made the same recommendation, saying such information would assist policymakers in making economic decisions regarding incarceration.

More:PEER: Inmates spend on median 923 days in the Rankin County jail, the highest in the state

“Jail data available to everyone is a valuable tool in our struggle to reform the criminal justice system,” said Andre DeGruy, state defender for Mississippi. “Research shows that people who are in jail pretrial are more likely to get convicted and receive longer sentences for the same crimes as those who are not incarcerated pretrial. They are also more likely to need the services of a public defender than the person who can get out and go to work while awaiting trial.

Excessive pretrial detention “strains every part of the system,” DeGruy said. “Being able to see who’s in jail and how long they have been serving allows us to shine a light on the dark places in our system and can facilitate error correction whether that means getting the person moved to state custody, a mental health facility or back home.”

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