Imagine being arrested, detained, and then… that’s it. You sit in jail, without being charged for a crime or given access to legal counsel, forever. That’s what appears to be the case in Scott County, Miss., and it’s why the American Civil Liberties Union along with the ACLU of Mississippi, and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center have filed a class action lawsuit against the Scott County (Mississippi) sheriff, district attorney, and judges. The suit claims that people were held for up to a year without being indicted for a crime or given access to legal council.

“This is indefinite detention, pure and simple. Scott County jail routinely holds people without giving them a lawyer and without formally charging them for months, with no end in sight. For those waiting for indictment, the county has created its own Constitution-free zone,” said Brandon Buskey, Staff Attorney at the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. “These prisoners’ cases are frozen, their lives outside the jail are disintegrating, and they haven’t even been charged with a crime. The county has tossed these people into a legal black hole.”

One man, Octavious Burks, has been in and out of jail for years, though he’s never been convicted or even formally charged with a crime. On the day of his latest arrest in November of last year, Burks applied for indigent defense. While the judge in his case, Marcus D. Gordon, generally approves such requests, it’s often his policy to withhold council until a suspect has been indicted. Though apparently legal under Mississippi state law, the practice becomes much more more nefarious when grand jury hearings and indictments are pushed back indefinitely.

“The reason is, that public defender would go out and spend his time and money and cost the county money in investigating the matter,” Judge Gordon told the New York Times. “And then sometimes, the defendant is not indicted by the grand jury. So I wait until he’s been indicted.”

He then went on to say he was not authorized to appoint counsel until a defendant was indicted in his courtroom, which legal experts say is just not the case.

The ACLU says that courts often set high, arbitrary bail amounts for accused criminals, making it impossible for them to leave the jail. Without a lawyer, they have no recourse and no knowledge of their rights.

“We’re seeking to make Scott County’s justice system function for all its residents,” said Buskey. “The county must set reasonable limits on the amount of time someone can remain in jail without a lawyer and without charges. But Scott County, while extreme, isn’t alone. In too many places across the United States, poor people languish in jail for weeks and months, crowding the system because they can’t make bail and are waiting for an indictment or a public defender. Reform can’t come soon enough.”