Stat of the Day: The Waiting (in Jail) Game

—By

| Wed May. 12, 2010 11:28 AM PDT

From a conversation with the chief of the Orleans Public Defenders office: In New York, the district attorney has 144 hours after your arrest to decide whether to bring a case against you, or else you're released. In Louisiana, the time you could wait in jail, just on suspicion, possibly without representation, if you were arrested for a capital or life-sentence crime is 120 days.

Get Mother Jones by Email - Free. Like what you're reading? Get the best of MoJo three times a week.

Photo Essays + Slideshows

kids smoking

Glamorous Photos of Kids Smoking

Frieke Janssens' images of kids and (fake!) cigarettes capture the ugliness and the not-quite-bygone glamour of smoking.

Slideshow: "Enjoy an Ice Cream Cone Shortly Before Lunch"

10 classic ads from the sugar and cereal industries.

Portraits of Addiction

A Manhattan banker shoots portraits of drug abuse, sex work, and homelessness in the Bronx.

Garry Winogrand, John F. Kennedy, Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles, 1

Never Before Seen Photos From Legendary Street Photographer Garry Winogrand

Fourteen amazing scenes of life in America—and hundreds more where that came from.

See All