Earlier this year, a Mississippi judge found dozens of poor people jailed in Pike County without a court-appointed lawyer. Many had been there more than six months. But proposed statewide reforms went nowhere this legislative session.

themarshallproject.org/2024/05/02/mis…

The Mississippi House is taking up bills this morning to restore voting rights to select individuals who have lost those rights due to felony convictions.

A broader House bill to automatically restore voting rights to some disenfranchised people was killed by the Senate.

I'm thrilled that Mollie R. Simon, Agnel Philip 🌵🔎 and I are Livingston Award finalists for our reporting on how Mississippi routinely jails people who are not accused of any crime, solely because they may be mentally ill.

wallacehouse.umich.edu/livingston-awa…

This is remarkable. Context: Public defenders are *so rarely* appointed to state courts (Rachel Cohen wrote this whole piece on that: boltsmag.org/public-defende…)

Minnesota's governor appointed two former public defenders at once to the state supreme court: startribune.com/two-new-justic…

It is far from unusual in MS and particularly in DeSoto Co. for people to be jailed solely because they are awaiting treatment through the state’s commitment process -- without being accused of any crime. mississippitoday.org/2024/04/12/so-…

Thank you, Daja, for sharing the story of Charles Caldwell and writing about the ongoing issue of racist voter suppression in Mississippi.

As part of my latest for The Marshall Project, a timeline of Black Mississippians' struggle for voting rights (and White supremacists' efforts to stop them):

themarshallproject.org/2024/04/04/mis…