Jones County Justice Court Office

This justice court is a paradigm of justice to the degree that George Orwell's Ministry of Truth was an exemplary model of governmental virtue. Perhaps Franz Kafka once took his inspiration from the Jones County Justice Court in writing "The Trial", as a more Kafkanesque bureaucracy isn't to be found anywhere. Jones County holds the accused without bond charged with misdemeanors for FORTY-EIGHT hours up to the trial date so that the accused can't arrange proper defense, and Jones is the only county in the entire state of Mississippi which does this. It's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Reprobates are held without bond for such atrocities as late fines, driving with expired licenses, driving without insurance, and then the judge chastises these men with the emotional control of a child. In a paroxysm of rage, he shouts vociferously and gesticulates, turns red in the face and criticizes these men for nothing worse than late fines and driving without insurance/license, while he recites their past crimes, as if that had anything to do with their current offense. At the end of his tangential and barely coherent tirade, the judge then asks the men how they plead, (sometimes without even stating the title of the charge, because he's been lecturing so long that he forgot what it was). The impoverished accused obviously always plead "guilty" as if there were any other choice. The officials are sometimes worse than the "criminals". The system oppresses the indigent for being poor (not paying fines) and the judge yells at them as if they are the dregs of society. Prison workers hold charged men in a concrete cell with no bed, at 56 degrees Fahrenheit, and their only reading material is a bible written in Spanish. How Christian it is, to give someone a bible they can't read. That makes about as much sense as detaining people for 48 hours for not paying fines so that they lose their jobs and then definitely can't pay their fines. These men are then paraded into the court in jumpsuits and shackles FOR LATE FINES AND EXPIRED LICENSES. It's legalized torture with the intention to pressure individuals to plead guilty just so they can go home. They're banking on people being too afraid and too poor to come forward, but some of us read of the Milgram experiment and know how detrimental to true liberty it is when individuals comply with illegitimate and abusive authority. Why write a review like this if it doesn't affect me personally? For all of those individuals abused and enslaved by a corrupt system, who need a brave voice to speak up for them.

This place is corrupt from the workers to the Judge. They need to replace the whole staff starting with the Judge. Although I won my case I felt like I was living in the moment of the 60's or 70's. When a woman of color had no rights . The judge will entertain you and the worker's in court can look no one in the face because they know your getting a bad judgment. Even if you win or lose.

Completely inept. Received a speeding ticket in this county and paid it immediately. Unfortunately, the Jones County Justice Court never told my home state that I paid the ticket, resulting in my license being suspended! Now I have to pay a reinstatement fee on top of the ticket that I already paid for.

Thanks Jones County! Our tax dollars hard at work.