Northeast Mississippi lawmakers sound off on special session that overhauled Youth Courts statewide

Legislation passed during the two-day special session means major changes will be coming to the youth court system.

One of the most controversial measures involves making youth court proceedings open to the public. The legislation opens CPS court proceedings to the public, but criminal cases involving juvenile suspects are still closed.

District 16 State Representative Rickey Thompson voted against the legislation. The Democratic lawmaker said while portions of the youth court system were in need of an overhaul,  he has many concerns and would have liked more time to study the legislation before taking a vote.

‘My main concern, is we got to deal with our precious kids, and with a 200 page bill, it is kind of like open court, the judge can decide to let the public in and that can be traumatic, when you have to testify and things get back in the community, so we need to look at that and see what we can do to change that,” Rep. Thompson said.

Another major change will impact counties without full-time youth court judges. For years, part-time attorneys and local referees have heard cases involving abused and neglected children in counties without full-time youth court judges. The new legislation replaces the part-time referees with full-time chancery court judges,  or chancellors. The changes impact counties with fewer than 50,000 people.

District 19 Representative Randy Boyd voted in favor of the legislation and says it provides a more uniform youth court system statewide.

“I believe a chancellor dedicated to that part of our judicial system would be more consistent across the state, and well established. Smaller counties could opt in,  but state will fund these chancellors and they won’t have to have a county judge just for youth court purposes,’ Rep. Boyd said.