Training school under legislative glare

Columns

January 18, 2010

By Shelia Byrd, Associated Press Writer The Laurel Leader-Call Mon Jan 18, 2010, 10:20 AM CST

Mississippi’s training schools, where about 110 youth offenders are housed, will again be a topic of discussion during the legislative session.

This time, lawmakers are being asked to consider Gov. Haley Barbour’s proposal to close Oakley Training School in Raymond, where about 102 boys and eight girls are housed.

A hearing this past week at the Capitol gave a clear picture of just how much opposition the proposal faces. Holmes County Sheriff Willie March, head of the Mississippi Sheriff’s Association, didn’t mince words.

“Where would we put our young prisoners? You can’t put them in jail,” March told members of the Senate Judiciary B Committee.

“It should be a process in place if you’re going to shut down Oakley. There should be something in place to catch them,” he said.

For years, the training schools have been debated at the Capitol, much of the talk stemmed from a 2003 lawsuit filed against Mississippi by the U.S. Justice Department.

The suit had accused the state of civil rights violations. The accusations were gruesome: youth tied to poles and forced to eat their own vomit and suicidal girls stripped naked and placed in solitary confinement.

A 2005 settlement led to increased funding for Oakley and Columbia Training School, which has since been closed. It also called for more community-based programs for youth offenders.

Barbour’s proposal appears rooted in economics.

The state’s revenue collections are projected to be down by at least $347 million in the current budget year. Experts say the recession’s impact will linger into 2011, and possibly beyond.

House Juvenile Justice Committee Chairman Earle Banks said the state Department of Human Services spends about $17 million to operate Oakley. The school is on a 1,000-acre site, and has about 380 workers. But there’s an effort at the Capitol to keep the doors open.

Banks, D-Jackson, and Judiciary B Committee Chairman Gray Tollison, D-Oxford, would rather see the facility downsized.

Columbia had been the girls’ facility. And lawmakers had long talks before it was eventually closed in 2008.

Now, part of Oakley is set aside to house female offenders. Banks said the state is essentially operating an Oakley for girls and one for boys, with separate facilities for both sexes. Removing the girls and reducing the male population could save about $8 million, he said.

“I support downsizing it and making it more restrictive for judges to send kids to Oakley and consider the community-based programs instead,” said Banks.

Tollison said Oakley “should be a last resort for offenders who can’t be in community-based programs.”

Banks believes there’s a need for the facility. He said about 40 percent of those in Oakley committed misdemeanor crimes. In some cases, they are youth who come from unstable homes.

“I have been out to Oakley and had private interviews with the young men. It’s heartbreaking for these kids to tell me, ‘I rather be here because if they release me tomorrow, I’d virtually be back to living on the streets,’” Banks said.

If Oakley is closed, the state becomes the only one in the country that doesn’t provide a secure facility for children in trouble with the law, according to the Mississippi Youth Justice Project.

Banks said some troubled boys who are sent to Oakley might otherwise end up at the Walnut Grove facility operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections, where they would be housed as felons.

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