Youth Court Overhaul Heads to Reeves' Desk With $29.5 Million Attached
The Legislature adjourned its two-day special session Thursday after sending Gov. Tate Reeves a sweeping overhaul of Mississippi's youth court system. The House passed the bill 67-32 after the Senate approved it in a late Wednesday-night vote, and Reeves has said he will sign it.
The House met and voted in the Old Capitol — the first bill acted on there since 1903 — while its own chamber undergoes renovation.
The legislation makes youth courts divisions of chancery court with full-time judges in all 82 counties. Today, only 24 counties have full-time judges assigned to youth court cases. The bill creates new chancellor positions effective summer 2027, while the 24 counties with working systems may keep them.
The bill also requires judges' oral orders to be put in writing, so families can see exactly what the court requires of them, and gives youth courts exclusive jurisdiction over truancy — an issue Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has pressed for years.
The $29.5 million attached to the overhaul includes $12 million to expand the Oakley Youth Development Center, which currently has capacity for about 150 juveniles; $10 million for the Department of Public Safety to begin work on new state-run juvenile facilities in north and south Mississippi, with counties to pay $100 per detainee per day; and $7.5 million for a statewide intervention and diversion system run by the Department of Human Services.
A push by House members to force pharmacy benefit manager reform onto the special session agenda failed.