Leflore County Court Judge Kevin Adams says most of the juvenile delinquency with which he deals is caused by inadequately funded government services to children.
From foster care to mental health care, Mississippi is scrimping but paying for it in the long run by creating a pipeline that eventually leads to prison, Adams told the Greenwood Rotary Club Tuesday.
“Everything I’m asking for is cheaper than putting an adult in Parchman or one of the other satellite facilities across the state,” he said.
“But historically, frankly, Mississippians have not been willing to have their legislators spend the money to help kids that they don’t know and keep building prisons because of it.”
Adams’ judicial duties include presiding over youth court, the venue where violations involving offenders 17 years and younger are considered.
He said the purpose of youth court is not to punish but rather to steer those who are getting into trouble back on the right path. As a result, he said, he rarely sends a first-time offender to the Leflore County Juvenile Detention Center for more than 30 days, although by law he could impose a sentence of up to 90 days.
The son of two former longtime educators, Adams said that most of the passion he feels for his job on the bench revolves around its work with youth.
Besides dealing with juvenile offenders and truants, Adams also handles cases where children are being neglected or abused. He works closely with the state Department of Child Protection Services to initially try to keep children united with their parents but in a healthier environment. If that is not workable, the other options are to place them with relatives or in foster homes. He said the responsibility can be frightening.
“If the department screws up or if I screw up, the kid dies,” he said.
For the past few years, Leflore County has suffered a rash of homicides, usually involving victims and their assailants who are in their teens or 20s.
He said that in most cases, those involved did not come through his court.
“They weren’t truants. They weren’t getting in fights. They weren’t stealing. And now they’re charged with aggravated assault” or murder, he said.
Many of the killings, Adams said, are senseless retaliatory actions that on occasion claim the lives of innocent bystanders. He said he is at a loss for how to reform those who later resort to gun violence, but that the surest way to curb its frequency is for people in the community to cooperate with law enforcement.
Adams takes exception to those who claim that the rise in crime is due to judges setting low bails. He said not only is it rare in Mississippi for a person to commit another crime while out on bail, but those who argue that bail should be much higher are perverting its purpose.
“Bail is strictly to ensure that that person will continue to appear at subsequent hearings. Bail is not, under the Constitution, allowed to be a punishment. It’s not allowed to be used to just keep someone in jail until they get to trial.”
He said setting bail is a delicate balancing act between “the safety of the community and the constitutional protections afforded an accused who has not been convicted of a crime.”
Adams has been the county judge for 13 years, and during much of that time, the youth detention center has been under a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department because of numerous deficiencies federal investigators uncovered at the lockup. Among them were arbitrary and inappropriate punishments, a lack of mental health services for suicidal youth and insufficient educational offerings for those held there.
Adams said he agreed with much of the Justice Department’s findings at the time. Instead of taking an adversarial approach, the judge said he saw the consent decree as an opportunity to collaborate with the federal agency and to tap into its resources to fix the problems. “That has been one of the best things to ever happen to Leflore County,” he said of the contest decree.
The judge predicted that within two years, Leflore County should be able to get out from under the agreement. While acknowledging some trepidation at the prospect of losing the “safety net of consultants” the arrangement has provided, Adams said he feels “we’ll be ready to do that tightrope without the net.”
- Contact Tim Kalich at 581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
