2010 Mississippi Code
TITLE 43 - PUBLIC WELFARE
Chapter 27 - Department of Youth Services.
43-27-201 - Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management to construct and equip certain juvenile correctional facilities; referendum on site location; adolescent offender pilot program; operation and maintenance of certain forestry camp; establishment of transitional ten-bed facility for training school juveniles.

§ 43-27-201. Bureau of Building, Grounds and Real Property Management to construct and equip certain juvenile correctional facilities; referendum on site location; adolescent offender pilot program; operation and maintenance of certain forestry camp; establishment of transitional ten-bed facility for training school juveniles.
 

(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 (1,500), 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 (   Ö) 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. 

(4)  The Division of Youth Services shall establish, maintain and operate an Adolescent Offender Program (AOP), which may include non-Medicaid assistance eligible juveniles. Beginning July 1, 2006, 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 GED 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. 
 

Sources: Laws, 1994, ch. 652, § 1; Laws, 1997, ch. 526, § 1; Laws, 2005, ch. 471, § 7; Laws, 2006, ch. 539, § 6, eff from and after July 1, 2006.