SUMMARY: Most people in Mississippi county jails have been locked up for at least three months while waiting to go on trial, with some waiting even longer due to infrequent grand jury sessions in the state's 82 counties. An attorney and director of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, Cliff Johnson, released a survey showing the impact of these lengthy wait times. Nearly 5,400 people are in county jails, and the survey found more than 2,600 pretrial detainees had been jailed longer than 90 days, with 747 jailed for over a year. Johnson urged Mississippi to join other states in setting time limits for indictments to address the situation.

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