MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2000 Regular Session

To: Juvenile Justice; Appropriations

By: Representative Bailey

AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS TO CONSTRUCT AND EQUIP A CORRECTIONAL CENTER FOR HOUSING JUVENILE OFFENDERS; TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS TO APPLY FOR BLOCK GRANT FUNDS TO HELP CONSTRUCT AND EQUIP THE JUVENILE CORRECTION CENTER AND TO IMPLEMENT PROGRAMS TO ASSIST JUVENILE OFFENDERS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. The Department of Corrections (department) shall select a suitable site for a nine-county regional Juvenile Correctional Center not to exceed six hundred (600) beds. The department shall construct and equip housing and support facilities for six hundred (600) area juvenile offenders who are under eighteen (18) years of age. The department shall submit an application for a Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant (JAIBG) to the United States Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, for funding to construct and equip the facility for juvenile offenders. The Juvenile Correction Center shall be operated as a pilot project.

SECTION 2. (1) A special fund designated as the "2000 Regional Juvenile Correction Centers Construction Fund" shall be created within the State Treasury. The fund shall be maintained by the State Treasurer as a separate and special fund, separate and apart from the General Fund of the state. Unexpended amounts remaining in the fund at the end of the fiscal year shall not lapse into the State General Fund, and any interest earned on investment earnings on amounts in the fund shall be deposited to the credit of the fund, funds may not be used or expended for any purpose except as authorized under this act.

(2) Monies deposited into the fund shall be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to pay a portion of the costs of constructing regional juvenile correctional centers throughout the state. The portion of the costs of construction may be used as matching funds for the Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant (JAIBG), as provided under Title III of H.R. 3, United States House-passed Juvenile Accountability Block Grants Act of 1997.

(3) JAIBG funds may be used to develop programs in the following thirteen (13) program purpose areas established by Congress:

(a) To build, expand, renovate, or operate temporary or permanent juvenile correction or detention centers, including training of correctional personnel;

(b) To develop and administer accountability-based sanctions for juvenile offenders;

(c) To hire additional judges, probation officers, and court-appointed defenders, and to fund pretrial services for juveniles, to ensure the efficient and expeditious administration of the juvenile justice system;

(d) To hire additional prosecutors so that more cases involving violent juvenile offenders can be prosecuted and backlogs reduced;

(e) To provide funds that help prosecutors to address drugs, gangs, and youth violence problems more effectively;

(f) To provide funds for technology, equipment and training to assist prosecutors in identifying and expediting the prosecution of violent juvenile offenders;

(g) To provide funds that enable juvenile courts and juvenile probation officers to be more effective and efficient in holding juvenile offenders accountable and reducing recidivism;

(h) To establish juvenile gun courts for the adjudication and prosecution of juvenile firearm offenders;

(i) To establish drug court programs for juveniles that provide continuous supervision over juvenile offenders with substance abuse problems and that provide the integrated administration of other sanctions and services;

(j) To establish and maintain interagency information-sharing programs that enable the juvenile and criminal justice systems, schools, and social service agencies to make informed decisions regarding the early identification, control, supervision, and treatment of juveniles who repeatedly commit serious, delinquent or criminal acts;

(k) To establish vocational type projects that integrate academic related job skills training, independent life skills, conflict-resolution and therapeutic program rehabilitation;

(l) To establish and maintain accountability-based programs that juvenile offenders are referred to by law enforcement agencies or programs that are designed, in cooperation with law enforcement officials, to protect students and school personnel from drugs, gangs, and youth violence; and

(m) To implement a policy of controlled substance testing for appropriate categories of juveniles within the juvenile justice system.

SECTION 3. Other than a maximum of ten percent (10%) of funds set aside for administration, not less than forty-five percent (45%) of total JAIBG funds must be allocated for program purpose areas identified in subsection (3)(c) through (i) of Section 2 of this act and not less than thirty-five percent (35%) must be allocated for program areas identified in subsection (3)(a), (b) and (j) of Section 2 of this act. This distribution formula must be followed unless the state or local government certifies that the interest of public safety and juvenile crime control would be better served by expending the funds in another proportion.

SECTION 4. The pilot project will involve the following counties: Washington, Bolivar, Sunflower, Leflore, Grenada, Carroll, Humphreys, Yazoo, Sharkey and Issaquena. These counties will represent nine (9) correctional districts. The other districts will consist of eight (8) counties per district, which will provide representation for all eighty-two (82) counties of the state. The pilot project shall be located in Washington County, Mississippi.

SECTION 5. The following departments of the state shall render physical, moral and financial support to the pilot project: the Department of Human Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Economic and Community Development and the Department of Mental Health.

SECTION 6. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2000.