In Hinds County, the state’s most populous county and home to the capital city, residents accused of crimes are sitting in jail for months without access to legal counsel, cases cannot move forward, and the detention center is overcrowded. The root cause is well documented and unsurprising. The public defenders who are constitutionally obligated to represent the county’s indigent residents are vastly underpaid, critically understaffed, and chronically under-resourced. State statute sets the Hinds County District Attorney’s salary at approximately $125,900 per year, and assistant district attorneys earn between 80 to 90 percent of that figure, meaning a new assistant district attorney with fewer than five years of experience takes home over $100,000 annually. An assistant public defender working in the same courthouse starts at approximately $55,000, a disparity that is not merely a payroll imbalance but a constitutional failure with tangible consequences for families and communities across the county.
The structural damage of that funding gap plays out daily in the Hinds County Public Defender’s office, the largest in the state, which carries a caseload of approximately 4,000 cases with a revolving door of attorneys who simply cannot afford to stay. Attorneys have left the office to take positions with the Hinds County District Attorney, where they earned $35,000 more, and the pattern of attrition has been constant. When defenders leave, cases stall, and when cases stall, individuals remain incarcerated pretrial, the detention center exceeds its capacity, and the county absorbs the mounting cost of housing people who have not been convicted of any crime. Adequate funding for public defense is not only a constitutional obligation but a fiscal imperative that can no longer be deferred.
The challenge extends well beyond Hinds County, but it is in Hinds County where the need is most acute and the opportunity for meaningful reform most immediate. Only eight of Mississippi’s 82 counties maintain public defender offices, and across the remainder of the state, 63 counties compensate private attorneys through flat fees to handle indigent defense on a part-time basis, irrespective of caseload volume or complexity. There are, however, reasons for measured optimism. In 2025, the Legislature approved nearly $700,000 for a pilot program to fund public defense in one of the state’s most rural court districts, marking the first time state dollars have been directed toward non-death-penalty cases outside Hinds County. That development suggests a growing recognition among lawmakers of what communities across Mississippi have long understood, that the guarantee of equal justice is only as strong as the resources dedicated to fulfilling it.
This is not a moment for division but a moment for shared purpose and sustained commitment to what Mississippi’s justice system can and should be. Properly funding public defense keeps families intact, allows cases to move through the courts efficiently, reduces jail overcrowding, and delivers meaningful savings to taxpayers. Above all, it honors the constitutional guarantee that every person, regardless of financial means, is entitled to legal representation that is competent, adequately compensated, and prepared to advocate on their behalf. The support for this cause is substantial and growing, and it is essential that decision-makers see and understand the depth of that commitment.