Mississippi Today
Mississippi court interpreters provide access to justice
Mississippi court interpreters provide access to justice
The Mississippi court system is training multilingual court interpreters to ensure equal access to justice for people whose primary language isn’t English.
“If a litigant comes into a courtroom and doesn’t speak English, then there is no access to justice without a qualified court interpreter,” said Deenie Miller, language access coordinator for the state’s Administrative Office of Courts. “Their job is to put someone on equal footing as someone who speaks English as a native language.”
Court interpreters also help judges administer justice by helping them communicate with a person who isn’t proficient in English, she said.
About 105,500 Missisisppians – nearly 4% of the population – speak a language other than English at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Spanish is the top requested language for court interpreting, Miller said, and that need is growing in central Mississippi.
Other top languages requested include Vietnamese, Mandarin and French, she said.
Patricia Ice, legal project director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, has worked with people needing court interpreter services in state and federal court. She agreed that language access is necessary for someone to access justice.
Before the Administrative Office of the Courts began training, certifying and recruiting interpreters, it could be difficult to find one for clients, Ice said.
Sometimes she found interpreters from the court’s roster, and other times it was more of a challenge to get someone who spoke an indigenous or less common language.
“It’s important that the court system be sensitive to the languages that people are hearing and speaking in the courts,” she said.
Miller is looking to build a roster of court interpreters certified to speak in various languages to work in circuit, county, chancery and justice courts around the state. She can also receive referrals if someone on her roster can’t interpret for a requested language.
So far, there are 26 people on the court’s roster who can interpret in Arabic, Mandarin, Portuguese and Spanish, according to an interpreter search page through the Administrative Office of the Courts.
“You never know what part of the world someone will be from,” Miller said. “The need is great for qualified court interpreters.”
Miller, who became the language access coordinator in July, is in charge of recruiting, training and certifying language interpreters and working with judges, attorneys and court staff about requirements to provide interpreters for those with limited English proficiency.
The Administrative Office of the Courts held a language court interpretation training and certification test in November in Jackson.
Thirteen participants from around the state and beyond received an introduction to court proceedings, the role of a language interpreter, ways to interpret, ethical requirements and credentialing requirements.
The office has held language court interpreter training several times a year for nearly a decade. Miller is hoping to revamp the seminar and host it four times a year alongside exams for people to become certified interpreters.
In addition to recruiting interpreters, Miller is working on ways to ensure language access in courthouses, such as having forms and signs available in Spanish and other languages.
She also would like to secure funding to fund interpreters so the expense doesn’t always have to come from the county or a judge. Miller doesn’t want money to be the deciding factor of whether a person can access an interpreter.
Court interpreters are independent contractors who negotiate their own rates with the court, a county or an attorney, she said.
Miller worked as a paralegal for over 20 years before becoming the language access coordinator. Although she is new to language access work, Miller said she is passionate and looks forward to what she can do in the role.
The Administrative Office of Courts has requested funding for her position for several years, she said. As the population of people with limited English proficiency has grown in the state, the Legislature recognized the importance of having someone in the position full-time, Miller said.
“This position was fought for and I’m excited to be the office’s first language access coordinator,” she said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=202446
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1997
Dec. 22, 1997
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers.
In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.”
He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.”
The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Medicaid expansion tracker approaches $1 billion loss for Mississippi
About the time people ring in the new year next week, the digital tracker on Mississippi Today’s homepage tabulating the amount of money the state is losing by not expanding Medicaid will hit $1 billion.
The state has lost $1 billion not since the start of the quickly departing 2024 but since the beginning of the state’s fiscal year on July 1.
Some who oppose Medicaid expansion say the digital tracker is flawed.
During an October news conference, when state Auditor Shad White unveiled details of his $2 million study seeking ways to cut state government spending, he said he did not look at Medicaid expansion as a method to save money or grow state revenue.
“I think that (Mississippi Today) calculator is wrong,” White said. “… I don’t think that takes into account how many people are going to be moved off the federal health care exchange where their health care is paid for fully by the federal government and moved onto Medicaid.”
White is not the only Mississippi politician who has expressed concern that if Medicaid expansion were enacted, thousands of people would lose their insurance on the exchange and be forced to enroll in Medicaid for health care coverage.
Mississippi Today’s projections used for the tracker are based on studies conducted by the Institutions of Higher Learning University Research Center. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the study that are inexact. It is impossible to say, for example, how many people will get sick and need health care, thus increasing the cost of Medicaid expansion. But is reasonable that the projections of the University Research Center are in the ballpark of being accurate and close to other studies conducted by health care experts.
White and others are correct that Mississippi Today’s calculator does not take into account money flowing into the state for people covered on the health care exchange. But that money does not go to the state; it goes to insurance companies that, granted, use that money to reimburse Mississippians for providing health care. But at least a portion of the money goes to out-of-state insurance companies as profits.
Both Medicaid expansion and the health care exchange are part of the Affordable Care Act. Under Medicaid expansion people earning up to $20,120 annually can sign up for Medicaid and the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost. Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not opted into Medicaid expansion.
People making more than $14,580 annually can garner private insurance through the health insurance exchanges, and people below certain income levels can receive help from the federal government in paying for that coverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden significantly increased the federal subsidies provided to people receiving insurance on the exchange. Those increased subsidies led to many Mississippians — desperate for health care — turning to the exchange for help.
White, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, Gov. Tate Reeves and others have expressed concern that those people would lose their private health insurance and be forced to sign up for Medicaid if lawmakers vote to expand Medicaid.
They are correct.
But they do not mention that the enhanced benefits authored by the Biden administration are scheduled to expire in December 2025 unless they are reenacted by Congress. The incoming Donald Trump administration has given no indication it will continue the enhanced subsidies.
As a matter of fact, the Trump administration, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for ways to cut federal spending.
Some have speculated that Medicaid expansion also could be on Musk’s chopping block.
That is possible. But remember congressional action is required to continue the enhanced subsidies. On the flip side, congressional action would most likely be required to end or cut Medicaid expansion.
Would the multiple U.S. senators and House members in the red states that have expanded Medicaid vote to end a program that is providing health care to thousands of their constituents?
If Congress does not continue Biden’s enhanced subsidies, the rates for Mississippians on the exchange will increase on average about $500 per year, according to a study by KFF, a national health advocacy nonprofit. If that occurs, it is likely that many of the 280,000 Mississippians on the exchange will drop their coverage.
The result will be that Mississippi’s rate of uninsured — already one of the highest in the nation – will rise further, putting additional pressure on hospitals and other providers who will be treating patients who have no ability to pay.
In the meantime, the Mississippi Today counter that tracks the amount of money Mississippi is losing by not expanding Medicaid keeps ticking up.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1911
Dec. 21, 1911
Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia.
When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs.
He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame.
The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays.
Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
-
News from the South - Arkansas News Feed7 days ago
Faith-inspired ministry opens health clinic in Little Rock
-
News from the South - Florida News Feed6 days ago
‘Dirty Dancing,’ ‘Beverly Hills Cop,’ ‘Up in Smoke’ among movies entering the National Film Registry
-
Our Mississippi Home5 days ago
The Meaning of the Redbird During the Holiday Season
-
Mississippi Today4 days ago
Mississippi PERS Board endorses plan decreasing pension benefits for new hires
-
Local News1 day ago
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi Honors Veterans with Wreath-Laying Ceremony and Holiday Giving Initiative
-
News from the South - North Carolina News Feed1 day ago
Social Security benefits boosted for millions in bill headed to Biden’s desk • NC Newsline
-
News from the South - Missouri News Feed2 days ago
Could prime Albert Pujols fetch $1 billion in today's MLB free agency?
-
Mississippi News Video3 days ago
12/19- Friday will be breezy…but FREEZING by this weekend