It looks like Mississippi lawmakers have much work to do in 2025 with legislative and judicial redistricting, and one more issue has now been added to the list: state youth courts.
On Friday, the Senate Judiciary A Committee heard from a youth court judges commission tasked with recommending reform. They asked for reform to the number and type of courts with several options, as well as recommending that more money be pumped into the youth court system.
Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, who chairs the committee, said he hopes to tackle the recommendations made in the report to address issues facing the youth court system.
“(We heard) that people consider youth court the stepchild (of the state judicial system), and we got to get away from that,” Wiggins said. “They’re not a stepchild. They are a court system in the state of Mississippi, and hearing from what the judges said, they’re not getting the staff and the support that they need… It’s obvious that when you start at the front end, you save money and resources, and you get better outcomes on the back end.”