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CLINIC HIGHLIGHTS JUSTICE CENTER Excessive and unconstitutional pre-trial detention has been a persistent problem in the State’s counties for decades. The Clinic has engaged in a series of efforts – litigation in discrete cases, policy efforts at the legislature, and, perhaps its most labor-intensive and impactful, its 2021 statewide jail database study. The study identified more than 5,800 people currently housed in the state’s county jails, along with their charges and the length of time they have spent in what is known as the “dead zone”— long waiting periods behind bars without representation. Of those currently incarcerated in the state’s county jails, 2,701 people have been detained more than 90 days; 1,602 have been detained over 180 days; 1,046 more than 270 days; and, 731 for a year or more. Low Income Housing CLINIC Even before the first big wave of evictions arrived on the heels of the COVID pandemic in 2019, the Housing Clinic positioned itself to provide legal services to tenants who were struggling to stay in their homes. In addition to a special “Eviction Clinic” and a “hotline” to identify and triage cases, the Clinic filed and won a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a portion of the state’s eviction statute. The successful lawsuit compelled the state legislature this past session to redraft the affected portions of the statute, the result of which is that tenants are now provided with adequate notice of an impending eviction, and landlords are prevented from deeming tenants’ personal property and possessions as abandoned and subject to seizure. In October, a judge granted a temporary restraining order filed by the Housing Clinic against Sunset Village apartments in Cleveland, Mississippi. The order required residents be provided alternative housing and adequate meals until repairs and inspections have been completed on the unit. 13