Two recent editorials in Emmerich newspapers deserve our attention. Both dealt with people held in jail too long and the legislative responses this past session.

A Greenwood Commonwealth editorial focused on indigent individuals held in jail without access to an attorney and decried the state’s lack of resources to support public defenders.

“Mississippi has a well-funded, well-coordinated system of district attorneys to handle prosecutions. On the defense side, though, it is a lowly paid hodge-podge of mostly court-appointed lawyers,” the editorial said. “As the Marshall Project recently reported, some counties don’t take the obligation seriously at all, even ignoring dictates imposed just last year by the state Supreme Court that were designed to ensure the accused don’t languish in jails, waiting to see whether the criminal justice system believes there is enough evidence to take them to trial.”

The editorial pointed to one county where 44 people were held on criminal charges for an average of 223 days without a court-appointed attorney.

Bills to help fix this problem got nowhere in the legislature this session.

A McComb Enterprise-Journal editorial focused on the practice of putting mentally ill people who face no criminal charges in jail.

Individuals going through a civil commitment for mental-health treatment can be jailed when county officials can find no other place to hold them. The editorial praised a new law intended to restrict this practice.

Rep. Sam Creekmore IV, chair of the House Public Health and Human Services committee, introduced and passed a bill that limits jailing to only those people determined to be “actively violent.” and the Chancery Court must be engaged in that determination.

The law provides that community health centers must pre-screen individuals prior to the filing of an affidavit to commit. And the centers must report quarterly to local supervisors on the numbers of pre-screenings, individuals diverted, and individuals jailed with copies to the Department of Mental Health, the local court, and local law enforcement.

“There is reason to hope that the new law means fewer mentally ill people will be put in jail, and that the average number of days such people spend behind bars without charges will be significantly reduced,” the editorial said.

But it called the new law “only the first step,” saying the legislature must ensure the availability of spaces outside of jails to hold persons during the commitment process. Otherwise, local officials will likely ignore the new law.

Thanks to these two newspapers for discussing legislative responses to two of our dark side behaviors.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.