MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2015 Regular Session

To: Public Health and Welfare

By: Senator(s) Burton

Senate Bill 2120

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 43-21-115, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CLARIFY THAT THE YOUTH COURT INTAKE OFFICER IS AN EMPLOYEE OF THE COUNTY OR MUNICIPALITY WITH JURISDICTION; TO AMEND SECTION 43-21-257, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT THE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE COURTS SHALL MAINTAIN THE STATE CENTRAL REGISTRY OF YOUTH COURT CASES THROUGH THE MYCIDS DOCUMENTATION SYSTEM; TO AMEND SECTION 43-27-201, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO DELETE OBSOLETE PROVISIONS REGARDING CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES FOR JUVENILES AND TO AUTHORIZE A NEW STATE ADOLESCENT OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM (AOP) AS ALTERNATIVES TO EXISTING COMMUNITY-BASED PROGRAMS FOR USE BY THE YOUTH COURTS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

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

     SECTION 1.  Section 43-21-115, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

     43-21-115.  In every youth court division, the judge shall appoint as provided in Section 43-21-123 one or more persons to function as the intake unit for the youth court division.  This appointee shall be employed by the county or municipality and as such an employee of the jurisdiction assigned.  The youth court intake unit shall perform all duties specified by this chapter.  If the person serving as the youth court intake unit is not already a salaried public employee, the salary for such person shall be fixed on order of the judge as provided in Section 43-21-123 and shall be paid by the county or municipality, as the case may be, out of any available funds budgeted for the youth court by the board of supervisors.

     SECTION 2.  Section 43-21-257, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

     43-21-257.  (1)  Unless otherwise provided in this section, any record involving children, including valid and invalid complaints, and the contents thereof maintained by the Department of Human Services, or any other state agency, shall be kept confidential and shall not be disclosed except as provided in Section 43-21-261.

     (2)  The * * * Office of Youth Services Administrative Office of the Courts shall maintain a state central registry containing the number and disposition of all cases together with such other useful information regarding those cases as may be requested and is obtainable from the records of the youth court. * * *  The Office of Youth Services shall annually publish a statistical record of the number and disposition of all cases, but the names or identity of any children shall not be disclosed in the reports or records.  The Office of Youth Services shall adopt such rules as may be necessary to carry out this subsection.  The central registry files and the contents thereof shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection.  Any person who discloses or encourages the disclosure of any record involving children from the central registry shall be subject to the penalty in Section 43-21-267.  The youth court shall furnish * * *, upon forms provided by the Office of Youth Services, the necessary information, and these completed forms shall be forwarded to the Office of Youth Services the necessary information needed by the Administrative Office of the Courts, through the Mississippi Youth Court Information Delivery System (MYCIDS) or other forms, and these completed forms shall be forwarded to the Administrative Office of the Courts.

     (3)  The Department of Human Services shall maintain a state central registry on neglect and abuse cases containing (a) the name, address and age of each child, (b) the nature of the harm reported, (c) the name and address of the person responsible for the care of the child, and (d) the name and address of the substantiated perpetrator of the harm reported.  "Substantiated perpetrator" shall be defined as an individual who has committed an act(s) of sexual abuse or physical abuse that would otherwise be deemed as a felony or any child neglect that would be deemed as a threat to life, as determined upon investigation by the Office of Family and Children's Services.  "Substantiation" for the purposes of the Mississippi Department of Human Services Central Registry shall require a criminal conviction or an adjudication by a youth court judge or court of competent jurisdiction, ordering that the name of the perpetrator be listed on the central registry, pending due process.  The Department of Human Services shall adopt such rules and administrative procedures, especially those procedures to afford due process to individuals who have been named as substantiated perpetrators before the release of their name from the central registry, as may be necessary to carry out this subsection.  The central registry shall be confidential and shall not be open to public inspection.  Any person who discloses or encourages the disclosure of any record involving children from the central registry without following the rules and administrative procedures of the department shall be subject to the penalty in Section 43-21-267.  The Department of Human Services and its employees are exempt from any civil liability as a result of any action taken pursuant to the compilation and/or release of information on the central registry under this section and any other applicable section of the code, unless determined that an employee has willfully and maliciously violated the rules and administrative procedures of the department, pertaining to the central registry or any section of this code.  If an employee is determined to have willfully and maliciously performed such a violation, said employee shall not be exempt from civil liability in this regard.

     (4)  The Mississippi State Department of Health may release the findings of investigations into allegations of abuse within licensed day care centers made under the provisions of Section 43-21-353(8) to any parent of a child who is enrolled in the day care center at the time of the alleged abuse or at the time the request for information is made.  The findings of any such investigation may also be released to parents who are considering placing children in the day care center.  No information concerning those investigations may contain the names or identifying information of individual children.

     The Department of Health shall not be held civilly liable for the release of information on any findings, recommendations or actions taken pursuant to investigations of abuse that have been conducted under Section 43-21-353(8).

     SECTION 3.  Section 43-27-201, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

     43-27-201.  (1)  The purpose of this section is to outline and structure a long-range proposal in addition to certain immediate objectives for improvements in the juvenile * * * correctional facilities of the Division of Youth Services of the Mississippi Department of Human Services in order to provide modern and efficient * * * correctional and rehabilitation facilities for juvenile offenders in Mississippi, who are committing an increasing percentage of serious and violent crimes.

 * * * (2)  The Department of Finance and Administration, acting through the Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management, using funds from bonds issued under this chapter, monies appropriated by the Legislature for such purposes, federal matching or other federal funds, federal grants or other available funds from whatever source, shall provide for, by construction, lease, lease-purchase or otherwise, and equip the following juvenile correctional facilities under the jurisdiction and responsibility of the Division of Youth Services of the Department of Human Services:

  (a)  Construct an additional one-hundred-fifty-bed, stand-alone, medium security juvenile correctional facility for habitual violent male offenders, which complies with American Correctional Association Accreditation standards and applicable building and fire safety codes.  The medium security, male juvenile facility location shall be on property owned by the Division of Youth Services, or its successor, or at a site selected by the Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management on land which is hereafter donated to the state specifically for the location of such facility.

  (b)  Construct an additional one-hundred-bed minimum security juvenile correctional facility for female offenders, and an additional stand-alone, fifteen-bed maximum security juvenile correctional facility for female offenders, which complies with American Correctional Association Accreditation standards and applicable building and fire safety codes.  The minimum security and maximum security female juvenile facilities location shall be on property owned by the Division of Youth Services, or its successor, or at a site selected by the Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management on land which is hereafter donated to the state specifically for the location of such facility.

(3)  Upon the selection of a proposed site for a correctional facility for juveniles authorized under subsection (2), the Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management of the Department of Finance and Administration shall notify the board of supervisors of the county in which such facility is proposed to be located and shall publish a notice as hereinafter set forth in a newspaper having general circulation in such county.  Such notice shall include a description of the tract of land in the county whereon the facility is proposed to be located, the nature and size of the facility and the date on which the determination of the Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management shall be final as to the location of such facility, which date shall not be less than forty-five (45) days following the first publication of such notice.  Such notice shall include a brief summary of the provisions of this section pertaining to the petition for an election on the question of the location of the juvenile housing facility in such county.  Such notice shall be published not less than one (1) time each week for at least three (3) consecutive weeks in at least one (1) newspaper published in such county.

If no petition requesting an election is filed before the date of final determination stated in such notice, then the bureau shall give final approval to the location of such facility.

If at any time before the aforesaid date a petition signed by twenty percent (20%), or fifteen hundred (1500), whichever is less, of the qualified electors of the county involved shall be filed with the board of supervisors requesting that an election be called on the question of locating such facility, then the board of supervisors shall adopt a resolution calling an election to be held within such county upon the question of the location of such facility.  Such election shall be held, as far as practicable, in the same manner as other elections are held in counties.  At such election, all qualified electors of the county may vote, and the ballots used at such election shall have printed thereon a brief statement of the facility to be constructed and the words "For the construction of the facility in (here insert county name) County" and "Against the construction of the facility in (here insert county name) County."  The voter shall vote by placing a cross (X) or check mark (√) opposite his choice on the proposition.  When the results of the election on the question of the construction of the facility shall have been canvassed by the election commissioners of the county and certified by them to the board of supervisors, it shall be the duty of the board of supervisors to determine and adjudicate whether or not a majority of the qualified electors who voted thereon in such election voted in favor of the construction of the facilities in such county.  Unless a majority of the qualified electors who voted in such election shall have voted in favor of the construction of the facilities in such county, then such facility shall not be constructed in such county.

     ( * * *42)  The Division of Youth Services shall establish, maintain and operate an Adolescent * * * Offender Opportunity Program (AOP) throughout the state, which may include non-Medicaid assistance eligible juveniles.  Beginning July 1, * * * 2006 2016, subject to availability of funds appropriated therefor by the Legislature * * *, the Division of Youth Services shall phase in AOPs in every county of the state over a period of four (4) years.  The phase-in of the AOPs shall be as follows:.

 * * *  (a)  As of July 1, 2007, not less than twenty (20) counties shall be served by at least one (1) AOP;

  (b)  As of July 1, 2008, not less than forty (40) counties shall be served by at least one (1) AOP;

  (c)  As of July 1, 2009, not less than sixty (60) counties shall be served by at least one (1) AOP; and

  (d)  As of July 1, 2010, all eighty-two (82) counties shall be served by at least one (1) AOP.

     AOP professional services, salaries, facility offices, meeting rooms and related supplies and equipment may be provided through contract with local mental health or other nonprofit community organizations.  Each AOP must incorporate evidence-based practices and positive behavioral intervention that includes two (2) or more of the following elements:  academic, tutoring, literacy, mentoring, vocational training, substance abuse treatment, family counseling and anger management.  Programs may include, but shall not be limited to, after school and weekend programs, job readiness programs, home detention programs, community service conflict resolution programs, restitution and community service.

 * * * (5)  The Division of Youth Services shall operate and maintain the Forestry Camp Number 43 at the Columbia Training School, originally authorized and constructed in 1973, to consist of a twenty-bed dormitory, four (4) offices, a classroom, kitchen, dining room, day room and apartment.  The purpose of this camp shall be to train juvenile detention residents for community college and other forestry training programs.

(6)  The Division of Youth Services shall establish a ten-bed transitional living facility for the temporary holding of training school adolescents who have reached their majority, have completed the High School Equivalency Diploma requirement, and are willing to be rehabilitated until they are placed in jobs, job training or postsecondary programs.  Such transitional living facility may be operated pursuant to contract with a nonprofit community support organization.

     SECTION 4.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2015.