The Mississippi Legislature will consider Juvenile Court reform

A Senate committee chair, Brice Wiggins, will push lawmakers next year to support legislation to place a full-time Juvenile Court judge in every county in the state to ensure children receive a consistent level of treatment in the state’s legal system Mississippi.

Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula, told reporters Friday that he does not know how the Juvenile Court would be specifically reformed, but that there would eventually be more full-time judges in the state.

“I think adding those judges would provide a sense of uniformity because I think it would bring in the staff and associated structures,” Wiggins said.

Mississippi has a mix of juvenile courts that vary from county to county. The Juvenile Court handles most cases in which children commit crimes and adults are accused of abusing and neglecting minors.

In counties that have a County Court, a full-time County Court Judge presides over Youth Court cases. But despite the name, not every county in Mississippi has a County Court.

For a county to have a County Court, it must have a population density of more than 50,000 residents, or, if it is less than that number, it must convince the Legislature to pass a law to establish a County Court in the area to aim.

Only 24 of the state’s 82 counties have a county court.

In the other provinces the Youth Court falls under the responsibility of the Chancery Courts. But only two counties, Sunflower and Humphreys counties, have a chancellor who deals directly with youth issues. In the remaining 56 counties, the Chancery Court appoints a part-time juvenile judge to hear these cases.

Wiggins’ decision to introduce Juvenile Court reform legislation during the 2025 legislative session is based in part on a report published by a 19-member Juvenile Court Commission, which concluded that Mississippi needs a system in which every county has a full-time Juvenile Court judge has.

Staci Bevill, a Lee County County Court judge, served on the commission and told lawmakers that the commission came to that decision because part-time referees do not always have the resources and time to handle the large amount of work required by Youth Court to process. .

“These referees and these district courts are doing the best they can,” Bevill said. “This committee is in no way trying to say that an arbitral tribunal is not doing its job. These people are trying to do the work, but they don’t have the resources to do the work.”

Unlike the adult criminal justice system, a Juvenile Court judge must issue a warrant for each case referred to him. In 2023 alone, the commission reported that Juvenile Court judges handled more than 18,000 juvenile criminal cases and more than 46,000 cases of abuse and neglect.

The committee did not recommend that the Legislature adopt a specific court structure, but did propose three different court structures for lawmakers to consider: a statewide County Court system, a unified Chancery Court system or a hybrid structure where the state uses both County Court and Chancery Court. .

Under the statewide county system, the Legislature would keep the current 24 county courts and create district courts consisting of two to three counties for the other parts of the state.

For the unified Chancery Court plan, it would take juvenile jurisdiction away from the County Court and create a permanent Youth Court division in each of the state’s Chancery Court districts, with a full-time Youth Court judge in each of these districts. Gov. Tate Reeves endorsed this proposal in his Executive Budget Recommendation.

Under the hybrid model, Reeves’ plan would change to the County Court proposal. It would leave the current county court system intact in counties that have a county court system. In counties with a referee program, part-time referees would be replaced by Chancery Court judges.

If lawmakers substantially reform the state’s Juvenile Court system to create a more uniform structure, it could be a way for the state to finally find a resolution to the long-running Oliva Y lawsuit that has cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

The Olivia Y lawsuit, filed in 2004 during Governor Haley Barbour’s administration, alleged that the state’s foster care system did not effectively protect children in the custody of Child Protective Services. The namesake of the case was three years old at the time and showed several signs of abuse and neglect after being in the care of a foster family.

The state settled with the plaintiffs and agreed to meet several performance criteria to improve the foster care system. Twenty years later, the state still hasn’t resolved the lawsuit.

Wiggins believes a one-size-fits-all system could ultimately help end lawsuits and save the state money in the long run by investing in children in juvenile court, rather than trying to resolve lingering unresolved issues, especially with criminal cases, later in life to solve.

“It’s clear that if you start on the front end, you save money and resources and get better results on the back end,” Wiggins said.

The state Legislature will convene Jan. 7 for the 2025 regular session.