House Bill 1794

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 47-5-943, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REVISE THE MAXIMUM AGE OF OFFENDERS WHO ARE HOUSED AT THE WALNUT GROVE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

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

SECTION 1. Section 47-5-943, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

47-5-943. The Mississippi Department of Corrections may contract with the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority or the governing authorities of the Municipality of Walnut Grove, Leake County, Mississippi, to provide for the private housing, care and control of not more than one thousand (1,000) juvenile offenders who are in the custody of the Department of Corrections at a maximum security facility in Walnut Grove. The maximum age of any offender housed in this facility shall be twenty-two (22) years of age, and upon reaching his or her twenty-second birthday, the offender must be removed from the facility speedily and within a reasonable amount of time. A county or circuit judge shall not order any juvenile to be housed in the correctional facility authorized in Sections 47-5-943 through 47-5-953. Commitment of juvenile offenders shall not be to this facility, but shall be to the jurisdiction of the department. The commissioner shall assign newly sentenced offenders to an appropriate facility consistent with public safety. Any facility owned or leased by the Walnut Grove Correctional Authority or the Municipality of Walnut Grove for this purpose shall be designed, constructed, operated and maintained in accordance with American Correctional Association standards, and shall comply with all constitutional standards of the United States and the State of Mississippi and with all court orders that may now or hereinafter be applicable to the facility. The contract must comply with Sections 47-5-1211 through 47-5-1227.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2005.