Mississippi lawmakers concluded the first day of a special session aimed at addressing potential reforms to the state’s youth court system. On Wednesday, a late-night vote by the Senate moved the state one step closer to reforming a system that has been the subject of criticism for quite some time.
Gov. Tate Reeves called the special session on Tuesday, giving lawmakers just one day to return to Jackson, noting that having legislators reconvene was “necessitated” by a recent expiration of statutes relating to the disclosure of youth records and multiple lawsuits that followed.
The Mississippi Supreme Court stepped in to remedy this issue with a quick fix, with a ruling that revived the expired statutes. The laws are set to remain in place until July 24, though the court could extend that date. However, Reeves said Wednesday that it was incumbent on the legislature to make a permanent correction.
Beyond that, the governor said leadership in both the House of Representatives and Senate reached an agreement on a sweeping youth court reform that would correct the expired statutes, install full-time judges to oversee cases, and create new juvenile correctional facilities. Reeves said the overarching goal is to create a uniform youth court system in Mississippi, one that better meets the needs of the public.
“These reforms are consistent with some of the most basic principles I believe should guide government. Government has a responsibility to protect its citizens. Government has a responsibility to maintain law and order and to hold violent offenders accountable. And government has a responsibility to ensure both parents and families receive due process. Our current youth court system does not always meet those standards.”
What all did the proposal entail?
Reeves said the reforms followed extensive conversations with industry experts, including Child Protection Services Commissioner Andrea Sanders, Department of Human Services Director Bob Anderson, and Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, among numerous others in relation to needed fixes for Mississippi’s youth court system.
The proposal was crafted to serve multiple purposes: to better serve families with judges assigned to youth courts statewide, to meet the immediate needs of children who are victims of abuse, to offer rehabilitative services to youth who have committed nonviolent offenses, and to hold minors convicted of committing violent crimes accountable.
Currently, just 24 of Mississippi’s 82 counties have full-time judges assigned to youth court cases. Some counties lean on referees, typically local attorneys appointed by a chancery court judge, to hear these cases. The legislative proposal would shift Mississippi’s youth court approach to one that has full-time judges assigned to cases statewide. This includes creating new chancellor positions, which will go into effect in the summer of 2027, for counties lacking these judges.
In essence, youth courts would become divisions of a county’s chancery court. However, the 24 counties with strong youth court systems in effect would not be required to shift to the new format, but would have the option to do so if they desired.
Within these youth courts, the proposal would require a judge’s oral order to be drafted in written form, so that families would have full access to what the court is requiring of their child. These courts would also have exclusive jurisdiction over truancy cases, an issue Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has been sounding the alarm over for quite some time now.
The proposal included state appropriations to the tune of $29.5 million. The state plans to spend $12 million to expand the capacity at the Oakley Youth Development Center in Hinds County — Mississippi’s only state-operated juvenile correctional facility. Oakley can currently hold up to 150 juveniles, meaning some offenders often end up back in society much sooner than law enforcement officials would like.
An additional $10 million would go to the Department of Public Safety to get the ball rolling on building similar facilities in north and south Mississippi. One of the goals of creating these facilities is for there to be state-run centers to house youth offenders. The centers come with a cost-cutting initiative for counties, per Reeves. Counties would only have to pay $100 per detainee on a daily bases at state-run correctional facilities, whereas, they’re typically on the hook for more money elsewhere.
The state would also spend $7.5 million on a statewide intervention system. This would be operated by the Department of Human Services, which was appropriated $1.5 million during the regular session to soft launch the system. The system would serve to offer counseling services, community-based probation, and other programs to rehabilitate juveniles who committed nonviolent offenses.
What did lawmakers do?
The House gaveled in at the Old Capitol Building, as the chamber’s quarters in the current capitol are being renovated. The Senate, on the other hand, kicked things off in its typical meeting spot. House Speaker Jason White deferred to his cross-chamber counterparts to get the ball rolling on the bill-passing process.
Once the Senate outlined its agenda for the special session, Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, proposed extending the statutes that had expired instead of taking on a major reform package on short notice. He was overridden, and the Senate Judiciary A Committee took up the proposal, listed as Senate Bill 2001.
The committee ultimately passed the measure, but not without first making a couple of amendments. The bill was modified in committee to prohibit video recording in youth court cases under certain specific circumstances and to ban media from releasing identifying information about children in closed hearings. Once taken to the floor, some technical changes were made to the bill, with five amendments being adopted to make the legislation more legally sound.
Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, proposed two amendments regarding procedures for when youth welfare cases can be dismissed or kept out of the public eye. His first proposed amendment barred such cases from being closed without a judge first reviewing an intake officer’s assessment. In these cases, intake officers review the facts and make recommendations to the court based on their findings. Simmons’ other amendment dealt with when the general public could be present at hearings in welfare cases. Both amendments failed.
Simmons further questioned the purpose of the bill, arguing that it put the status of hard-working youth court judges in Mississippi in limbo. Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, on the other hand, stressed the importance of this measure, citing the landmark 2004 Olivia Y. v. Barbour lawsuit that resulted in Mississippi’s foster care system being placed under federal court oversight.
Mississippi, at the time, was ruled to have overwhelmed case workers for youth in the foster care system, lacked adequate abuse investigations, failed to properly screen homes welcoming youth, and did not provide sufficient healthcare to vulnerable children.
“Our sheriffs are complaining that they have no place to put these folks running around, and we’re providing that,” Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, said. “I’m standing here presenting to y’all a bill and a plan to give the youth court judges, our kids, and our agencies, multi-millions of dollars to address this situation.”
Mississippi’s foster care system, to this day, remains under federal oversight. Wiggins argued that the state is making meaningful strides to correct past errors through the legislation that was debated on Wednesday. Dissenting lawmakers contended that this measure is a ticking time bomb packed with unintended consequences that could have been debated and corrected during the regular session. Wiggins said lawmakers would have the chance to rehash provisions within the proposal, if it ends up being enacted, when they reconvene in January.
Both Bryan and Simmons expressed that they lacked confidence in unforeseen consequences being corrected in the 2027 session. Bryan was a little harsher than his Democratic colleague in challenging the legislation proposed Wednesday, along with the motive behind it. The lawmaker essentially accused several of his peers of cowardice. Without naming names, Bryan asserted that numerous Senators joined him in having grave concerns about the legislation, but would follow orders at the behest of higher-ups in state government.
“It’s getting to where I do not recognize this legislature, and I do not recognize this Senate. I do not understand why people continue to vote for propositions they think are unwise,” Bryan said. “I don’t know what the rest of you said when you ran for public office, but I didn’t run on a platform of, ‘I’ll do what I’m told.’ I didn’t run on a platform of, ‘I’ll stand up and vote for my district, unless I’m scared, and then I won’t.'”
The last-minute appeal was not enough to sway the majority of the legislative body, as the Senate voted 25-10 to send the proposal to the House.
What’s next?
With the bill not clearing both legislative chambers on Wednesday, the special session will continue on Thursday. The House Judiciary B Committee is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m., with the full chamber set to meet an hour later to take up the Senate bill. The Senate will return to the capitol at 11 a.m. Reeves has assured that once the legislation gets to him, he will promptly sign it. The bill itself would go into effect on passage, but several provisions would not be state law until July 1, 2027.