MISSISSIPPI

JUVENILE

JUSTICE
REFORM
BRIEFINGBOOK

MISSISSIPPI COALITION FOR THE PREVENTION
OF SCHOOLHOUSE TO JAILHOUSE is a state-

wide group of educators, community, legal and
public policy groups dedicated to using cost-effective and humane strategies to close Mississippi’s
schoolhouse to jailhouse pipeline and reform its
wasteful, ineffective juvenile justice system.

II

1

Introduction
Mississippi’s juvenile justice system relies almost exclusively on incarceration — the most expensive, least effective means of combating juvenile delinquency.1 Your
Mississippi taxpayer dollars support the Oakley and Columbia training schools — $115 per day for each incarcerated child.2 And what are Mississippians paying for? The
ongoing abuse and neglect in these institutions has been
documented by the federal government, independent consultants, and the State itself.
But there is another way. Community-based sanctions cost
the state only $23.08 per child per day—and these programs
are proven more effective at rehabilitating troubled youth.3
The training schools simply don’t work. Children there receive ineffective rehabilitative services; many find it impossible to escape old behaviors and end up cycling in and out
of the system.4 And once Mississippi resolves the lawsuits
pending over conditions at the training schools, the cost of
incarceration may rise to $260.00 per child per day.5
Given our budget crisis, we cannot afford to pump more
money into a broken system. The time for true, cost effective
juvenile justice reform is now.

2

3

Meaningful, systemic reform will require the Mississippi
legislature to:

“If we don’t stand up
for children, then we
don’t stand for much.”
Marian Wright Edelman

1) End reliance on the paramilitary training schools.
We can save taxpayers millions of dollars by eventually and
safely phasing out one of the state-supported paramilitary
training schools.
2) Invest in community-based sanctions.
The millions saved from phasing out a paramilitary training
school should be used to create cost-efficient communitybased sanctions proven to rehabilitate troubled youth.
3) Create the Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention
Commission.
The state agencies charged with providing services to atrisk youth should coordinate their services with youth
courts, school districts, families and communities through
a single Commission.
4) Protect the rights of court-involved youth.
The youth court process must be fair and uniform statewide. Detention facilities should comply with national
standards and the recommendations of the Mississippi
Juvenile Detention Task Force. An “Office of Juvenile
Advocacy and Representation” should ensure youth are
adequately represented in youth court proceedings.

4

5

Why reform? Why now?
Reform makes good financial sense. Juvenile justice reform will ensure financial accountability — starting now.
At the moment, only 25 counties have access to community-based alternatives to the training schools. In FY 2004,
these 25 programs saved the State of Mississippi over $14
million dollars.6 By expanding these programs to all 82
counties, we can multiply these savings — and better serve
our children. All we need to do is re-direct funds from
wasteful programs to models with proven effectiveness.
Because effective models are also more cost-efficient, reform not only pays for itself, it leaves money to spare.

Cost of Incarceration

Reform is grounded in research. Many other states that
have implemented juvenile justice reform plans have reduced juvenile crime. “Experience shows that states … can
substantially reduce their reliance on incarceration — saving millions for taxpayers [and] increasing public safety.”7

COST PER CHILD / PER DAY

$300

$250

Reform has strong public support. Major media outlets,
including the Clarion-Ledger,8 the Hattiesburg American,9 the
Vicksburg Post,10 the Biloxi Sun Herald and the Jackson Free
Press, have all endorsed our plan for juvenile justice reform.

$260
$200
$150
$100

Taxpayers and juvenile justice system stakeholders are counting on the legislature to implement juvenile justice reform
this year and start reaping the benefits of wise investments.

$115

$50
0

$23
Projected Cost Community-Based
to Resolve
Sanctions
Lawsuits

Training
Schools

SOURCE Mississippi and Louisiana sources cited in notes 2-3 and 5

6

7

Constant negative press. Multiple federal lawsuits.
Continuing allegations of abuse. And millions of
taxpayer dollars. Mississippi has one of the worst
— and most wasteful — juvenile justice systems in
the country.

8

9

What is Happening
to Our Children?

Mississippi’s training
schools are “clearly
the worst two we have
seen in probably 20
years in the Department of Justice — and
that’s saying something.”
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brad Schlozman, U.S.
Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Clarion Ledger,
July 2, 2004

Mississippi’s juvenile justice system is among the worst
in the nation.11 The U.S. Department of Justice issued a report detailing horrific abuses: children were beaten, shackled, tied to poles, and hogtied. Suicidal girls were stripped
naked and locked in dark, solitary cells without ventilation or toilets. Other children were forced to exercise while
staff members sprayed mace into the air. Mississippi also
failed to provide for our children’s medical, mental health,
and educational needs.12
The State of Mississippi has documented the abuse and
neglect our children suffer at Oakley and Columbia. A
year before the Department of Justice’s report, the Joint
Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and
Expenditure Review (PEER Committee) found that the
training schools neglected our children’s medical needs.
Most disturbingly, the PEER Committee found that Oakley and Columbia lacked “the policies, procedures and
practices to prevent the … abuse of juveniles.”13
An independent audit commissioned by the Mississippi
Department of Education confirmed the State’s failure to
care for children in the training schools. In an audit released
in January 2004, JBHM Education Group concluded:
• A culture of low behavior and academic expectations
has developed over the years and is serving to perpetuate
an academic program that provides little benefit to the
children that are served.14
• The principal mission, and one that is commonly held
among staff, is clearly one of punishment — education

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is secondary to the mission.15

“This is not a place for
kids. I’ve seen staff
break a kid’s nose. I’ve
seen staff mace kids
for fun. They don’t
take care of us here.”
E.O., Oakley cadet, age 15

Over-reliance on programs proven ineffective at reducing
juvenile crime. Large training schools have never proved
effective at steering youthful offenders away from crime.
Study after study proves that recidivism from large training
schools like Oakley and Columbia is uniformly high.16
Too few options for youth court judges. In their 2004 testimony to the Mississippi legislature, youth court judges pleaded for more alternatives to the training schools.17 Without
community-based sanctions, judges are forced to choose between probation and incarceration, which often leaves nonviolent youth with serious emotional disturbances or substance abuse problems behind bars.18 These children could be
treated in their communities for less than one-fourth the cost
of incarceration.
Lack of uniformity and fairness in youth courts and detention centers. The cards are stacked against children who
end up in youth court. Prosecutors get more funding and
better training than public defenders;19 court procedures
vary wildly from county to county. The absence of a uniform set of standards in local detention centers leaves our
children vulnerable to unconscionable abuse and neglect.20
Failing our children, failing our taxpayers. Mississippi taxpayers spend $115 per child, per day to incarcerate children.21
Even with so much taxpayer money in their budgets, the
training schools fail to rehabilitate or educate the children entrusted to their care.22 Due to the rampant abuse and violent
conditions, the training schools do more harm than good.

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Youth-court involved children:
Who are they?

“These are all our
children. We will all
profit by, or pay for,
whatever they
become.”
James Baldwin

Overwhelmingly non-violent. Mississippi law ensures that
serious offenders over the age of twelve are tried as adults
and serve adult time.23 Children often find themselves in
youth court — and in the training schools — for offenses
like truancy and disruptive classroom behavior.24
Can succeed in community-based programs. Experts
agree that more community-based programs reduce juvenile crime.25 Without these programs, youth who pose no
threat to public safety may end up behind bars, costing
taxpayers at least $115 per day.
Desperate for mental health services. A study commissioned by the State of Mississippi found that up to 85%
of youth in training school or juvenile detention live with
some form of mental illness.26
Disproportionately African-American. Approximately 80%
of the children locked up in Mississippi are African-American.27 Yet African Americans comprise only 36% of Mississippi’s overall population.28
Failed by the State of Mississippi. Mississippi law requires that every effort be made to avoid putting children
behind bars.29 When we incarcerate a non-violent child,
we are admitting the State’s failure to adequately invest in
the child’s community.

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Our future, and our most precious resource. We cannot give up on youth who have lost their way. If we invest
our resources in community-based programs proven effective at combating juvenile delinquency, we can ensure
that Mississippi’s children achieve their full potential and
become productive members of society. If we continue to
invest in incarceration, we will be preparing our children
for nothing but Parchman Penitentiary.30

PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION %

Children with Mental Illness
90

80

up to

85%

70
60
50

40
30
20
10
0

up to

PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION %

Racial Composition
Children at Mississippi Training Schools
100
80
78%
Black

60

61.4%
White

40
36.3%

20

Black

22%

20%

White

General Population

Mississippi Training Schools

SOURCE “Report: Prevalence of Mental Illness and Substance Abuse Disorders
Among Incarcerated Juvenile Offenders,” by Angela Robertson and Jonelle Husain

16

0

State of Mississippi

Mississippi Training Schools

SOURCE Data from U.S. Census and MS Dept. of Youth Services

17

The Department of Justice
Investigation

“What’s done to
children, they will
do to society.”
Karl A. Menninger

The following excerpts31 were taken from the Department of
Justice investigation of the Mississippi juvenile justice system:
[T]o manage youth, [Oakley and Columbia] rely on discipline and force. This leads to unconstitutionally abusive
disciplinary practices such as hog-tying, pole-shackling,
improper use and overuse of restraints and isolation, staff
assaulting youth and OC spray [mace] abuse.
[B]oys and girls consistently described the practice [of
hog-tying], where youth are placed face down on the floor
with their hands and feet shackled and drawn together.
[O]ne young girl reported that her arms and legs were
handcuffed and shackled around a utlity pole because
she was non-compliant during military exercises.
Girls … at Columbia are punished for acting out or being
suicidal by being placed in a cell called the ‘dark room.’
The ‘dark room’ is a locked, windowless isolation cell
with lighting controlled by staff. … [W]hen the room is
in use, the room is completely dark.
The cells are extremely hot with inadequate ventilation.
Some girls were naked in a dark room where they must
urinate and defecate in a hole that they cannot flush.
These exercises and disciplinary practices serve no penological or rehabilitative purpose. Many are cruel and demeaning. They are also unsafe because . . . when this type of
physical punishment is imposed the facility does not monitor the physical well-being of the youth.

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The Training Schools Are
Lightning Rods For Lawsuits

The Mississippi
Legislature has the
power to resolve all
pending lawsuits and
safeguard the State
against further litigation
by enacting comprehensive juvenile justice
reform this session.

In the past year alone, Mississippi has been forced to defend itself against three federal lawsuits over conditions at
Oakley and Columbia Training Schools.
Morgan v. Sproat: A class action on behalf of abused and
neglected children at Oakley that led to a lengthy order commanding the State to comply with federal and
state law. In his 2003 testimony to the Joint Legislative
Committee, then-Attorney General Mike Moore admitted that the State had been violating the Morgan court’s
orders for decades.32
United States v. Mississippi: A lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice over the inhumane and unconstitutional conditions at both training schools.
K.L.W. v. James: A recent class action on behalf of children
at Columbia. KLW is a fourteen-year-old child with special
needs who was choked by a Columbia staff member, kept
in solitary confinement for several days, and denied access
to the courts.
The Mississippi Legislature has the power to resolve all
pending lawsuits and safeguard the State against further
litigation. If the legislature fails to enact comprehensive
juvenile justice reform this session, the cost of incarceration at the training schools could rise to $260 per youth
per day or more.33

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The Louisiana
Legislature saved
over $18 million in
taxpayer money by
removing juveniles
from the State’s most
troubled facility.

The Mississippi Legislature
Can Resolve All
Training School Lawsuits
In the wake of litigation over conditions at its juvenile facilities — including a Department of Justice lawsuit — the Louisiana Legislature saved over $18 million in taxpayer money
by removing juveniles from the State’s most troubled facility.34 Some of these savings were invested in communitybased sanctions.
The Mississippi Legislature can and should reap similar
benefits for our taxpayers. Mississippi now spends $115 per
youth per day in its training schools. The cost is far higher in
other states. According to the American Correctional Association, the national average is $183.06 per youth per day.35
Without that kind of spending, it is impossible to meet
minimum legal standards and avoid litigation.
But investing in community-based sanctions — which cost
as little as $23.04 per youth per day — will save taxpayer
money, better serve our children and help protect Mississippi from litigation over conditions at juvenile facilities.

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Paramilitary Training Schools
Don’t Work

“While I was at
Columbia, the military
program was tearing
down my pride and
building up my anger.”
J.W., former Columbia cadet, age 14

“The only thing I
learned at Oakley was
how to fight harder.”
A.H., former Oakley cadet, age 18

Virtually every study examining recidivism among youth
sentenced to juvenile training schools in the past three decades has found that at least 50 to 70 percent of offenders are
arrested within one or two years after release. Clearly, training schools are not derailing the criminal careers of youthful
offenders.36
A century of experience with training schools and youth
prisons demonstrates that they constitute the one extensively evaluated and clearly ineffective method to treat delinquents.37
The most current research confirms these grim findings.
In October 2004, a panel of independent experts convened
by the National Institute of Health, the U.S. Department
of Education, and the U.S. Department of Justice again
concluded that group detention centers, boot camps, and
other “get tough” programs that rely on scare tactics only
encourage youth to teach each other negative behaviors.38
By contrast, research shows that family services and community-based sanctions are tremendously successful in
reducing juvenile delinquency.39 The most effective strategies “work with young people in their own homes and
communities, rather than in institutions, and they focus
heavily on the family environment.”40 In trial after trial,
family-oriented interventions have reduced recidivism by
25 to 80 percent.41 We can obtain these results for our children at only a fraction of the price of incarceration.42

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25

Community-Based Sanctions
According to Colonel Don Taylor, Executive Director
of the Mississippi Department of Human Services,

community-based
alternatives in 25
counties saved the
state more than
$14 million in 2004.
Expanding these
programs to make
them available in all
82 counties could
triple those savings.

Sensible juvenile justice reform means redirecting resources from expensive and wasteful prisons toward more costeffective sanctions. The professionals who operate community-based programs ensure public safety by closely
monitoring youth while helping them learn to avoid deliquent behavior. In other states, programs like those listed
below have saved taxpayers millions of dollars each year
while also lowering juvenile crime rates.43
Day Treatment: Year round alternative education, counseling, and life skills. Students attend classes for up to 6
hours each day and are involved in counseling and various
community service activities before returning to their own
homes. Some programming may be offered on weekends
and evenings.
Job Readiness / Work Experience Program: Provides a variety of experiences in the non-profit sector. The program
is often part of a state-wide interdepartmental agreement.
Home Detention: Staff provides intensive monitoring by
making frequent, random, and sometimes unannounced
home visits to ensure that youth stay out of trouble. Youth
have a curfew and are required to phone staff regularly.
Home detention is often combined with family counseling
and case management.
Family Therapy: Counseling services for the entire family
unit to reduce risk factors and help children recognize and
avoid delinquent behavior.
Case Management / Tracking: A treatment assessment and
planning program where case managers coordinate educational and vocational programs for at-risk youth. Each

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youth is assigned a “tracker” (usually a college student)
who monitors the youth’s behavior and activities and acts
as a mentor.
Other community-based sanctions include: community
service, anger management, structured after-school programming, alternative schools, therapeutic classrooms,
and substance abuse treatment.44
The Missouri Model
The Missouri system provides a highly effective and costefficient model for youth who require residential placement.
After a 1969 federal report condemned one of Missouri’s
large training schools for its “quasi-penal-military” atmosphere, Missouri began to replace its large institutions with
a network of small, regional facilities. Hallmarks of this program are highly trained staff; high quality educational programming; a 24-hour per day group and individual therapy
regimen; and intensive family outreach made possible by
the regional model. Missouri has a recidivism rate of 8%,
while the national recidivism rate for training schools ranges from 50%-70%.

PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION %

Rates of Recidivism
80

70
60

up to

70%

50

According to Mark Steward, the Director of Missouri’s
system:

40
30
20
10
0

8%
Training Schools
Nationwide

Community Based
Alternatives

We put (children) in a safe and stable and supportive
environment — some of them for the first time in their
lives. We help them see opportunities and make choices
about their futures … with us, they have an opportunity. Send them to a typical training school where staff
intimidates them and they have to fight to survive, and
they’ve got no shot.45

SOURCE “Less Cost, More Safety: Guiding Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice,” by
Richard A. Mendel, 2003

28

29

Endnotes

Legis., 3d Extra. Sess. (Miss. Nov. 12, 2004) (presentation by DHS Executive Director
Donald R. Taylor, DHS Deputy Administrator Richard Harris, and DYS Director Kathy
H. Pittman).

1 Richard A. Mendel, American Youth Policy Forum, Less Cost, More Safety: Guiding
Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice (2001).

7 Richard A. Mendel, American Youth Policy Forum, Less Cost, More Safety: Guiding
Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice at 9 (2001).

2 Shortly after this book was first published, DHS reported that the FY 2004 cost
of incarceration in a Mississippi training school was $115 per youth per day. Emily
Wagster Pettus, “Wide range of changes possible for training schools, officials say,”
Sun Herald, Jan. 16, 2005 (relying on DHS materials distributed to senators and
members of the press during a tour of Oakley on January 12, 2005). DHS officials
had previously testified that the cost was $89 per youth per day. Mississippi Juvenile
Justice: Hearing Before the Senate Judiciary B Comm. 175th Legis., 3d Extra. Sess.
(Miss. Nov. 12, 2004) (testimony of DHS Executive Director Donald R. Taylor, DHS
Deputy Administrator Richard Harris, and DYS Director Kathy H. Pittman).

8 “Juvenile Justice Reform needed, bureaucracy not,” Clarion-Ledger, Oct. 7, 2004.

3 Mississippi Juvenile Justice: Hearing Before the Senate Judiciary B Comm. 175th
Legis., 3d Extra. Sess. (Miss. Nov. 12, 2004) (testimony of DHS Executive Director
Donald R. Taylor, DHS Deputy Administrator Richard Harris, and DYS Director Kathy
H. Pittman that the average cost of the Adolescent Offender Program is $23.08 per
student per day); David M. Osher et al., “Deconstructing the pipeline: using efficacy,
effectiveness and cost-benefit data to reduce minority youth incarceration,” in New
Directions for Youth Development at 92 (Fall 2003) (“[Research shows] that there
are alternatives to costly detention, such as intensive school- and community-based
interventions, that are efficacious and cost-effective.”).
4 According to the testimony of DHS Executive Director Donald R. Taylor, DHS
Deputy Administrator Richard Harris, and DYS Director Kathy H. Pittman before the
Senate Judiciary B Committee in November 2004, at least 41% of youth at Oakley
and Columbia have served multiple commitments. Mississippi Juvenile Justice:
Hearing Before the Senate Judiciary B Comm. 175th Legis., 3d Extra. Sess. (Nov. 12,
2004). Experts from the University of Southern Mississippi’s Marriage and Family
Therapy Program agreed that “[y]outh incarcerated in residential boot camps have
higher recidivism rates than control groups.” Mississippi Juvenile Justice: Hearing
Before the House Juvenile Justice Committee. 175th Legis., Reg. Sess. (2004)
(testimony of Dr. Mary Ann Adams, Mr. Jeff Hinton, Dr. Pat Sims).
5 After two years of litigation with the U.S. Department of Justice over training school
conditions, Louisiana’s per youth per day costs have sky-rocketed. In the most recent
appropriations bill, the Louisiana legislature appropriated a total of $52,418,470 for the
operation of three Louisiana Training Institutes (“LTI”) in Fiscal Year 2004-2005. H.B. 1, §
08-403 (Office of Youth Development), Reg. Sess. (La. 2004) (appropriating $19,517,642
for Swanson Correctional Center for Youth, $8,621,265 for Bridge City Correctional
Center for Youth, and $24,279,563 for Jetson Correctional Center for Youth). In other
words, Louisiana spends $143,612.24 per day to operate its three juvenile facilities. With
approximately 450-550 youth in LTI custody at any given time, Louisiana now spends at
least $260 and as much as $319 per youth per day on facilities like Mississippi’s training
schools. See, e.g., Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections, Midnight Count
Breakdown Secure Juvenile Facilities (December 2004) (showing total LTI population
of 451 youth); Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections, Midnight Count
Breakdown Secure Juvenile Facilities (July 2004) (showing total LTI population of 536
youth). The additional $200 per day that Louisiana spends on each child funds a variety of
services required by federal law but not provided in Mississippi’s training schools.
6 Mississippi Juvenile Justice: Hearing Before the Senate Judiciary B Comm. 175th

30

9 “State must implement key reforms,” Hattiesburg American, July 20, 2004.
10 Charlie Mitchell, “Surely we can do better than kiddie prisons,” Biloxi Sun Herald,
Oct. 7, 2004, reprinted in Vicksburg Post.
11 John Fuquay, “Juvenile centers called worst in the U.S.,” Clarion-Ledger, July 2,
2004.
12 U.S. Dep’t of Justice, “CRIPA Investigation of Oakley & Columbia Training Schools
in Raymond & Columbia, Mississippi” (June 19, 2003), available at http://www.usdoj.
gov/crt/split/documents/oak_colu_miss_findinglet.pdf.
13 Mississippi Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation & Expenditure
Review, “Health and Safety Issues at the Oakley Training School” at vii, 9-12, 18-20
(May 14, 2002).
14 JBHM Education Group, Juvenile Training Facilities of Mississippi – Evaluation
Report at 2 (Jan. 2004).
15 JBHM Education Group, Juvenile Training Facilities of Mississippi – Evaluation
Report at 2 (Jan. 2004).
16 Richard A. Mendel, American Youth Policy Forum, Less Cost, More Safety:
Guiding Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice at 8-9 (2001); David M. Osher et al.,
“Deconstructing the pipeline: using efficacy, effectiveness and cost-benefit data to
reduce minority youth incarceration,” in New Directions for Youth Development at
108 (Fall 2003) (“The Washington State Institute for Public Policy looked at the costs
and benefits of juvenile boot camps and ‘scared straight’ programs and found that
participants in these programs had higher recidivism rates than comparison groups.”).
17 Shelia Hardwell Byrd, Judges want options to 2 training schools, Clarion-Ledger,
Feb. 2, 2004.
18 Mental Health Needs of Incarcerated Juveniles in Mississippi: Hearing before the
House Juvenile Justice Committee. 175th Legis. Reg. Sess. (Miss. March 1, 2004)
(testimony of Tessie B. Schweitzer, Executive Director of Mississippi Families as Allies
for Children’s Mental Health, and Professor Angela Robertson, Mississippi State
University); see also Julie Goodman, “Prof urges earlier tests for accused juveniles,”
Clarion-Ledger, March 2, 2004.
19 Miriam Gohara & Sarah Geraghty, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund,
Assembly Line Justice: Mississippi’s Indigent Defense Crisis at 14 (February 2003)
(“While resources for the defense of adults are scarce, even fewer resources are
devoted to the defense of juveniles. As a result, children in some youth courts are
routinely ‘adjudicated delinquent’ without the benefit of anything resembling legal
advocacy.”), available at http://www.naacpldf.org/content/pdf/indigent/Assembly_
Line_Justice.pdf.
20 Clarence Powell, Chair, Mississippi’s Juvenile Detention Task Force,
Recommendations at 2 (Dec. 11, 2002) (“[T]he provincial nature of juvenile detention

31

in Mississippi is of concern because it may lead to an inequity of services and care
for juvenile detainees. … Thus depending on where juveniles are detained, support
services which provide for their physical, emotional and social development may or
may not be appropriate.”); R. Gregory Dunway et al., Juvenile Detention Facilities
Task Force, Legislation Brief at 3 (Dec. 2003) (recommending that the legislature
(1) create a state agency to administer and enforce the uniform standards for juvenile
detention centers, (2) establish sanctions for non-compliance with those standards,
and (3) create a state advisory board to assist in administering the agency).
21 Emily Wagster Pettus, “Wide range of changes possible for training schools,
officials say,” Sun Herald, Jan. 16, 2005 (“DHS statistics show that in fiscal 2004,
which ended last June 30, the state spent an average of $115 per day for each
student living at the training schools.”); Ronald Frazer, “Derail prison ‘gravy train’ to
aid taxpayers,” Clarion-Ledger, Nov. 15, 2004 (“[T]axpayers are stuck with the cost
of keeping 2 million men and women behind bars well into the future — not because
justice demands it, but because economic benefits of the prison business are working
to keep it that way.”).
22 David M. Osher et al., “Deconstructing the pipeline: using efficacy, effectiveness
and cost-benefit data to reduce minority youth incarceration,” in New Directions
for Youth Development at 92 (Fall 2003) (“Cost benefit analyses suggest that the
monetary benefits of effective prevention exceed the costs of such programs.”).
23 Miss. Code Ann. § 43-21-151 & 43-21-157.
24 Mississippi Department of Human Services, Division of Youth Services, Annual
Report at 10 (2003) (reporting that 3,798 children were referred to youth court
for disorderly conduct in 2003; 2,113 were referred for “malicious mischief”); see
also, e.g., Mississippi Division of Youth Services, Columbia Training School: Weekly
Offense Report – By County (Nov. 12, 2004) (showing children committed to
training school for “truancy”, “runaway”, “incorrigible”, “suspended”, and “curfew”
violations); Mississippi Division of Youth Services, Columbia Training School: Weekly
Offense Report – By County (Mar. 16, 2004) (showing children committed to training
school for “larceny of a dog”, “uttering conduct”, “ungov[ernable]”, “runaway”,
and offensive language); Mississippi Division of Youth Services, Oakley Training
School: Weekly Offense Report – By County (Mar. 16, 2004) (showing children
committed to training school for “uttering conduct”, “truancy”, “disorderly conduct”,
“incorrigible”, “breaking curfew”, “suspended fr. school”, “malicious mischief”, and
“violating school rule”).

least one diagnosable mental disorder, compared to only 14% to 20% of youth in the
general population); see also Mississippi Juvenile Justice: Hearing before the House
Juvenile Justice Committee, 175th Legis. Reg. Sess. (March 2004) (testimony of Jane
Boykin and Kate McMillan, Mississippi Forum on Children and Families, that abused and
neglected children are disproportionately represented in the juvenile justice system).
27 Mississippi Division of Youth Services, Columbia Training School: Weekly Offense
Report – By County (Nov. 12, 2004) (80% African-American); Mississippi Division
of Youth Services, Columbia Training School: Weekly Offense Report – By County
(Mar. 16, 2004) (78% African-American); Mississippi Division of Youth Services,
Oakley Training School: Weekly Offense Report – By County (Mar. 16, 2004) (78%
African-American); see also Mississippi Department of Human Services, Division of
Youth Services, Annual Report at 6-7 (2003) (showing that 60% of children referred
to youth court are African-American); David M. Osher et al., “Deconstructing the
pipeline: using efficacy, effectiveness and cost-benefit data to reduce minority
youth incarceration,” in New Directions for Youth Development at 91-92 (Fall 2003)
(“[Y]outh of color . . . are disproportionately removed from family, school and
community through a variety of unproven, ineffective, or harmful interventions.”).
28 U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 Census of Population & Housing, available at <http://
quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/28000.html> (last modified July 9, 2004).
29 Miss. Code Ann. § 43-21-103 (mandating that “each child coming within the
jurisdiction of the youth court shall become a responsible, accountable, and
productive citizen, and that each such child shall receive such care, guidance and
control, preferably in the child’s own home as is conducive toward that end and is in
the state’s and the child’s best interest.”) (emphasis added); Miss. Code Ann. § 4321-605(g)(ii) (mandating preference for community-based treatment programs for
delinquent youth).
30 Richard A. Mendel, American Youth Policy Forum, Less Cost, More Safety: Guiding
Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice at 9 (2001) (“[V]irtually every study examining
recidivism among youth sentenced to juvenile training schools in the past three
decades has found that at least 50 to 70 percent of offenders are arrested within
one or two years after release.”); National Institutes of Health, State-of-the-Science
Conference Statement: Preventing Violence and Related Health-Risking Social
Behaviors in Adolescents at 13 (Oct. 13-15, 2004) (noting that the incarceration of
juvenile offenders raises “the hazard of ‘contagion’” because “[w]hen young people
with delinquent proclivities are brought together, the more sophisticated can instruct
the more naïve in precisely the behaviors that the intervener wishes to prevent”);
Ronald Frazer, “Derail prison ‘gravy train’ to aid taxpayers,” Clarion-Ledger, Nov. 15,
2004 (“[T]axpayers are stuck with the cost of keeping 2 million men and women
behind bars well into the future — not because justice demands it, but because
economic benefits of the prison business are working to keep it that way.”).

25 Richard A. Mendel, American Youth Policy Forum, Less Cost, More Safety:
Guiding Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice at 15 & 20 (2001) (“[N]on-residential
treatment and/or youth development services — aggressive intervention programs
to resolve behavior problems in young people’s natural environment” are not
only more effective in terms of rehabilitation, but also “cost far less than training
schools.”). Dick Mendel, Small is Beautiful: The Missouri Division of Youth Services, 5
ADVOCASEY 29 (Spring 2003) (“Training school confinement is often justified as a
necessary step to protect the public. Yet only 27% of incarcerated youth nationwide
have been found guilty of a violent felony. Most have committed only property
or drug crimes or disorderly conduct, sometimes only misdemeanors or ‘status
offenses’ (like truancy or alcohol possession) that would not be crimes if committed
by an adult.”).

32 Mississippi Joint Legislative Budget Committee: Hearing on Attorney General’s
Office Budget Request, 174th Legis., Recess Sess. (Miss. Sept. 11, 2003) (testimony of
then-Attorney General Mike Moore).

26 Angela Robertson & Jonelle Husain, Mississippi State University, Prevalence of
Mental Illness & Substance Abuse Disorders Among Incarcerated Juveniles at 2 &
27 (July 2001) (66% to 85% of incarcerated juveniles in Mississippi suffer from at

33 H.B. 1, § 08-403 (Office of Youth Development), Reg. Sess. (La. 2004)
(appropriating a total of $52,418,470 — i.e., $143,612.24 per day — for the operation
of three Louisiana Training Institutes (“LTI”) in Fiscal Year 2004-2005; Louisiana

32

31 U.S. Dep’t of Justice, CRIPA Investigation of Oakley & Columbia Training Schools
in Raymond & Columbia, Mississippi at 5-9 (June 19, 2003), available at http://www.
usdoj.gov/crt/split/documents/oak_colu_miss_findinglet.pdf.

33

Department of Public Safety & Corrections, Midnight Count Breakdown Secure
Juvenile Facilities (December 2004) (showing total LTI population of 451 youth);
Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections, Midnight Count Breakdown
Secure Juvenile Facilities (July 2004) (showing total LTI population of 536 youth).

programs have been proven effective in other states in dealing with the type of
young offenders who would otherwise be placed in secure institutions.”).
41 Richard A. Mendel, American Youth Policy Forum, Less Cost, More Safety: Guiding
Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice at 21 (2001).

34 Casey Strategic Consulting Group, Report to the Joint Legislative Juvenile
Justice Commission: Reducing Juvenile Incarceration in Louisiana at 42 (Feb. 2003).
Although Louisiana invested some of these savings in community-based sanctions,
the State also continued to operate three large training schools. As a result of the
DOJ litigation, the cost of those facilities has risen to more than $260 per youth per
day. See supra, note 33.

42 Richard A. Mendel, American Youth Policy Forum, Less Hype, More Help:
Reducing Juvenile Crime, What Works — And What Doesn’t at 17 (2000) (“For far less
money, juvenile justice innovators have demonstrated that we can supervise these
young offenders in the community, keep most of them crime-free, and reduce the
likelihood that they will offend again in the future.”).

35 American Correctional Association, 2004 Directory: Adult and Juvenile
Correctional Departments, Institutions, Agencies, and Probation and Parole
Authorities at 25 (2004).

43 “Missouri system looks promising,” Clarion-Ledger, Aug. 30, 2004; Alice ThomasTisdale, “State eyes Missouri’s juvenile justice reform,” Jackson Advocate, Aug. 26,
2004; Matthew Franck, “Juvenile Justice in Missouri serves as model for the nation,”
Sunday Post Dispatch, Oct. 5, 2003.

36 Richard A. Mendel, American Youth Policy Forum, Less Cost, More Safety: Guiding
Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice at 9 (2001)
37 Barry C. Feld, “Juvenile and Criminal Justice Systems’ Responses to Youth
Violence,” in M. Tonry & M.H. Moore (eds.), Youth Violence: Crime and Justice, A
Review of Research, Vol. 24 at 236-37 (1998).
38 National Institutes of Health, State-of-the-Science Conference Statement:
Preventing Violence and Related Health-Risking Social Behaviors in Adolescents
at 13 & 26 (Oct. 13-15, 2004); see also David M. Osher et al., “Deconstructing the
pipeline: using efficacy, effectiveness and cost-benefit data to reduce minority
youth incarceration,” in New Directions for Youth Development at 101 (Fall 2003)
(“Congregating high-risk youth can increase the likelihood of delinquent behavior.
Foremost, youth with deviant behaviors tend to have deviant friends, who model and
reinforce antisocial behavior.”).

44 For a description of several research-based treatment programs proven to reduce
juvenile delinquency, see Blueprints for Violence Prevention, a project initiated by
the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (“CSPV”) at the University of
Colorado, now funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
(“OJJDP”) at the U.S. Department of Justice. You can access the Blueprints on the
web at http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints/index.html.
45 Dick Mendel, Small is Beautiful: The Missouri Division of Youth Services, 5
ADVOCASEY 38 (Spring 2003).

39 Richard A. Mendel, American Youth Policy Forum, Less Hype, More Help:
Reducing Juvenile Crime, What Works — And What Doesn’t at 16 (2000) (“Intensive
community-based supervision programs typically produce recidivism rates as low
or lower than out-of-home placement (at a fraction of the cost), while intensive
family-focused or multidimensional intervention programs have produced the lowest
recidivism rates of all.”); Douglas W. Nelson, On Adolescent Crime: Time to End Fad
Justice, in 5 ADVOCASEY 3 (Spring 2003) (“[M]any teens now locked in detention
cells can be successfully supervised in the community for a fraction of the cost of
confinement.”); David M. Osher et al., “Deconstructing the pipeline: using efficacy,
effectiveness and cost-benefit data to reduce minority youth incarceration,” in New
Directions for Youth Development at 92 (Fall 2003) (“[Research shows] that there
are alternatives to costly detention, such as intensive school- and community-based
interventions, that are efficacious and cost-effective.”).
40 Richard A. Mendel, American Youth Policy Forum, Less Cost, More Safety: Guiding
Lights for Reform in Juvenile Justice at 21 (2001); see also id. at 22 (describing
multisystemic therapy, in which “trained mental health counselors . . . work with
troubled teens in their homes, engaging not just the young person but his or her
whole family based on the understanding that most adolescent misbehavior can be
traced back to the family system”); Jeffrey A. Butts & Paul Demuro, Center for the
Study of Youth Policy, Population Profile and Risk Assessment Study: Mississippi
Department of Youth Services at 25 (Feb. 1989) (“Mississippi is blessed with
coastline and wilderness areas that would seem especially suited for two popular
program models – the Associated Marine Institutes (AMI), and Outward Bound. Both

34

35

Mississippi Coalition

for the Prevention of Schoolhouse to Jailhouse
Action Communication and Education Reform
Activists With A Purpose
Advancement Project www.advancementproject.org
ACLU of Mississippi www.msaclu.org
Children’s Rights www.childrensrights.org
Citizens for Quality Education
Citizens for a Better Greenville
Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities www.mscoalition.com
Concerned Citizens for a Better Tunica County
Critical Resistance South www.criticalresistance.org
Hinds County Mental Health Commission
Indianola Parent Student Group
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law www.lawyerscomm.org
Mississippi American Federation of Teachers www.maft.org
Mississippi Center for Justice www.mscenterforjustice.org
Mississippi Education Working Group http://southernecho.org/mewg/mewgbrochure.html
Mississippi Families as Allies for Children’s Mental Health, Inc.
Mississippi Human Services Coalition
Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance
Mississippi State Conference NAACP www.naacp.org/departments/education/education_index.html
Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights www.msworkerscenter.org
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. www.naacpldf.org
Parents for Public Schools of Jefferson Davis County www.parents4publicschools.com/JeffDavisCounty
Parents United Together www.parentsunitedtogether.com
Public Policy Center of Mississippi www.mspolicy.org
Second Chance
Southern Echo www.southernecho.org
Southern Juvenile Defender Center www.juveniledefender.org
Southern Poverty Law Center www.splcenter.org
Teens Helping Teens
Youth Innovation Movement www.onlinearc.com/mira/mira2/MS_8.htm?

36

For more information about
the Coalition, contact:
Sheila Bedi
P.O. Box 1023
Jackson, MS 39215
601-352-2269
sbedi@splcenter.org
Ellen Reddy
P.O Box 1023
Jackson MS 39215
662-834-0089
cqe@bellsouth.net

37

Checklist for Effective,
Meaningful Juvenile
Justice Reform
Juvenile Justice Reform should accomplish the following:
1. Cut funding for expensive, ineffective paramilitary
programs.
2. Establish cost efficient, effective community based
sanctions in every county.
3. Prevent the incarceration of non-violent and status
offenders.
4. Ensure that youth who require residential placement
are safely confined in facilities that use programs
proven to reduce juvenile crime.
5. Require state agencies charged with providing services to
at-risk youth to collaborate and coordinate their efforts.

MISSISSIPPI

JUVENILE

JUSTICE
REFORM
BRIEFINGBOOK

38

For more information about
the Coalition, contact:
Sheila Bedi
P.O. Box 1023
Jackson, MS 39215
601-352-2269
sbedi@splcenter.org
Ellen Reddy
P.O Box 1023
Jackson MS 39215
662-834-0089
cqe@bellsouth.net

6. Ensure that all children are adequately represented in
youth court proceedings.
7. Unify Mississippi’s youth courts to standardize procedures across the state.
8. Require all detention centers to comply with national
standards and the recommendations of the Mississippi
Juvenile Detention Task Force.

39

“These are all our
children. We will all
profit by, or pay for,
whatever they become.”
JAMES BALDWIN

Mississippi is currently paying the price of a failed juvenile
justice system. Juvenile Justice Reform will allow us all to
profit by investing in our greatest resource — our children.

MISSISSIPPI COALITION

FOR THE PREVENTION OF SCHOOLHOUSE TO JAILHOUSE
P.O. Box 1023 • Jackson, MS 39215
p (601)352-2269 or (662)834-0089 • f (601)352-4769
40