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- “This pilot is working the way we were hoping,” said Senate Judiciary Committee A chairman, State Senator Brice Wiggins (R).
Three months into the Mississippi Office of State Public Defender’s pilot program to place public defenders in the state’s underserved areas, the initiative is receiving praise from legislators. OSPD State Defender Andre de Gruy told lawmakers that the program “hit the ground running.”
Known as “Day One,” the program is active in the Fifth Circuit Court District, which includes Attala, Carroll, Choctaw, Grenada, Montgomery, Webster, and Winston counties.
The State Defender said defendants sitting in jail without representation for prolonged periods has been a problem in Mississippi due to the state not having enough lawyers in rural areas. He said as one of the most rural states in the nation, 67 of Mississippi’s 82 counties have a population of less than 50,000 people, and eleven of the 23 Circuit Court Districts are comprised of only rural counties.
Under the pilot program, OSPD contracts with Defend the Fifth Inc., a Mississippi non-profit corporation to provide Day One public defense services.
In the pilot program’s first three months of operation, the office represented 44 clients facing a total of 58 felony charges, including two charged with murder and 30 associated misdemeanor charges.
Additionally, the office has conducted intake interviews with nearly 40 incarcerated people within 24 hours of their arrests and represented 13 clients at contested preliminary hearings. Over 30 bail motions have been filed or argued for 28 clients. The office has also successfully advocated for the pre-trial release of 20 people charged with non-violent felonies, resolved eight cases with favorable dispositions at or before preliminary hearing, and prosecutors were persuaded to drop all charges against three clients.
The initiative has success stories, de Gruy told lawmakers. For example, the office assisted one man with felony drug possession charges. Within a day of the man’s arrest, an office lawyer began work on the defendant’s case. The lawyer contacted the defendant’s employer to ensure that the client would be able to return to his job. The office then connected the client with outpatient addiction recovery services, where the defendant remains in treatment after resolving his case with a non-adjudicated misdemeanor.
In the majority of the cases handled by the office, the attorney met the defendant at the jail on the first day before an initial appearance.
“That’s the goal. We believe that if you do defense this way, you are going to move cases through the system faster, cut down on jail time, and end with lower prison sentences,” de Gruy said.
Local sheriffs and jailers are buying into the program, de Gruy noted, saying that they receive notification from law enforcement when someone is arrested. The program is most active in Winston, Montgomery, Attala, and Grenada, as they are the largest counties in the Fifth Circuit District.
Funding for the $838,000 pilot program came from capital funds during the 2025 session. De Gruy said the majority is used for salaries.
The pilot program has six employees – three attorneys and three support staff, including an investigator. A search for a fourth attorney is underway.
“This pilot is working the way we were hoping,” said Senate Judiciary Committee A chairman, State Senator Brice Wiggins (R).
