After the American Civil War, many freedmen worked as sharecroppers or tenant farmers on the plantations.

[citation needed] It is divided into six divisions; Administration, patrol, criminal investigations, narcotics, communications, and detention.

In September 2014 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the MacArthur Justice Center filed a federal class-action civil rights suit, Burks v. Scott County, against the County courts and the Scott County Sheriff's Office for violating suspects' rights, under the Sixth and Fourteenth amendments, to 1) defense counsel, 2) a speedy trial, 3) individualized bail determinations; and 4) freedom from excessive pre-trial detention.

The two plaintiffs had each been held for months in detention without access to a public defender before they were indicted or tried on the charges.

"... Mr. Burks has spent over three years in the Scott County jail since August 30, 2009, on the three separate charges," the complaint states.

"[18] The state does not require the county courts to issue indictments within any set period of time.

The county courts call a grand jury only three times a year, so defendants have long waits in between.

The ACLU notes that similar abuses exist in other Mississippi county court systems.

[18] At the time of the suit, Brandon Buskey, a lawyer with the ACLU's Criminal Law Reform Project, said 53 of the 129 inmates in the Scott County Detention Center had not been indicted.

[19] On September 23, 2014, these parties filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of several inmates in the Scott County Detention Center who had been detained for lengthy periods without counsel, fair bail arrangements, formal prosecution, or trial.

They proposed the creation of three classes of plaintiffs, among persons who were treated similarly by the county courts.