After fierce debate among lawmakers in the Mississippi legislature, a proposal to reform the state’s youth court system has been sent to Gov. Tate Reeves, capping a special session.
The Senate, in a late Wednesday night vote, sent a sweeping youth court overhaul bill to the House of Representatives. The House Judiciary B Committee first vetted the legislation Thursday morning, where it was given the green light to be assessed by the entire chamber. On the floor, lawmakers ultimately voted 67-32 to pass the measure, but not without heated discussions.
The House’s vote occurred in the Old Capitol Building, marking the first time action was taken on a bill in that facility since 1903. House members had to meet in the Old Capitol as the chamber’s quarters in the current state capitol are being renovated. Thursday’s proceedings began with a quick passing of a general bill to fundamentally change Mississippi’s youth court system, followed by a game of hardball before passing two related spending bills.
The House, before discussing bills to allocate $29.5 million to upgrade the state’s youth correctional facility, build new detention centers for juveniles, and create a statewide diversion system, attempted to revive an effort to impose stricter regulations on pharmacy benefit managers. Pharmacy benefit managers serve as the intermediaries who negotiate drug prices between insurance companies and pharmacies.
The House and Senate failed to reach an agreement on PBM legislation the regular session, and House leadership seemingly saw the special session as an opportunity to strong-arm the Gov. Tate Reeves to add PBM reform to the agenda. The push did not yield PBM discussions materializing, though there was almost a late night charge to push the envelope on Thursday night, a source told SuperTalk Mississippi News.
Nonetheless, the bill and funding mechanism cleared both chambers, allowing lawmakers to adjourn sine die.
What all does the proposal entail?
The proposal was crafted to serve multiple purposes, according to Reeves: 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 for counties lacking these judges, a move that would go into effect in the summer of 2027.
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 Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has been sounding the alarm on for years.
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 return to society much sooner than law enforcement would like.
An additional $10 million would go to the Department of Public Safety to begin building similar facilities in the northern and southern parts of the state. One of the goals in creating these facilities is to establish 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 per day 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.
Heated debate in the House
Lawmakers in both the House and Senate expressed frustration with the manner in which the legislation was brought up. The governor called the special session on Tuesday, giving the legislature just one day to return to Jackson to discuss a bill many had not had a chance to review. Some lawmakers said they were rushed to vote on a measure that they could not adequately vet, like they would have been able to if given the chance to discuss the proposal during a regular session.
In the House, Rep. Jeffery Harness, D-Fayette, used harsher language to articulate his frustrations. For starters, he alleged that the bill was brought up without meaningful discussions with leaders in affected fields. Reeves, however, said the proposal followed countless conversations with professionals. Harness also asserted that the governor was disqualified to lead the charge on youth reform, citing his lack of courtroom experience. He then accused some of his colleagues of blindly supporting the bill out of loyalty to leadership, instead of thinking for themselves.
“I would think that you would have sense enough, or you would be man or woman enough, to think for yourself, and not be guided by outside influences. Because the only thing we’re going to gain from this legislation in the next two years is a chaotic mess, total chaos in the youth court system,” Harness said.
“You’re going to be misguided by a man who’s never stepped foot in the courtroom, and probably doesn’t know the least bit about youth court issues, and you’re just going to run with it. You’re going to vote like you don’t have a mind of your own … Then you didn’t even read this legislation. You’re just voting just to vote. You’re causing harm to your state and children … You sit here like cowards and cannot even represent your own interests.”
On the other side of that debate was Rep. Jansen Owen, R-Poplarville, who considered his colleague’s remarks disingenuous. Owen remarked that proposals similar to the one brought up on Thursday had been introduced in the House multiple times over the past four years. He further accused dissenters who claimed they lacked time to review the legislation of failing to do their homework regarding discussions held in previous sessions.
“I think it’s important to remember that this is not the first time this legislation has come before us,” Owen said. “This is the fourth year an iteration of this bill has been filed and attempted to pass our chamber. This is not new. If you have not had an opportunity to read and review this legislation and the potential impacts it has had on our youth courts and our courts, then you have not been paying attention.”
House Judiciary B Committee Chairman Rep. Kevin Horan, R-Grenada, added that the legislation will serve to protect vulnerable children in Mississippi by ensuring that full-time judges are assigned to their cases. His contention was a counter to Harness’s argument that the youth court system would be in perpetual disarray if the proposal on the table passed.
“Don’t think for one minute that this piece of legislation hurts children. It does not. This piece of legislation is a move in the right direction to make sure that we have all the information and we can help children daily,” Horan said. “I want a full-time judge in place, where he can be called, he can be consulted every day.”
What’s next?
The only remaining step is for Gov. Reeves to sign the legislation into law. He has indicated that he would do so after it passed the House and Senate.