MISSOULA — Every year, thousands of innocent people are imprisoned across the globe, which is why Thursday marked International Wrongfully Convicted Day. To bring awareness to those wrongfully convicted, the Montana Innocence Project hosted a speaker at the Missoula Public Library.
The Montana Innocence Project is a non-profit dedicated to reducing or overturning the convictions of innocent or wrongfully convicted people.
In the state of Montana, convicted individuals do not have the right to counsel until they have entered the appeals process.
The Montana Innocence Project offers services statewide, helping imprisoned people obtain legal counsel through the appeals process.
There are several hurdles the non-profit has to overcome, however, as between a tight budget and clients across the state, there is also the obstacle of working with Montana’s private prisons.
“We are faced with potentially needing to go to Arizona or Mississippi even to visit with clients because of the contract that the state has with the private prisons where as many as 600 Montanans have been shipped out of state to be housed in private prison facilities in Arizona and Mississippi," Amy Sings In The Timber, executive director of the Montana Innocence Project, said. "So the challenges continue to grow."
The Montana Innocence Project also said that one of the biggest challenges they face is the basic principle of people understanding their rights, as they often only become aware of them once they are imprisoned.
You can read more about the Montana Innocence Project by visiting their website.
